Cambodia: Camry potential best-seller
* Click on the title for many more street scenes! *
Based on observation of the streets of Phnom Penh through YouTube videos, the Toyota Camry is in all likeliness the best-selling car in Cambodia, and could have been so for many years given the number of different generations still omnipresent there.
It is possibly followed by the Honda CR-V, Toyota Hilux and Mitsubishi L200. The numerous Lexus models visible in the streets of the country are in fact private US imports, as the brand is not officially present in Cambodia.
Picture taken by my dear Mum and Dad during their trip to Cambodia in November 2010.
More pictures below.
Source: www.youtube.com
Source of the above info: theroadprovides.wordpress.com
Categories: Cambodia
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Comments are closed on your TTAC article. Was that intentional?
Nope
Let me check this out, thanks for picking it up!
Matt
Going from Thailand into Cambodia at Poipet, the first thing that you will see is a line of Camrys from the 1980s. These are the long-distance taxis. They are Camry only.
You might wonder why some countries like Afghanistan have settled for Corolla while Cambodia has the Camry. Here is a theory about that. I call it “formative years”. First, the tendency for one model to dominate in a place like Afghanistan or Cambodia might have to do with the reliability of the model, as well as reaching critical mass of spare parts, mechanic experience and market share. In a country where things must be improvised it helps if all cars are the same so you can pick (or steal) parts from other cars. But Cambodia started earlier than Afghanistan. When Cambodia fell first to the Red Khmer and then to the Vietnamese army in the 1970s, Corollas were too small for taxi use. So they settled for the Camry. Once established, the Camry rules in Cambodia even if the Corolla has grown larger. Afghanistan, by comparison, is a more recent car-buying country, after the Taliban. When the Afghans started shopping for a reliable beater, the Corolla was of suitable size.
Hey Globetrotter,
This is great information thank you so much for sharing it! It adds great depth to this site. Your contribution is very much appreciated! Please do comment on other posts if you have more to share!
cheers
Matt
Latest results from Cambodia. Notice how small the numbers are.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011041348524/Business/q1-car-sales-up-as-margins-drop.html
Summary:
Nissan: Up 15 percent Q1/2011 year on year. Expected sales in 2011: 400-500.
Ford: Up 10 percent Q1/2011 year on year. Sales Q1/2011: 100. Expected sales in 2011: 400.
Toyota: Expected sales in 2011: 600.
New car sales represents only about 11 percent of the total automobile market in Cambodia.
Cambodia imported a total of 562,529 old and new vehicles worth US$252 million in 2010, up from 361,146 units worth $186 million in 2009, according to previous data from the Ministry of Commerce.
Great, thanks tommickx!
Used cars are a mix of RHD imports from Thailand and Japan; imports from the US, often cars that were scrapped because of major accidents; imports from Korea (most commercial vehicles (Hyundai, Kia, Daewoo, Asia, SsangYong vans, trucks, and buses) now come from Korea); some imports from Europe, mainly luxury cars.
Due to very high import duties on new cars, the new car market in Cambodia is at the moment extremely limited.
One more thing, many of the newer luxury SUVs, mainly Lexuses, are imported from the Middle East, as witnessed by the Arabic writing on the rearview mirrors.
As far as I know, currently these brands are officially sold in Cambodia:
Japan: Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Isuzu, Hino
Korea: SsangYong, Hyundai, Kia
China: Great Wall Motor
USA: Ford, Chevrolet
Other: Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz
Local car makers: Angkor Car, Khmer First Car Factory (JV Beijing Automobile Works).
I hope I didn’t forget any. New brands enter Cambodia seemingly every month.
From personal observation (I have lived in Cambodia for the past four years), the Toyota Hilux Vigo is the most popular new car.
The most popular used car is the Camry, and the most popular used passenger van is the SsangYong Istana.