Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: Mongolia Falls for Korea

Matt Gasnier
by Matt Gasnier

After Afghanistan, Norway and Haiti, I will continue to surprise you and get us all to Mongolia for our next stop. Yes Mongolia, and why not? Some of you have already expressed strong interest in that particular country so I didn’t feel I could wait any longer to let you know all about the best selling cars there…

Now let’s be honest, hands up who has been to Mongolia?

Thought so. So get yourself over the jump and discover all about yak-replacements… Now if you live there (serious. if you do, please say hi!) or you are yaked out, there’s always my blog where 155 more countries are covered

So.

Landlocked between Russia and China, you would assume the Mongolian car landscape would be a mix of…

This..

…and this…

…and this.

Not so.

Ladas and Chinese cars are very rare in the streets of Ulan Bataar.

Instead, recent YouTube videos of the streets of Mongolia’s capital show that Hyundai has established a solid grip on the Mongolian car market, with various generations of Hyundai Pony/Accent and Sonata the most common sights…

Like these ones…

…or these ones…

…or even that one.

So in this context I will be bold.

And venture a – calculated – bet: the new generations of Hyundai Accent…

…and Sonata should in all logic lead the models ranking in Mongolia in 2011. Perhaps not yet as both models may still be in their launch phase, but almost surely by the end of the year.

Japanese brands are also appreciated in Mongolia, especially Toyota. And 4WDs are the preferred choice in this mountainous country. For example, other models that should find their way towards the Mongolian Top 10 are the Toyota Land Cruiser…

…Nissan X-Trail, and possibly Nissan Qashqai and Tiida.

Now.

I know I owe you a little trivia nugget at the end of each article so you can show off in posh dinners about your nerdy knowledge of the best-selling cars around the world. To my defence, isn’t the fact that Hyundai and not Lada is dominating Mongolian car sales a weighty nugget enough?

Please?

Thank you.

If you have any official car sales data for Mongolia please make sure to comment on this post!

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

More by Matt Gasnier

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 9 comments
  • Obbop Obbop on Aug 06, 2011

    I like yurts. And if I had a son I would have wanted to name the spawn Ghengis Kahn Kelley. No wimpy soft "J" sound in Ghengis as in "Julie." NAY!!!!!!!!!!! Under threat of disembowelment the "Ghengis" would have a hard "G" sound as in "gut-wrenching/despoilment disembowelment." Yeah. Yurts would be great places for working-poor masses to live. Perhaps if I end up in that isolated rural spot a yurt would allow quickly-erected affordable housing. Just stay away from my yurt. Addressing snail mail would be interesting. I can envision Xmas cards (IF I ever send any but unlikely) "from our yurt to yours." That does have a certain "cachet" to it. Now, get outta' here.

  • Zealot2kx Zealot2kx on Jul 27, 2012

    my english poor, sorry. I'm from Mongolia-Ulaanbaatar My TOP 20 best selling cars in UB is... 1. Toyota Prius 2. Toyota MARK II 3. Toyota ALLION 4. Toyota Kluger 5. Toyota LAND CRUISER 6. Toyota LAND CRUISER PRADO 7. MITSUBISHI PAJERO 8. Hyundai SONATA NF 9. Hyundai Tucson 10. Hyundai Accent 11. Toyota Altezza 12. Toyota CAMRY 13. Honda CIVIC 14. HONDA CR-V 15. TOYOTA VITZ 16. TOYOTA Hilux SURF 17. Nissan Tiida 18. Nissan Patrol 19. Nissan X-trail 20. Nissan TEANA ... ... ... Mongolia is very high demand second car market. All car is import from 1. Japan 2. Korea 3. USA 4. Germany 5. UEA Best selling top brand is 1. Toyota 2. Hyundai 3. Nissan 4. Honda

  • Duke Woolworth Weight 4800# as I recall.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X '19 Nissan Frontier @78000 miles has been oil changes ( eng/ diffs/ tranny/ transfer). Still on original brakes and second set of tires.
  • ChristianWimmer I have a 2018 Mercedes A250 with almost 80,000 km on the clock and a vintage ‘89 Mercedes 500SL R129 with almost 300,000 km.The A250 has had zero issues but the yearly servicing costs are typically expensive from this brand - as expected. Basic yearly service costs around 400 Euros whereas a more comprehensive servicing with new brake pads, spark plugs plus TÜV etc. is in the 1000+ Euro region.The 500SL servicing costs were expensive when it was serviced at a Benz dealer, but they won’t touch this classic anymore. I have it serviced by a mechanic from another Benz dealership who also owns an R129 300SL-24 and he’ll do basic maintenance on it for a mere 150 Euros. I only drive the 500SL about 2000 km a year so running costs are low although the fuel costs are insane here. The 500SL has had two previous owners with full service history. It’s been a reliable car according to the records. The roof folding mechanism needs so adjusting and oiling from time to time but that’s normal.
  • Theflyersfan I wonder how many people recalled these after watching EuroCrash. There's someone one street over that has a similar yellow one of these, and you can tell he loves that car. It was just a tough sell - too expensive, way too heavy, zero passenger space, limited cargo bed, but for a chunk of the population, looked awesome. This was always meant to be a one and done car. Hopefully some are still running 20 years from now so we have a "remember when?" moment with them.
  • Lorenzo A friend bought one of these new. Six months later he traded it in for a Chrysler PT Cruiser. He already had a 1998 Corvette, so I thought he just wanted more passenger space. It turned out someone broke into the SSR and stole $1500 of tools, without even breaking the lock. He figured nobody breaks into a PT Cruiser, but he had a custom trunk lock installed.
Next