Good Reads: My Mercedes is Not for Sale

My Mercedes is Not for Sale by Jeroen van Bergeijk (New York:  Broadway Books, 2006, translated into English by John Antonides in 2008.)

In 2004, the author bought a 1988 Mercedes 190D with 220,000 kilometers on the clock and drove it along the western coast of Africa and then inland as far as Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso where he sold the car.  Part way through the trip, he has to visit Suame Magazine in Ghana for repairs, the country's (if not West Africa's) largest auto repair centre.  Although working in extremely primitive conditions by Western standards, the mechanics there are able to fix almost anything to get cars back on the road.

The books is primarily a travelogue of his experiences with various people along the way, his observations of the effect that the importation of used European cars and other cast-off technology has had on many African countries, the degrees to which he was swindled and fleeced by government officials and so-called "guides", interspersed with chapters in which he interviews all of the previous owners of his car back to the original purchaser in Belgium.  He frequently references Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance but he's not really a mechanically-inclined guy and his book is no ZAMM.  For what it is, it's an interesting and entertaining read.  Below, some of the author's photos: