World: 65 countries still missing official data – I need your help!

Does anyone have official car sales data for Benin?

* Click on the title for direct links to these 65 articles! *

Recently I wrote about how Best Selling Cars Blog now features 103 countries with official data and since then thanks to Austin I have already been able to update Hong Kong (China) with more current sales info… But there are still 65 unloved countries on this blog for which I haven’t managed to get my hands on any official car sales data. A lot of them (38) are in Africa where sales figures are particularly hard to find.

Kyrgyzstan is one of the countries I don’t have official car sales data for yet.

So this is where I need your help dear readers! Click on the title of this article or on ‘Read more’ below to find the full list of countries still missing official data and see whether you have any info about any of them. If you do, simply comment on here and enter your email address when prompted (it will not appear publicly) so I can get in touch with you. Anything at all will help and I thank you in advance for any data you may be able to share to make this site even better!

Street Scene in Asmara, Eritrea. Picture by Eric Lafforgue. All rights reserved.

Among the Top 50 most populated countries in the world, there are still 14 I haven’t ‘cracked’: Nigeria, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Congo (Dem Rep), Myanmar, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Ghana, North Korea and Mozambique.

Car purchase is now legalised in Cuba! I look forward to official sales data… Picture by Teemu R. 

You may ask how I treated the 65 countries mentioned below if there is no official data. Simple. I watched hundreds of hours of recent YouTube videos of the streets of these countries, and based on the cars I could see I have ventured an estimation of the best-selling models. Far from perfect but I was surprised how close some of my estimates were when I managed to get official data for new countries. The best videos are included in the articles so you can see for yourself what the traffic looks like there.

Old Mercedes go to Mauritania to die… Picture by Ferdinand Reus, all rights reserved.

A few things I’ve learned along the way: over half the cars currently in circulation in Guinea Bissau, Bamako Mali and Nouakchott Mauritania are old 1980s Mercedes 190 imported from Europe to die there…

Street scene in Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Up to mid-2010, almost half of the cars in circulation in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe were Changhe Freedom minivans until they were abruptly banned over safety concerns…Zambian streets are filled with Toyota Corollas… The Pontiac Vibe is popular in Ghana… and many more oddities, so explore these roads less travelled with me below…

Direct links to these 65 countries below.