A Country Full of Mercedes
Everywhere you turn in Albania, you will see Mercedes Benz's flooding the streets. Just look around and you will find just about every model since the 1970's.
One might wonder how the poorest country in Europe is filled with so many Mercedes? My guess is that some are stolen. In fact I learned in one of my Polsci classes earlier this year that once communism collapsed in Eastern Europe and the borders opened up, people fled to Western Europe, stole their cars, and brought them back to sell in their own country. until 1990 very few people in Albania had cars; those that did were people in power and high up in politics. Actually, My mom tells a very funny story that highlights how scarce cars were at the time; on the day of her wedding, back in 89', my father and her could not find a taxi or any other car to take them back home so my dad put her on the back of his bike, wedding dress and all, and took her home. It sounds unimaginable, but it's true. I laugh every time I here the story. So when borders opened, Eastern Europeans took advantage of the opportunity. In fact, the unofficial Tourist Slogan of Albania and many other Eastern European countries at the time was "Come Visit Albania. Chances are you're Car is Already Here."
Out of curiosity I did some more research on the topic. I don't know how accurate these numbers are but I wouldn't be surprised if they were true. Here's what I found:
- It is estimated that over 80% of Cars in Albania are Mercedes
- Albania has the highest percentage of Mercedes per capita: 1 Million Mercedes: 3 Million people
Many Albanians will tell you that everyone drives Mercedes because they are durable long lasting cars that can endure the tough roads and conditions of Albania. This very well may be true but it doesn't explain how people that earn, on average, a salary of $300 a month can afford to purchase a mercedes, a car that costs anywhere between $30,000 to $90,000. My theory is that this phenomenon of car theft from Western Europe into Eastern Europe, especially Albania, that started in the 1990's still continues today.
I don't mean to make my country of origin sound like it's full of thieves. In fact, it's not. Rather It is only a select group of people that have made a very lucrative business out of stealing mercedes and selling them for as little as $2,000-$3,000 to Albanians, who simply see a good opportunity and take it. With $300 a month people simply cannot afford any car at MSRP value so they figure out alternatives.
Regardless, it's an interesting Phenomenon. Albania: Mercedes Galore! (I think it should become our official state car).
If you still don't believe me, check out this Youtube video and many more like it from tourist noticing the same thing as me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oexYeK-bdFs
My next blog will be about food! :)
Wow, you are a pretty good writer Xhensila. And this is a very cool and interesting blog.
ReplyDeleteOn the stuff you wrote about, I would say most of the Mercedes are cheap because they're so old (I would say most are probably around 15-25 yrs old). As for the newer ones, I am sure a lot of it comes through money-laundering from criminal activities :( Nevertheless, it is still astonishing how frequent the Mercedes Benz is to Albania.
-Albani
Hey babe,
ReplyDeleteit is not true! In Albania Mercedes has market share about 30 % all driving vehicles in country. But even it is very high score. In Czechia-škoda, Germany-VW, Sweeden-Volvo have local cars brands one-third from total registered cars in each country. Tell me your source! happy study:-)
Market share = cars that are sold on the market, so it can still be 80% riding around
ReplyDeleteCorrection to this blog, I am only making assumptions that some are stolen as to explain the plethora of Mercedes in Albania. I have no facts to back that up. But here's a funny top gun video that further illustrates my point.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyH-351Z_-0 haha
Thanks for your great information, the contents are quiet interesting.I will be waiting for your next post Japan used cars .
ReplyDeleteThis thing with especially Americans and the British thinking that Mercedeses are like Ferrari and cannot be bought by normal people, and that’s why Albanians must have stolen them, is happening too often and it is really bothering me. How is it possible that you guys are so misinformed and you don’t know that Mercs don’t produce only luxury cars but also for normal users, and that those that are 15-20 years old can be bought for under 2000 dollars in Germany, regularly? And they can be shipped to Albania for just another 1000 dollars, and there will be just 400 other dollars of import taxes. A 3400 USD Mercedes can be afforded by Albanians, and old Mercs are much better than any other old car, consume less fuel and last longer in our bad roads.
ReplyDeleteNow, in America or the EU, you have laws against old imported cars for pollution reasons, safety reasons, or for other hidden reasons (to make you spend more with new cars), and those old cars are either not allowed, or taxes are so high for every year of age that in the end for you it would be better if you buy a new one. In Albania they tried it for two years to use your same law, they put very high taxes on old cars, but the Albanian people couldn’t afford buying new ones so the import of cars dropped with 50% in the first year, and with 90% in the second year. People kept buying the cars that were already here. So the government was forced to remove the ban.
So, why would anyone steal a 1000 EUR car and risk prison for it? Yes, there are stolen cars here like in every other country, but even people from the Guardian.com and on Top Gear are saying we steal cars just because they see too many Mercs, and they don’t have a single fact or statistic that they are stolen. They say it just because they cannot buy Mercs in their countries, and they don’t bother to make some researches, and they’re journalists. This is getting very boring.
Here is a website where you can buy 15 or 20 year old Mercedes Benzes in Germany for 1000 to 2000 Euros. Please check them and tell me if they don’t look exactly like the ones you see in mass in Albania. And with 6000 EUR you can buy Mercs that are just 5-6 years old, which is still a price that an Albanian who owns a small business, a shop or something, or who has immigrated and worked hard, can still afford without a problem.
http://suchen.mobile.de/auto/mercedes-benz.html?isSearchRequest=true&lang=de&scopeId=C&sortOption.sortBy=price.consumerGrossEuro&makeModelVariant1.makeId=17200&maxPrice=2000
Marjus Qose July 26, 2014 at 10:03 am · · Reply →
I must correct myself. Apparently you can buy the Mercs you see in Albania from Germany for 500 EUR.
http://suchen.mobile.de/auto-inserat/mercedes-benz-c-220-d-automatik-schwendi/197158578.html?lang=de&pageNumber=8&__lp=100&scopeId=C&sortOption.sortBy=price.consumerGrossEuro&makeModelVariant1.makeId=17200&makeModelVariant1.searchInFreetext=false&makeModelVariant2.searchInFreetext=false&makeModelVariant3.searchInFreetext=false&maxPrice=2000&negativeFeatures=EXPORT&noec=1