Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: Simple Passenger Cars in Bolivia? Que No!

Matt Gasnier
by Matt Gasnier

Over the past few weeks, I have taken you on trips to exotic and mysterious Eritrea, Chile, Georgia and Myanmar. The last 3 are only because of you because I have decided to now only take you to where you asked to go. And today we are going to Bolivia, simply because lilpoindexter asked for it.

If you are already South America’ed out after Chile, that’s ok because I have prepared 159 additional countries for you to explore in my blog. So don’t be shy and click away! Adelante!

Now to make this hard for me, once again you have chosen a country with no official sales data available.

Nice. Thanks for that. Oh wait…

I visited Bolivia back in 2005, so how about I tell you about that?

Except 7 year-old observational data won’t cut it for my faithful readers, I know that. Nice try though, Matt.Usually I would visit my old mate YouTube, and after hours of cautious observations I would report my sightings here. But you see the advantage of running a blog with an international audience (yes Sir!) is that good samaritans always come to the party and share with me their own observations in the place! In the case of Bolivia, thanks to Pablo Cesar’s observations I can share with you an exclusive estimated Top 10 best-selling models for 2010-2011… Exciting, right?The Bolivian new car market is very heavily skewed towards SUVs and pickups with 25 of the Top 30 models belonging to these two categories! That means only 5 passenger cars – hence the title of this post (doh!).

Like in neighbour Peru, the Toyota Hilux should be the best-selling car in Bolivia…

…with the Nissan Frontier taking the 2nd spot.

The Toyota 4Runner could round up the podium, which would make Bolivia its best-performing country in the world.

The Suzuki Grand Vitara has been a runaway hit in the country for 2 generations and should land in 4th place.

Followed by the best-selling Passenger Car the Hyundai Accent at #5.

The Mitsubishi L200 could rank 7th and the Mitsubishi Montero 8th.

Bolivia – estimated Top 10 best-selling cars 2010/2011:

PosModel1Toyota Hilux2Nissan Frontier3Toyota 4Runner4Suzuki Grand Vitara5Hyundai Accent6Kia Picanto7Mitsubishi L2008Mitsubishi Montero9Suzuki Jimny10Toyota RAV4

You can see the estimated Top 30 best-selling models in Bolivia here.

Further down the ranking, notice the BMW X5 at the Toyota FJ Cruiser at the BMW 5 Series at #21 and the Range Rover Sport at The presence of such luxurious models that high in the ranking is understandable: it is the result of Bolivian new car sales being still very limited in volume and reserved to an elite, the characteristics of a car market still in its infancy.

Expert on the Bolivian car market and able to boast about it as soon as tonight’s dinner? Check!

Until next week!

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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 2 comments
  • Jalop1991 is this anything like a cheap high end German car?
  • HotRod Not me personally, but yes - lower prices will dramatically increase the EV's appeal.
  • Slavuta "the price isn’t terrible by current EV standards, starting at $47,200"Not terrible for a new Toyota model. But for a Vietnamese no-name, this is terrible.
  • Slavuta This is catch22 for me. I would take RAV4 for the powertrain alone. And I wouldn't take it for the same thing. Engines have history of issues and transmission shifts like glass. So, the advantage over hard-working 1.5 is lost.My answer is simple - CX5. This is Japan built, excellent car which has only one shortage - the trunk space.
  • Slavuta "Toyota engineers have told us that they intentionally build their powertrains with longevity in mind"Engine is exactly the area where Toyota 4cyl engines had big issues even recently. There was no longevity of any kind. They didn't break, they just consumed so much oil that it was like fueling gasoline and feeding oil every time
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