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We tend to look at the visible acts like drink driving and over speeding as the bad practices that would lead to the damaging of the car. However, there are other driving malpractices that are done by drivers unknowingly that damage the car.

These bad practices mildly damage the car both physically and mechanically.  To save your day, we bring to you the bad driving practices that are damaging your car which you should stop doing.

Delaying Regular service

Drivers have a bad habit of waiting for the car to warn for its lack of fluids in its engine and other running machines. This leads to serious damage of those parts yet they are the pillar parts in the car without their full functionality, the car is no more.

Therefore, you should always take the car for service regularly. It should be taken for maintenance whenever the mileage clocks about 2000kms.

Neglecting Warning Lights

Sometime vehicles incline to get mechanical problems and can only be detected by the car computer. When the car computer detects a problem, it will indicate on the dash board screen with a warning light in several colours like red, green or orange.

Please don’t under look the warnings, try to get immediate mechanical attention for them.  The light warnings normally come on the dashboard because of insufficient fluids like oil, brake fluids, hydraulic and a malfunctioning abs.

Keeping The Tank Almost Empty

The fuel is the main fluid that causes the running of the engine. When it is insufficient in the tanks, there will be vigorous combustion of the engine since it is not get enough fuel to run to its full potential and also the oil will be over used. So when the vehicle the fuel light comes up, get to the next gas station to save your car from getting damaged.

Keeping The Pressure On The Brake Pedal While Driving Downhill

It is a bad habit to keep in the drive gear and put much pressure on the brake pedal. This easily leads to the tiring of the brakes or even failure of brakes that would even cause more problems while driving.

It is commendable to get the gear into low drive to reduce on the resistance of the brake pedal.

Staying On The Clutch While Driving Uphill

This is a bad habit for those driving a manual car. Some drivers tend to keep pressing the clutch pedal on a hilly road with the reason of keeping on the car/engine operating and keeping the car in one place.

This act reduces the clutch power and hence the shifting of gears becomes almost impossible. The right technique to apply in such situations is the use of the hand brake.

Laying down your hand on the gear rod.

It is really damaging to always rest your hands on the gear stick while driving. The gear stick is made to be touched a small time and rotate it around.

When you rest your hand on it, there is frequent wear and tire of the gear lever and inner parts. That’s why it is always advised to put both your hands on the steering at all times.

Accelerating The Engine Before It’s Warm

Some people immediate drives off or starts the engine before warming it up. This is a very bad habit which can lead to the blowing of the engine.

The engine should always be warmed up especially when the car has taken some good time without being driven or has stayed in cold weather for some good hours.

Overloading Your Car

This is some malpractice many people tend to do, they put more weight on the car as opposed to what it is supposed to carry. If the car is supposed to carry five people or a lift a certain amount of kilograms, please don’t go beyond it.

This leads to the damaging of many components of the car like the brakes, suspension, shock absorbers and also the wheel tend to get crocked.

Stopping the car with a parking gear.

It’s always suicide to stop the car with a parking gear as it puts more resistance on it and thus breaking down. You should always first brake the car till it completely stop and then shift the gear to parking and pull the hand brake or foot brake.

Automatic cars are one of the greatest invention in the automobile world. Way back driving a car was meant for a few people because of the complexion of driving a manual but there came automatic transmission car which was a leeway for everyone.

Every person with basic driving skills can operate these kinds of car. With the automatic transmission car, all one needs to know is how to move around the steering and also regulate the accelerator and brake pedal.

The automatic transmission is a wildfire around the world. Most of the people around the world prefer driving the automatic car to a manual one. This is evident with the number of travelers we receive as a car rental company in Uganda.

Most of our clients find it convenient to drive an automatic car but on a sad note some of them misuse it. There are some malpractices they do with the automatic cars and end up damaging its life. We cannot blame for the vice because most of them are ignorant or literally do not know the practices they do harm the car.

Therefore to save the day, we have made a compilation of 7 things to avoid with an automatic car while on a self drive Uganda.

Driving the car on a reserve fuel tank

This applies to all vehicles regardless of their transmission. Any car drive on low fuel tanks is always damaged.

The fuel is the main fluid that runs the engine/car without it the engine cannot operate and less of it always damages the engine since it don’t work to its full capacity. It is commendable to at least drive the car at quarter tank and above for the full operation of the engine.

Instant shift to parking when the car is still moving.

Some drivers don’t have the patience of completely waiting the car to stop and just get it to the parking mode through the gears. This is forcing the car into a stop mode by the gears and this kills off the gearbox greatly.

