Hyundai is the First New Car Retailer in Iraq since 1968
So you think the North American market is volatile? How about opening up a new dealership in a war zone?
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| Assistant sales manager Nihad Abdul shows off Baghdad's first new car showroom since 1968. Al-Kasid is the official retailer for Hyundai Motor Company in Iraq. (Photo: Reuters/Laszlo Balogh) |
Such was the case just over a week ago when an independent Hyundai retailer opened Iraq's first new car dealership since Chevrolet bowed out when the Baath Party took over in the fall 1968. Iraqis didn't go without cars, but rather than the variety the country once enjoyed independent dealerships were shut down and the government sold all new cars through state warehouses - so much for the glitz and glamour of the car business.
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| With the economic embargo lifted, there is once again an open market for new and used cars. (Photo: Reuters/Laszlo Balogh) |
Saddam Hussein's government worked out deals with its allies, with cars from Russia being among the more common imports. Baath Party officials and Saddam's insiders and family had more choice mind you. For instance Saddam's late son Uday drove Ferraris and Porsches, another fine example of totalitarian rule being for the people. Baath guards incidentally reported that the deposed dictator sprayed Uday's car collection with bullets while enraged at his son for insulting his uncle Barazan.
After the war Iraq's borders opened to what Reuters' Khaled Yacoub Oweis reported as hundreds of thousands of used cars, but despite the influx the country's pre-owned market remains massive now that the 1990 through 2003 economic embargo has been lifted and money is once again flowing.