Zimbabwe: Toyota Corolla sovereign, info needed

Street scene in Harare, Zimbabwe. Picture by bayhaus, all rights reserved.

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With the economic crisis striking the country, new cars are extremely rare in Zimbabwe. In fact it can even be said that similarly to a country at war, the new car market has slowed down to a grinding halt. I visited the country in June 2007 and this article is based on my observations in Victoria Falls where I stayed, but it is very difficult to understand the reality of car sales in Zimbabwe since then. If you have more recent info, please by all means comment on the article so we can all know a little more.

Toyota Corolla in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe June 2007

Based on my observations in the country, the Toyota Corolla is and has been the best-selling model in Zimbabwe for many, many years. A plethora of various generations of the model can be seen in the streets, indicating that its leadership is at least a couple of decades in the running. It may have been threatened in the eighties by the Datsun/Nissan Sunny as there are a lot of these as well in the streets. The Corolla and Sunny are by far the most popular passenger cars in Zimbabwe, with all other popular vehicles being pick-ups.

Datsun Sunny in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe June 2007

Surprisingly and contrary to the majority of African countries, the Toyota Hilux is not tremendously popular in Zimbabwe. Instead, the Isuzu KB can be seen at every street corner while the Mazda B-Series and Nissan Hardbody also rather successful. And ladies and gentlemen, there is not much more to the Zimbabwean new car market than this! As I said, new car sales in Zimbabwe are a rare and disappearing occurence.

Any additional information, even recent photos from your trip there, would be very welcome!

More street scenes below.