Racing the car engine in parking mode

Many of us watching motor racers on TV revving the engine before setting off and we are enticed to try it with our normal car. This is a suicide act to your engine.

The revving can lead to more friction within the inner parts of the engine thus the engine blowing up. We all know how it is like when the engine fails. It will only need a new engine to get the car back of which the engine is damn expensive.

Shifting Gears When The Car Is speeding

Some travelers have a tendency of moving gears of the automatic car while the car is at terrible pace. This leads to the transmission components to change direction drastically and this really damages the gearbox.  If you are to shift gears with the automatic car, first brake mildly and get to another gear.

Shifting to neutral at the traffic lights

This is one of the most common practices among drivers, they always shift the gear to neutral at the red light to keep in the drive-line and also reduce on the pressure put on the brakes. However the major damage happens when you shift in and out of the neutral gear.

Driving straight up Without Warming up the Engine

After a long cold night of being in a dull mode, the car engine needs to first warm up to setting since all the fluids in the engine are back to their origin places and not in operation.

You need to warm it up so that the fluids can spread out into the engine components for a full operation. Nonetheless, some drivers just hard drive the car without warming the engine and hence leading to serious friction within the engine components.

Getting the car in neutral mode while sloping.

Many drivers in the guise of saving some fuel tend to slide the vehicle in the neutral mode on a sloppy road. This is a very bad practices that only cuts off the oil supply thus the transmission system not get enough lubrication to smoothly operate. This cause a great wear and tire of the transmission system.

Finding a discount on car rental Uganda is a very hard to find, it takes some trickery and thorough research to get a discount deal. However when a traveler digs deep into, he/she is likely to get a discount.

This is because car rental companies try their level best to attract customers or out compete each other through providing discount promotions and other incentives. This also works in the hands of the travelers since they wish to save some money on car rental services to cater for other travel items.

Make a weekly rental or more. Rental companies have a tendency of hiring out vehicles at a reduced price if your rental duration is more than 7 days. For instance a Toyota rav4 is normally at 50$ per day but it can be given to you at 45$ per day if the rental period is more than 7 days.

Stick to one rental company. In any business loyal customers are always given incentives in order to tie them down like forever and this also applies in the car rental business. Rental companies always hire out cars at a discounted prices to return customers.

Try a trick of first opting for a smaller car and then request for an upgrade. When inquiring from a rental company first request for a smaller car with a cheaper price and then as time goes by asking to upgrade for a bigger vehicle. The rental company will have no choice but to hire it out to you at a discounted prices compared to its normal rate.

Make your trip within the discount promo. One of the ways for rental companies to attract customers to hire their vehicles is putting up discount promotion.

These are normally set in specific period of time for example during the festival season of December the promotions are very common. There forth, one has to wait for that period to take up your chances.

Make a booking in advance; rental companies always reward early customers with an incentive which could be a discount at the rental car.

A Traveler interested in rental discount, ensure that you make a reserving of the rental car at an earlier date let’s say 3 month or 6 months before your travel date and solicit for a discount from the rental company.

Getting a discount on a rental car in Uganda is a no hustle so long as you know the tips to play around with. The above tips are the commonest to adhere to get a discount on car rental Uganda.

One of the most roaming expeditions in Uganda are self-drive safaris. These involve a traveler hiring a car from a rental company to drive around Uganda on his/her own.

It all started out like a trial venture but travelers got much interested in the adventure experience and we have seen lots of rental companies coming up to convoy such experiences to travelers.

In this venture one of the most frequently asked question is “how the 4×4 self drive rental car is delivered to the traveler/client?”

For starters, there are some common spots travelers normally want the rental company to arrange the pick-up of the rental car from.

These places include the Entebbe airport because it is the main gateway for travelers who come to Uganda, the hotels/lodges where the traveler spends his/her first day after an airport pick up and also in notable cities like Kampala, Jinja, Mbarara, Mbale and towns near the main national parks in Uganda.

When the date or period of deliver of the 4×4 self drive rental car Uganda is about to reach or near, the car provide takes the vehicle for inspection at the mechanic workshop for checkup and repair all the damages and faulty parts in the car.

This is done to make sure that the client finds the car in a very proper physical and mechanical condition possible.

The rental car is taken for a test drive to check whether all the faults and damages are repaired by the mechanics. If all is in perfect condition the vehicle is taken to the washing bay for a thorough cleaning.

On the day of delivery, the assigned driver is given the place and the time to deliver the car as agreed between the rental company and the client.

He is also given the car rental agreement and receipt book for the payment and endorsement.  The assigned driver/company personnel ensures that he reaches the delivery point before the client.

