Mijn mercedes is niet te koop

the long version

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 190 D 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. Food and water are scarce, sandstorms are frequent, and all he has to patch up his many car breakdowns thousands of miles from civilization are 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? Book jacket.