“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz?”
-- Janis Joplin

“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?”

A JOURNALIST’S INTREPID ENDEAVOR TO SELL HIS USED CAR ABROAD RESULTS IN A HIGH-SPIRITED AND REVEALING LOOK AT WEST AFRICA.

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 teenaged, 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?


<sub>My Mercedes Is Not for Sale (US edition)
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Broadway (July 15, 2008)
translated by John Antonides
ISBN-10: 0767928695
ISBN-13: 978-0767928694

Mein Mercedes ist nicht zu verkaufen
Broschiert, 233 seiten
Verlag: Malik
übersetzt von Gregor Seferens
ISBN-10: 3890293336
ISBN-13: 978-3890293332

My Mercedes Is Not for Sale (UK edition)
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Nicholas Brealy (July, 2008)
translated by John Antonides
ISBN-10: 1857885155
ISBN-13: 978-1857885156</sub>

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