Monday 1 December Car problem solved

RAV4 produced in 2005 can come in several versions, when I googled this one before ordering AC31W only Japanese sites where found, but on Australian sites and a car loving friend assured me that this really a very good car. And it is, almost new and has the latest technology, this car has a smart key. This is not problem either, as long as it is working. Unfortunately during the transport the car manual and service log were lost, and if they were not, they would probably have been written in Japanese. Anyway, the windows of the car had stickers, glue and marker writings on them, which had to be washed of to get a clear view. So Merijn and I did, a few buckets with water a new sponge and a dash of rectified alcohol did the trick. We tested the van and a few other buttons and I checked oil and other levels under the hood. Afterwards I locked the clean car with the real key.When I wanted to go to work the next day, at 0740 the car did not work and the battery seemed flat. I called a taxi and made a appointment with the taxi driver Peter to bring a mechanic with starter cords the next day. The battery was recharged, but the dashboard showed a no-key sign when the opening button on the doorhandle was pushed. The battery was disconnected. The following day I tried with help of my land lord to see whether the car had ‘reset’ itself somehow, but the no key sign still flashed. Through my landlord and another garage I was put in contact with a towing car. I had called Toyota East Africa wheter it was possible to check the car board-computer. Mr Davis said that that was possible today, but could not give any guaranties that they were able to fix the problem and then I was to organise the towing back home as well. At Toyota the entrance was full with todays serviced cars. So we were ordered to go to the back. I went in and asked the receptionist to call for Mr. Davis, fifteen minutes he came and told me and the tow truck drivers to unload the car outside the gate in view of Toyota security. I went in again to organise fill out the forms necessary for obtain a jobcard, waiting in the cue it took about half an hour. In the mean while the tow driver was paid and left. When I had signed the jobcard I checked on my car. For this I had to cross the workplace filled with lined up cars at several stages of their routine services. There were eight different line ups, besides 20 workspaces along the wall and many other spaces that were used to do work. Under and outside the roof it was packed with cars, somewhere between 100 and 150 Toyotas. At the gate at the other side besides the road I found that the car had received a clamp of the Nairobi city counsil, and the guards told me that there was not a thing they could do. By then it had become lunchtime, so I waited until 14 to ask about what was happening. Mr. Davis made an attempt to talk to the council man, but there was nothing to do but pay the fine. Toyota gave me a car and a driver to go to the office, a run-down paint less place, to pay the fine. With the receipt and a city council man with the key in the car I returned to my car. Then my car was readily pushed into the garage, given power and connected to a boardcomputer programming device. For almost one hour four men sat and hang around the car, then some books were checked and the keys were reinstalled and everything was functioning again. What I did wrong I did not know, neither could anyone tell me. I was told to line up in the jobcard-to-bill transformation cue. After about 45 minutes I received the bill and then waited for 20 in the pay cue, were I was lucky that they accepted visa. Everything had costed me €300, some more taxi use and a whole day at Toyota, at 0800 that morning I had started calling and was home again 1900. And then I was lucky with traffic. To cross half Nairobi is not recommended for a second drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road in an almost new car. I still have the wipers going when I am about to make a turn, end up looking very hard the other way and enter compartmented T crossings in the wrong file, but no accidents so far.