Grueling trip

Jeroen van Bergeijk’s own Mercedes — a 1988 190-D he picks up dirt cheap via a Dutch Internet site — undergoes a no less punishing ordeal, a grueling trip through the western Sahara from Mellila, a Spanish enclave on the Morrocan coast, through Dakar, the capital of Senegal, then on to Burkina Faso.
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Funny, gripping travelogue

Subtitled “From Amsterdam to Ouagadougou … An Auto Misadventure Across the Sahara,” this is a funny, gripping travelogue for those who enjoy great adventures, travel writing or other cultures.
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heart-warming, humorous account

In his personal account of this crazy trek through impoverished yet culturally rich areas of the African Sahel, Van Bergeijk scatters tidbits about other explorers who tried to conquer the desert and its occupants. Only some survive to tell their tale, including Van Bergeijk. His story is a heart-warming, humorous account of a fish out of water that somehow endures.
His meticulous research into the history of his acquired Mercedes 190D gives insight into what stories a simple car can tell. Through the Mercedes' handful of owners, the vehicle gains personality even with an odometer that mysteriously loses hundreds of thousands of kilometres.
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How Not To Sell A Mercedes In Africa

NPR show Day to Day did an interview with me: " A few years back, Dutch journalist Jeroen van Bergeijk had an impulse to sell a car — the hard way. He bought a rusted-out 1988 Mercedes 190D in his native Amsterdam and drove it all the way to West Africa — where the vehicle is beyond popular."
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Think New York City roads are bad?

"Think New York City roads are bad? Try following the ride this Dutch writer/filmmaker made. He got behind the wheel of a 16-year-old Mercedes 190 D and drove it from Amsterdam through southern Spain and into Africa - the desert of Morocco and Mauritania, plus places like Senegal, Mali and Burkino Faso, where he sold his wheels. He encounters minefields, bandits, a coup and other adventures along the way. One driving tip: A bar of soap can be used as a temporary cracked-gas-tank patch."

Across Africa, in a Mercedes

Q&A in The Wall Street Journal:
Dutch journalist Jeroen van Bergeijk documents his three-month-long road trip from Amsterdam to Africa in his new book, "My Mercedes Is Not for Sale."
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A hell-for-stout Mercedes

If you've ever entertained a suspect e-mail offer from a Nigerian businessman who wants to buy your pickup truck (and I admit, I have), you'll appreciate My Mercedes Is Not For Sale (Broadway, $13), by Dutch journalist Jeroen van Bergeijk. Van Bergeijk bought a hell-for-stout '88 diesel Benz 190D hoping to flip it for profit in northwest Africa. In 2004 he drove the rust bucket from Holland to Burkina Faso via Morocco, encountering countless breakdowns and a military coup along the way. "There are two ways to drive over a washboard piste," he writes during his Sahara crossing. "Either very, very slowly . . . or so fast the car's wheels just barely touch the top of the ridges."
Outside

Dauntless, lighthearted style

“This has all the makings of a horrendous journey—and it is—but his dauntless, lighthearted style of writing makes the trip sound almost like a romp.”
Booklist

Crazy Dutchman

“Van Bergeijk’s musings on subjects like the state of African commerce (“Things in Africa come in two forms: broken or almost broken.”) inform the armchair traveler about the real on-the-road experience in ways Baedeker and Lonely Planet never could...
... thanks to a crazy Dutchman who boldly went where few men ever go, entertaining us every kilometer of the way."
Bookpage

Illuminating introduction

This is how Publishers Weekly concludes its review of My Mercedes is not for sale:
"What propels the narrative are his portrayals of desert towns where sand is everywhere-"in your bag, in your food, even in your underwear"-and where everything looks desolate. Likewise, the historical background on early explorations of Saharan Africa (by men like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Capt. James Riley and Mungo Park) and on the attempt to build a trans-Sahara railroad add texture to his own excursion. In the end, Bergeijk provides an illuminating introduction to Saharan Africa and the economic implications of its used car trade."
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Hard travelling, easier reading

This is what trade paper Kirkus Reviews has to say about My Mercedes is not for sale:
"Then, through searing sandstorms and shimmering heat went the intrepid, dusty desert traveler. From Cape Boujdour and Nouadhibou to Nouakchott, following the lead of French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint Exupery and innocent comic-book avatar Tintin, the author trekked through Mauritania and Senegal to the Ivory Coast and Ghana. He encountered hustling officials, fraudulent guides, happy brigands, touring druggies and some "groovy" folk....Hard traveling, easier reading.
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Auf Afrikas Wüstenstraßen

The German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau did an interview with Jeroen:
"Jeroen van Bergeijk wollte seinen 19 Jahre alten Mercedes Diesel verkaufen. Und ist dafür 16 000 Kilometer weit in den afrikanischen
Kontinent gefahren. Der eigentliche Grund seiner Reise war aber
ein anderer: Ein Buch wollte er schreiben, das viel über Autos, Menschen und das Reisen erzählt."
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"Thrilling literature"

The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:
“In seinem Buch „Mein Mercedes ist nicht zu verkaufen” erzählt van Bergeijk auf gekonnte Weise von diesem Abenteuer, das 16 000 Kilometer oder drei Monate dauern sollte – der Kampf mit dem Sand, bestechliche Grenzer, Begegnungen mit Weltenbummlern und am Ende dann 2400 Euro auf die Hand. Spannende Lektüre, die, wäre dafür die Zeit, zur Nachahmung anregen könnte.”