Libya In Love With Chevy

[Hurricane]

Libya In Love With Chevy

By Matt Gasnier on March 3, 2011

After having covered Argentina, if you thought I would lazily go down the alphabet to finish on Zimbabwe you were WRONG! I like surprises, as I’m sure you do too, so given Libya is at the center of world news at the moment, why not have a look at the cars that sell best in that country – as long as it’s still there.



Libya is easy because there are just a few models that keep popping up in the streets of Tripoli again and again. Namely the Chevrolet Optra, the previous generation Mitsubishi Lancer (still on sale in some countries) and Toyota Hilux.

They are by far the most frequent new cars in the streets, and by looking at the relative age of the cars it seems that this trio has been leading Libyan car sales for a few years already.

Other models that appear successful in Libya are the Toyota Corolla, Nissan Tiida, Mitsubishi L200 pick-up (aka Triton) and a bunch of Hyundais: the Santa Fe, Sonata and Accent.

On the Korean car subject, if you look a bit further at the older cars in the streets of Tripoli, there is a strikingly high occurrence of previous generations Hyundai Accent, but also Daewoo Cielo and Nubira.

My assumption is that the Daewoos were imported from Egypt where they were produced in the General Motors Egypt plant near Cairo. With the Daewoo plant being sold to Chery, which now produces Speranzas there (a whole different story I will touch on in a future post), the import flow has ceased, but the Daewoo brand stayed popular in Libya, making it easy for Chevrolet to take the relay when Daewoo became Chevrolet in the early 2000’s.

This is why Libyans love Chevrolet.

There you go, now you can be proud to be among the most knowledgeable people on the planet about car sales in Libya.

Full text here: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...ve-with-chevy/

[Hurricane]

Libya 2010: Optra possibly #1

YouTube videos of the streets of Libya’s capital, Tripoli, show that in all likeliness, three models should lead the best-selling cars ranking in the country this year: the Chevrolet Optra, old gen Mitsubishi Lancer and Toyota Hilux. It looks like this trio has been on top of the charts for a few years in Libya.



Other successful models include the Toyota Corolla, Nissan Tiida, Mitsubishi L200, and Hyundai Santa Fe, Sonata & Accent.

It is also interesting to note that the streets of Tripoli are filled with 90′s Daewoo Cielos, Daewoo Nubiras and Hyundai Accents, showing that the market was once totally dominated by Korean manufacturers, the tide having changed since with the demise of Daewoo (Chevrolet replacing it in the rankings).

Full text here: http://bestsellingcars.wordpress.com...lead/#more-943

[Hurricane]

Shanghai-GM: Chevrolet Sails to Chile and Libya

The first batch of Chevrolet Sail supermini for overseas markets left the coast of Yantai, Shandong, on October 21, marking the beginning for Shanghai GM to mass export locally developed and built GM-brand cars.



The passenger car joint venture of SAIC and General Motors said that it has received initial order for close to 10,000 Chevy Sails from countries outside China, mainly Chile and Libya.



The current model of Chevrolet Sail, available as sedan and hatchback, was developed by Shanghai-GM’s Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC), and released in January this year. Well received, it delivered close to 90,000 units in China in the first nine months.



Shanghai GM has been building and marketing Sail since 2002, first under the Buick (until 2005) and later Chevrolet (since 2005) nameplate. The 2002-2009 models, all three-box sedans, were essentially rebadged second generation Opel Corsa.

The current Chevrolet Sail was derived from the fourth generation Opel Corsa, but underwent significant re-development. Unlike the Corsa, which was built on the Gamma II platform, it is based on the T250 from GM-Daewoo, which also gives rise to the current Chevrolet Aveo.

Full text here: http://chinaautoweb.com/2010/10/shan...ile-and-libya/

[flatblackstrat]

Hopefully most of them stay on the road and don't get blown into bits.

[CaptainDan]

Hopefully most of them stay on the road and don't get blown into bits.

But if they get blown to bits, then they'll need to buy more of them!

Cha-ching!

[chevypowa670]

Full text here: http://chinaautoweb.com/2010/10/shan...ile-and-libya/

Wow, that's a helluva ship right there...

[tombalas]

Over the weekend a late model beige HHR was prominently featured in a Reuters photo in which French jets were in the process of demolishing an armored column in the background. Hope the HHR made it unscathed.

[CaptainDan]

Over the weekend a late model beige HHR was prominently featured in a Reuters photo in which French jets were in the process of demolishing an armored column in the background. Hope the HHR made it unscathed.

I don't know. Bombs raining from the sky. Buildings, homes, vehicles, and people being blown to bits.

I don't think the "safety" of somebody's car is going to be high on my list of things to worry about.

[tbirderic]

I've also noticed the preponderance of Korean cars in the footage I've seen from Libya.

[zl-1]

But if they get blown to bits, then they'll need to buy more of them!

Cha-ching!

More like Cha-Boom! than Cha-ching!

[Smaart Aas Saabr]

What I keep seeing in Libyan photos are old Mazdas from the 1980's, 323's and 626's mostly, what's up with that?

[2b2]

More like Cha-Boom! than Cha-ching!

I always thought it was (or should be) KA-Ching/Kuh-Ching


send Dubya to Libya

[BlekherBob]

I hear Gaddaffi loves Toyotas.

[PA Dweller]

I was watching a clip on the news and I swore I saw a Chevy Silverado with an anti-aircraft gun mounted in the bed.