Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: Myanmar Keeps Its Secrets

Matt Gasnier
by Matt Gasnier

Over the last couple of weeks, your favorite travel agent has taken you on trips to Belarus, Eritrea, Chile and Georgia (mmm, am I really your favorite travel agent? I’m getting a little worried…). But you only have yourselves to blame: bFor the third week I’m only taking you where you asked to go. And today the destination is Myanmar (aka Burma). Why? Because SexCpotatoes (I really like your nick!) asked for it. I know, I know, it’s the 2nd time we follow SexCpotatoes suggestion, but no-one said you could only ask for one country!

Now if Myanmar is the last of your worries and you’d rather go to Malaysia this week, that’s absolutely fine because I have prepared 159 additional countries for you to explore in my blog. So don’t be shy and click away!

Of course Myanmar being the closed country we all know, there is no official sales data available.

But that’s when the fun begins! Or so I thought…

As you all know by now, when there is no data, in fact there is. Simply go to YouTube and search ‘Myanmar streets’ and you normally end up watching a flow of cars for hours and can make up a pretty good picture of actual sales. I even had people living in Sudan and Ghana telling me my YouTube guesses were pretty accurate! So there.

Except for Myanmar, all you get is footage of protests and other violent events. Let’s hope this country is on the right track now that there seems to be a little more freedom. Still, I managed to check out enough videos to be able to tell you that there are very nearly no new cars in circulation in the country.

Very high import taxes make new cars an out of reach prospect for most consumers, and in this context, the 1992 Toyota Corolla Station Wagon swarms the streets…

With the 1998 Nissan Sunny and 1993 Suzuki Wagon R also very popular.

A few extremely rare 2007 Toyota Corollas…

Matt Gasnier
Matt Gasnier

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  • Charly Charly on Mar 13, 2012

    I'm more interested in what a mafia don would drive. So what about Transnistria

  • Pickupfan Pickupfan on Mar 28, 2012

    I've noticed that Thailand hasn't been done yet, could you do that country next? I'm interested to know what other vehicles, besides pickups are popular there.

    • MrWhopee MrWhopee on Apr 02, 2012

      That's a big remiss if Thailand isn't here yet, as it's not just a major car market, but also a major car-producing country.

  • Lorenzo I just noticed the 1954 Ford Customline V8 has the same exterior dimensions, but better legroom, shoulder room, hip room, a V8 engine, and a trunk lid. It sold, with Fordomatic, for $21,500, inflation adjusted.
  • Lorenzo They won't be sold just in Beverly Hills - there's a Nieman-Marcus in nearly every big city. When they're finally junked, the transfer case will be first to be salvaged, since it'll be unused.
  • Ltcmgm78 Just what we need to do: add more EVs that require a charging station! We own a Volt. We charge at home. We bought the Volt off-lease. We're retired and can do all our daily errands without burning any gasoline. For us this works, but we no longer have a work commute.
  • Michael S6 Given the choice between the Hornet R/T and the Alfa, I'd pick an Uber.
  • Michael S6 Nissan seems to be doing well at the low end of the market with their small cars and cuv. Competitiveness evaporates as you move up to larger size cars and suvs.
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