When the client gets to the delivery point which could be the airport, hotel or a common landmark/structure in the any given city. The meet and greeting is done with the assigned driver.

The client is required to inspect the rental car by looking at its physical condition, checking its operation system and also getting accustomed to the driving system of the car.

After the inspection, the client usually reads through the car rental agreement if not read before to get to know under what terms and conditions is he/she hiring and driving the rental car.

If he/she agrees by the terms and conditions, he/she endorses on the car rental agreement by filling in names, days to use the rental, destinations to visit, nationality, place of residence and start and return date. While going through the car rental agreement, the traveler is also briefed about the dos and don’ts of driving in Uganda.

The traveler is then required to issue an original copy of the driver’s license and the passport for verification to know whether is the actual person to have inquired to rent the car and also if eligible to drive a car. The assigned driver/company personnel takes a photocopy of the driver’s license and the passport.

Finally the traveler makes the payment to the company personnel if he/she didn’t make an electronic transfer before getting to actual time of the car deliverance.

It should be noted that electronic transfers or credit card usage is allowed by the rental company 21 days before the rental period below.

The cash is normally given to the company personnel at the delivery of the car. After cash payment, the traveler is given a received and the send offs are made. The traveler is good to go for his/her self drive experience in Uganda.

At self drive in Uganda, we provide reliable and budget car hire services in Uganda as our rental cars can go as below as USD 35$ and have a variety of cars that are readily available to fulfill any travelers with a different purpose of travel and financial status.

Uganda Best reliable Car Rental Services

Our Car rental services in Uganda have been attached to traveling particularly in the field of tourism. The car hire services are a major solution to travel related problems for instance they relieve stress away from the traveler.

He/she knows that he/she has a vehicle that can transport him/her at the different destinations without any havoc or worry of hiring different ground transportation means at the different levels as it might be with the public means.

Our Car rental services appeal to all different purposes of traveling that is to say individual traveling, family or business. As one plans his/her trip put into consideration car rental services to solve the transport problems.

 Our Car hire booking in Uganda is arranged in accordance to the customer’s needs and demands. With competent reservation team and well trained drivers, a traveler can get the best and most reliable car rental offers in Uganda.

Rental cars that are provided to the clients are fully equipped with traveling facilities to offer safety, comfort and convenient. Car rental services in Uganda serve the best transport means to people seeking to explore the flora and fauna in the different national parks of Uganda.

As the traveler books with the car rental services he/she is able to dazzle through the green terrains of the national parks as he/she looks at the exotic mammals like lions, elephants, leopards, buffaloes, giraffes and antelopes to mention but the few.

At self drive in Uganda, the rental cars are available at anytime of the day as we know the status of our clients that they can move or travel at anytime of the day. Thereby providing them with rental cars with no schedule

Hiring a Car in Uganda at a cheap rate

Each and every person is a rational being who needs to spare some money to cater for some other needs since money is a scarce resource. At self drive in Uganda, we make our clients fulfill their objective of saving some money that can cater for other travel needs.

We offer our rental cars at a relatively cheap rates for instance a Toyota rav4 can be at USD 40$ and a Toyota land cruiser at USD 65$. The latter prices are unbeatable and it is the cheapest one can get a rental car in Uganda.

Come book with self drive in Uganda and save some money on your car hire services as you get a reliable and cheap rental car to takes you around the motherland.

While on a self drive safari, a traveler would need a local phone number to call out for help in case of emergency like car rental breakdown, getting lost on the way, theft or any other issue.

The medium of communication is key to a traveler. It makes the traveler get in touch with the person he/she wishes to seek help at a certain period of time. The medium should be effective and convenient to make communication successful between the traveler and the person he/she wishes to contact. Many travelers who take up self-drive safaris in Uganda always wonder how they would make communication in case it is called for. This question comes in queue because Self-drive safaris involve a traveler driving on his own to explore the different tourist attractions so a means of communication is always needed. The advice is always one is to get a local phone number.

How to get a local phone number

One way is to ask from the car rental company to get you a local sim card beforehand.

The other way is- you can get it by yourself. When you arrive in Uganda, you get to the nearest local mobile outlet and then apply for one. The requirement for getting one is always simple.

• Pay a small fee of usd 1$(ugx3000)
• Fill in the required form
• Present an original copy and photocopy of your passport
• And then the sim card is given to you.

