Douala Auto Mystery
One thing noticeable about Douala is the number of luxury vehicles and newer vehicles in general. The only place I have seen this in sub-Sahara Africa is Cape Town, South Africa. But Cape Town is extremely wealthy and Douala is not. Sure, Douala has a fair number of wealthy and it has a good number of expats and foreign businessmen, but the number of well-to-do does not explain the number of nice cars. A similar city anywhere I have seen in sub-Sahara Africa would contain very few Mercedes and almost all of those would belong to embassies (embassy workers even below ambassadors have quite a penchant for luxurious automobiles – a nice place for the next president to start whacking our federal budget). BMWs in lesser numbers and Lexus are rare. Of the normal cars, the far majority would be beat up older models. SUVs would mostly be limited to the Land and Range Rovers and others needed for safaris. Not so in Douala!
Every SUV made including a Hummer (why a Hummer is viable on thin African roads is way beyond me) can be found in Douala. Lots of newer cars and, as I said, loads of Mercedes and other luxury makes. Douala is not the capital of Cameroon although it is the industrial capital, major port and largest city. Also, it is said that the best place to buy a vehicle in Central Africa is Cameroon where the prices are cheap. But nothing adds up for why all of these good vehicles can be found in this city…
Except one! Apparently there is a well-known auto theft ring in Europe and they send their stolen goods to Douala. Why it is well-known and still allowed to exist in Europe is a mystery to me. Why it exists in Cameroon unabated? Call it nice, cheap cars for the government and police and probably a lot more graft. What I am not sure about is whether the stolen cars are allowed to be exported (come with papers). I wonder if someone has ever bought a vehicle there which ends up back in Europe and they get caught with stolen property. Our hotel was across from a European auto mechanic shop. Every day there was a fresh dozen Mercedes (mainly) awaiting work. So if your car is stolen in Europe, you might want to fly to Douala a few weeks later to see if you can find it.
Tags: Africa, cameroon
vagabondrick
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