Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: Albania, The Richest Country In The World?
After Great Britain’s official (an royal) figures last weekend, now is the time to explore a country that doesn’t have any official car sales data available. And what better time to go back to basics and look at the alphabet and where it all began: the letter A. So this weekend we are going to Albania.
And why not?
Now if you want to know about the best selling models in less obscure countries in the world, you’ve found the right place. There are 154 other countries to explore in my blog. You will enjoy it. That’s an order.
The reason why I wanted to stop in Albania for a while during our round the world tour is that the Albanian car market is very particular.
Exploring the streets of Tirana and Durres through YouTube video reveals that as much as 1 in every 3 cars in circulation in the country is a second-hand 1990’s Mercedes…
Probably the highest concentration of Mercedeses anywhere in the world!
There are very few new cars in the streets, and they are the most unexpected. The most common new cars in Albania are luxury SUV’s. And when I say luxury, I mean Range Rover, Ranger Rover Sport …
BMW X5, Mercedes M-Class and GL-Class …
and Porsche Cayenne.
Yep, these cars will set you back at least USD 50,000 (unless, you bought them somewhere, well, cheap.) That doesn’t seem to be an issue for the Albanian consumer. Or are we really talking about the average Albanian consumer here? I let you draw the conclusions yourself.
Appearing much less often than the SUV’s above, ‘normal’ passenger cars would follow in the models ranking if there was one. Among them the Chevrolet Aveo, Fiat Punto, VW Golf and Opel Corsa. You would have thought these cars led the way like in any other Eastern European country. Well it isn’t so.
Interestingly, a few models have Albania as their only European port-of-call like the VW Gol, imported from Brazil, the Chery QQ straight from China and Toyota Avanza from Indonesia… A very particular market indeed…
This speculation is based on my observation of YouTube videos and the help of a friend of mine, Matthias from Germany, who spent some time in Albania and was able to help figure out which are the best selling models there.
That’s all for today!
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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Matt Gasnier, based in Sydney, Australia, runs a blog named Best Selling Cars, dedicated to counting cars all over the world, hej mat why write from thhat far? and why you tube? u'll be wellcomed!
The cars are one thing, actually driving there is another world altogether. http://www.suite101.com/content/driving-in-albania---not-for-the-fainthearted-a301950