The role of a local phone number on a Uganda self drive safari

Get in touch with your beloved ones at home. Once you get connected to a local number, you are able to contact your family and friends at home. The international call rates in Uganda are relatively low. It is a half a dollar per minute. The call is always clear when you call directly and it is always good to know and also tell your family that you are doing fine and having a good time. It always becomes tense for both you and your family while in a foreign country so a little communication within erases the tense.

Easy access to the internet. The local phone number makes a traveler easily access the internet. In this day and age generation where people can hardly live without the internet, having a local phone number is a lifesaver. With the internet, a person does a lot of stuff like business transaction, paying bills back home, communication and it also help the traveler on a Uganda self-drive get the right bearings of the destinations through the Google map GPS. Most of the local mobile operator have 4G network across the country. The traveler is likely to have a safe and fast internet.

Helps in accident rescue. Sometimes accidents happen to travelers while on a self-drive safari but the ugly part of it some of them may not have a reliable means of communication (local phone number). At the occurrence of the accident, they have nowhere to start from to inform the concerned parties about it. However, this kind of confusion and panic can be bypassed by getting a local number to make effective communication so that the concerned parties (the Rental Company or mechanic) can come to your rescue.

It is a way to calling for safety and security. This world is full of bizarre, there is no ultimate safe place. Insecurity issues can arise at any time in any place at a given time. Therefore a local phone number is much needed to get in touch with the security authorities.  It is also advisable to get the local emergency number whenever the traveler is setting off for a self drive safari.

For proper organization of the pickup and delivery of the rental car. A traveler needs a reliable and effective means of communication to get in touch with the  Uganda car rental provider to make the exact appointment point for the pickup and delivery of the rental car. So a local phone number will be a perfect match for this job.

Reserve parking is one of kind of a hurdle task especially for newly graduated drivers. The whole thing of reserve parking seems to be complex for the driver since whenever they try to command the car goes to the opposite side. it would even cause one problems in case he or she has just rented a car for instance for a self drive Tour Uganda.

Reserving parking is one of the aspects of driving that is put into details when learning to drive but still it becomes an issue for many drivers.

This is a very technical task because a driver does not visibly see where the car is moving but only use the side mirrors to tell the direction of the car. More to that the car has to be squeezed in a small space that is normally left in between the other cars in the parking lot.

To get rid of the havoc that has been bothering you all the time, here we bring the tips to reserve park the easiest way possible:

Why Reverse Parking Is More Preferable?

Many drivers who aren’t comfortable with reserve park, they would rather park upfront in that they dodge what seems to be their nightmare. The upfront park is okay but when you learn reserve park driving becomes a vacation for you.

Above all reserve parking commands convenience and visibility while exiting the parking lot. You are granted safety since you have a clear view of what is coming from the road like the pedestrians and other vehicles.

Think of it when you get an urgent call and you would like to drive off straight to attend to the call and then you put again reserving the car and keeping a keen eye on other parties on the road. This leads to time waste and through the rush and tussle, you can easily cause an accident.

How reserve parking works:

Most cars driven in Uganda are old model where by one has to look through the side mirrors to reserve park the car. It is best for you to unfasten the seat belt to easy move your body while looking through the side mirror. It is also commendable to physically look behind through your driver seat.

For the new model cars, the reserve parking is a bit easy due to the technology encrypted. This has back camera monitor and a parking assist system that can easily make your reserve without any hassle.

Steps to proper reserve park

1. The first step is to look for ample space to where a certain car you are driving will fit. The parking lots normally have designated places for small and big vehicles. So check out for the space where your car will fit.
2. Secondly get let’s say the end points of your parking space are named point 1,2,3,4 where your left side is 1,2 and the right side are 3,4. Get the car to the right side and ensure that car’s rear bumper is in front of point 3.
3. Next step, look around to see if there is no car or person close to you or coming through the side mirrors. Then turn on the emergency or double indicator button to set a warning that you are reserving or parking in the back space.
4. The fourth step is to know the surrounding is clear and get to the reserve gear. Get to the wheel to the right side to get into the space while reserving. You should also keep an eye on the outside.
5. Keep reversing onto the left side till point 3 appears. Use as the focal point to direct the car into the far end of the space.Keep moving into the space till point 1 is seen in the left side mirror as you keep looking through both side mirror. when all the lines look parallel in the mirror, straighten up the steering wheel.
6. Keeping moving while the steering wheel is straight till you reach the far end and then shift the gear in to parking.

That is how easy reverse parking is! It should never worry you again.

In a lesser developed country like Uganda, driving is a very challenging task to do especially in a cold weather. Other than the muddy and narrow roads, the car can also get physical and mechanical problems. It is best to be alert of any arising hiccup when driving in cold weather.

