PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

Jim B. · #2 08-31-2008, 05:31 PM

I just finished reading a fascinating book called "My Mercedes is (Not) For Sale" about a young Dutchman who buys a 1988 Mercedes Euro 190 Diesel and drives it all the way to the Middle of Africa. This amazing book is being discussed on NPR right now and you can buy one on Amazon or a good bookstore.

The author writes of his amazing adventures and how it is his opinion that the poorer the African country is, the more W201 series 190 Diesels are to be found as Taxis there.

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“Look, there’s my car,” I say, pointing at my Mercedes in the parking lot.
“Where?” a fellow desert traveler asks.
“There, that Mercedes,” I say.
He looks at me, questioning. “You want to drive that through the Sahara?”

Jeroen van Bergeijk came up with what seemed like a great scheme for making a quick profit: buy a clunker of a car in his native Amsterdam and resell it in the Third World, where a market even for jalopies still thrives. His chariot of choice is a rusted-out 1988 Mercedes 190D with 220,000 kilometers on its odometer; his route will take him from Holland through Morocco, across the Sahara, and into some of the least trodden parts of Africa.
My Mercedes Is Not for Sale is a rollicking tale of an innocent abroad. The author finds himself facing a driving challenge akin to the Dakar Rally but encounters obstacles never dreamed of by race-car drivers: active minefields, occasional banditry—mostly by the border guards—and a teenage, chain-smoking desert guide with a fondness for Tupac lyrics. Food and water are scarce, sandstorms are frequent, and all he has to patch up his many car breakdowns thousands of miles from civilization is a bar of soap, some duct tape, and a pair of women’s nylons. Then there’s the coup he survived.
My Mercedes Is Not for Sale captures more than the adventure—it vividly portrays the impact of globalization on Africa through a surprise-filled journey into its thriving car culture, while asking the question: is the white man’s burden really a used car?

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All the discarded Euro ones are highly prized in West Africa where they eventually wind up as Taxicabs.

The serial number, cloth upholstery, plastic hubcaps on steel wheels, and euro lights are clues that distinguish them from W201 190 models that were destined to be sold in America when they were new

They are very rugged little beasts with diesel engines.