Our whirlwind tour around the planet takes you to a new country every Saturday. We have explored 19 destinations so far, and they are all listed below.
If the country you are looking for is not here, my blog covers 155 countries so it should quench your thirst…
Nigeria produces more movies than Hollywood and they feature the latest 4WDs from the US. Toyota holds one third of the market and should place the Corolla, Hilux and Camry on the podium.
Car sales are in free fall in debt crisis-riddled Greece and small cars make the majority of the Top 10, with the Opel Corsa, Toyota Yaris, VW Polo and Ford Fiesta in the top spots.
Hyundai and Chevrolet dominate Egyptian car sales: the Hyundai Verna, Accent, Elantra and Chevrolet Lanos and Aveo are favorites. Chery builds cars in Cairo and rebrands them ‘Speranza’ exclusively for Egypt with great success.
The Cuban car market is one of the most emblematic in the world and its structure is a fascinating testimony of the country’s last 60 years history: from vintage Americans to Ladas to Hyundais and Geelys…
Now the car expert that you are can show off while watching the news: “That’s a Kia Cerato Forte, right behind that cloud of teargas” – or a Hyundai Elantra, as these two models seem to be dominating car sales in Syria.
In the last 15 years, only the Toyota Corolla and the Suzuki Mehran have managed to top the monthly sales ranking. Now if you were thinking that all this time Suzuki had been hiding away in Pakistan, manufacturing a great car that no one knew about, you’re in for a bad surprise…
Albania has probably the highest concentration of Mercedeses anywhere in the world, with 1 in 3 cars in circulation a Mercedes! The most common new cars are luxury SUVs like the Range Rover, BMW X5 or Porsche Cayenne. But how rich are they really, those Albanians?
To celebrate the Kate and William’s Royal Wedding, we go to Britain and notice two things. One: the Royals are well equipped with Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Range Rovers, Jaguars, Aston Martins, carriages and horses. Two: the real people buy Ford Fiestas, and the best-selling car in Britain has been a Ford for the last 40 years.
Mexico is the country in the world where Nissan is the most successful. Not Japan. Not even an Asian country. And a 1991 model, the Nissan Tsuru, has been dominating Mexican sales for the last 6 years…
The evolution of the car market in Ivory Coast over the years is fascinating, and is marked by 3 distinct phases: 1. Peugeot king of the savannah, 2. Toyota and Asian 4WDs dominate, 3. China settles in and flogs their low-cost 4WDs…
The Indian market is fascinating because: 1. Market growth is sustained and therefore a lot of models beat their volume records month after month, 2. The car landscape is totally unique with models designed specifically for India, like the Tata Nano and Toyota Etios, and 3. They mostly speak English, so we understand them (if they speak slowly).
Unbeknownst to many, Iran is the biggest car market in the Middle-East with over 1 million cars made and sold each year. Cars produced and sold in Iran are a mix of obscure Iranian cars and very familiar European cars you probably didn’t associate with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s country because the manufacturers involved keep it pretty discreet…
Lada models still rule, 20 years after the end of the Communist era and the opening of the market to competition. The best-selling car in the country is the Lada 2105/2107, unchanged since 1979 and derived from the 1966 Fiat 124…
Yemen is very similar to a lot of its middle-east neighbors in the fact that Toyota has established a seemingly unassailable domination of the market. The valiant Toyota Hilux should be the best selling vehicle there, as it has a near bullet-proof base for a light (or even heavy) machine gun…
The only car manufacturer in North Korea is Pyeonghwa Motors. It has the exclusive rights to car production, to new and used car sales in North Korea and is the only company in the country permitted to advertise. That should make the sales ranking pretty straight-forward… And straight-forward it is.
The Spanish car market was hit full frontal by the financial crisis and continues to fall in 2011, down 28 percent in February. In this context, the Spanish consumer has been buying national more and more, with the iconic Seat Ibiza the best-selling car in the country…
In February 2011, the Fiat novo Uno was the best selling car in Brazil, kicking the Volkswagen Gol into second place. In the last 15 years, this has happened only 4 times, and the previous times it was the Fiat Palio that managed that feat. The end of an era in Brazil?
This is where I introduce my method for finding out which cars are the best-sellers in countries that don’t provide official data. One word: YouTube! Libya is easy because a few models keep popping up in the streets of Tripoli: the Chevrolet Optra, old gen Mitsubishi Lancer and Toyota Hilux.
Never before had Argentineans bought that many cars, with the annual 2010 figure the highest ever in the country, and the 100,000 monthly sales mark passed for the very first time in January 2011. Argentina is the country where VW launched its first heavy-duty pick up, the Amarok…
Matt Gasnier, based in Sydney, Australia, runs a blog named Best Selling Cars, dedicated to counting cars all over the world.
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