One of the commonest problems that occur to a car in the cold weather is failure of the car to start.  it is really frustrating to wake up in the morning, trying to start off your journey and then the engine fails to start. The worst bit of it is when the driver literally green about the mechanical operation of the car. This brings so much panic and frustration henceforth ruining your mood of the entire day.

Uganda is regarded as relatively a hot country and the aforementioned problem is very minimal. Though the problem of the car not starting in the cold weather in Uganda is marginal, this is more likely to happen in some parts of Uganda especially in the western and southern part of the country where the temperatures are very low in the wet season.

And also there are cold streaks in the morning in almost each and every part of the country.  The western and southern part of Uganda that get the cold weather are one of the most visited parts of the country by tourists since they have lots of tourist attractions like the wildlife parks.

The tourists usually take up 4×4 car hire Uganda to drive on their own to the different national parks. Thereby this guide on starting a car in cold weather would help them when they experience any difficulties and also other drivers who may face the problem.

Turn Off The Car Completely.

When you realize that you are likely to park the car in cold weather for some good time, ensure that you completely turn off everything in the car.

Every single electric device that uses the battery should be turned off from the lighting system, radio to the heater. Electric devices drain the battery and in cold weather it’s normally at its weakest level of operation.

More to the above, when starting the car in the cold weather ensure that you let the engine run first alone so that the battery gets energized and then turn on the other systems.

Look Out For The Battery Leads

Before getting to the car to start off your journey, get to the car hood and check on the battery area. Normally in the cold weather the battery cable get some salty white substance that weakens the current flow to get to the systems that use electricity.

In case you find the substance clean it up and put back the battery cables and then start off the engine. You should also tighten the battery clippers.

For A manual Car Dip The Clutch While Turning On The Car Engine

This is one of the commonest tip used by drivers of manual cars when it fails to start. Dipping the clutch while starting the engine reduces the work the battery is supposed to do in starting the car.

You should know most of the car start failure are brought up by issues connected to the battery. So if the work of the battery is minimized at the start of the car then the car will ignite easily.

 A car is a mechanic machine used to speed up transportation of people and luggage. In Uganda, different cars are used and basically 4×4 wheel cars are highly demanded for successful safaris.

Cars that are high demand include safari land cruiser, 4×4 safari van, Toyota coasters and  more. Hiring a car depends on a number of tourist. There are 4 seat, 7 seat and Toyota Hiarce which is for 10 pax.

Terms and conditions are considered while hiring a car in Uganda so that the business partners equally benefits. Below are the car rental terms and conditions to be followed when hiring a car in Uganda.

The client has to present a valid identification card. This can easily enable the hire identify him or her and get to know he is dealing with a right person.

The Identity card should be in form of a national ID or a valid passport which in any theft or accident issues, it’s easier for the car provider to trace the client.

In addition the client should present a valid driving license which shows that he is eligible to driving. For the foreign clients, their driving permits should be in either English, French which are easily understood by the authorities.

Sometimes car hirers get cars from different car rental companies in case their cars are all out in the field and yet clients are on high demand of cars especially in high seasons.

For him or her to  acquire any vehicle in a rental company, he or she has to agree and sign on the agreement issued that in case of any damage , he or she has to compensate for the losses.

There should be a full payment of the fee to the car hire company for the service. The client should pay the full amount of money agreed upon before setting off for his or her safari.

He or she can make the payments before the day of pick up or the actual day to pick up the car. The payment should be done through electronic transfers or cash and this should be of the accepted currency such as dollars, shillings, Euros and pound sterling.

All the cars that are rented to the clients have comprehensive insurance that covers for all the damages that occur accidentally.  If the client damages the car intentionally due to careless driving, according to the signed agreement.

There is a certain payment he has to do to repair the damage and here the insurance company is not responsible. The damages that occur to the driver and clients in the car are not catered for the in the insurance

The hirer must inform you about the duration he or she is to be using the car. In the process he or she must present his itinerary disclosing the destination and purpose of the tour.

This will enable a hire to know where exactly his car is going and will be easier to track the car basing on the itinerary.

The client should not exceed the agreed duration and if he decides to extend his or her safari should inform the car hirer.

There should not be a third party involved in the business. In short terms, the client should come pick up the car on his own. He or she should not send someone else to pick it on his before.

He or she should be present at the rental point where the delivery boy handles over the car.

The car should be used for the rightful purpose indicated on the agreement made between a car provider and the client hiring the car. The client is not supposed to use the car for other purposes that are not indicated in the agreement such as using it as a taxi for transportation of passengers and make delivery service with the intention of making money.