Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: What Sells Best In Eritrea?

Matt Gasnier
by Matt Gasnier

In the last couple of weeks, we have been to Czech Republic, Oman, Israel and Belarus. This week I have decided to take you to one of the most obscure part of the world: Eritrea.

I know.

That’s why you have a map above, to help you locate this country of 6 million inhabitants located in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea declared its independence in 1993 but no national elections have been held since… In the 2010 Press Freedom Index, Eritrea ranked out of 178, yes that is last, below North Korea at Independent media being banned since 2001 didn’t help…

Obscure I told you.

But I wasn’t going to let that deter me to find out what cars sell best there…

The Eritrean car market is actually pretty easy to decipher because a handful of cars clearly dominate the streets.

In all likeliness and judging by the number of old gen models filling the streets, the Toyota Hilux should be the best selling vehicle in Eritrea.

The Toyota Corolla should follow.

Indeed around 60% of the cars in circulation in the streets of the capital Asmara are Toyotas: old gen Hilux, Corolla and Land Cruiser.

There is also a significant amount of old gen VW Beetles…

Picture by Eric Lafforgue. All rights reserved.

The taxis swarming the streets are either 2003 Kia Rio sedans…

…or 1992 Opel Vectra sedans.

And that’s pretty much all there is to say about Eritrean cars!

Come on, surely this entire article is a giant golden nugget that will make you shine during posh dinners!

And why don’t you tell me which country you’d like me to cover next week?

Thanks for listening.

Info for this article is based on recent YouTube videos of the streets of Eritrea’s capital Asmara.

Matt Gasnier, based in Sydney, Australia, runs a blog named Best Selling Cars, dedicated to counting cars all over the world.

Matt Gasnier
Matt Gasnier

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  • Lokki Lokki on Feb 22, 2012

    I vote Paraguary an interesting climate in an interesting locaction with an interesting population. My first guess is tha Mercedes is the popular car there with VW second. My third guess would be old French cars - after all it is Tierra del Feugo.

  • Usama Usama on Nov 24, 2023

    I vote for Paraguay 😊

  • Slavuta Nissan + profitability = cheap crap
  • ToolGuy Why would they change the grille?
  • Oberkanone Nissan proved it can skillfully put new frosting on an old cake with Frontier and Z. Yet, Nissan dealers are so broken they are not good at selling the Frontier. Z production is so minimal I've yet to see one. Could Nissan boost sales? Sure. I've heard Nissan plans to regain share at the low end of the market. Kicks, Versa and lower priced trims of their mainstream SUV's. I just don't see dealerships being motivated to support this effort. Nissan is just about as exciting and compelling as a CVT.
  • ToolGuy Anyone who knows, is this the (preliminary) work of the Ford Skunk Works?
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X I will drive my Frontier into the ground, but for a daily, I'd go with a perfectly fine Versa SR or Mazda3.
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