My Mercedes is Not for Sale
From Amsterdam to Ouagadougou...An Auto-Misadventure Across the Sahara
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?”
—Janis Joplin
A journalist’s intrepid endeavor to sell his used car abroad results in a high-spirited and revealing look at West Africa.
“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?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In his travel narrative, Bergeijk chronicles his three-month trip along the Trans-Sahara Highway to sell his used Mercedes 190 D. His primary goal is to turn a pretty profit, but he hopes for a little adventure in the process. And he finds it: being chased by two unknown cars in Morocco, getting his car stuck in a mine field and maneuvering through corrupt border officials. Unfortunately, while Bergeijk experiences events that would harrow the soul of any ordinary traveler, he does not fully bring the adventure to life. What propels the narrative, though, 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-Exup ry, 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. Photos.
