In many videos and photos I've noticed a fairly large number of American cars in Iraq, mostly GM cars such as Chevrolet Caprices (there seems to be lots of them), Chevrolet Suburban, Pontiac Trans Sport and some Chrysler products, like Dodge Caravan/Chrysler Voyager.

Does anybody know how they got there? Were they actually sold new in Iraq before the US invasion? Or were they imported from Saudi Arabia or Kuwait? It's weird, as most of these cars are post-1991, after the Gulf War. You wouldn't think American products would be too popular under Saddam's regime. Or have they all been imported to Iraq after the 2003 invasion?

Can anyone shed any light on this?

I get the impression that big American cars were popular throughout the Gulf during the 1970s and 1980s, so pre-1991 models were no doubt sold new in Iraq. I would venture to guess that 1990s models might have been bought secondhand from Jordan, which has always been a major trading partner of Iraq, sanctions notwithstanding.

Lastly, thousands upon thousands of used cars have flooded in since 2003. European cars have been shipped from Germany and the Netherlands (Iraq now seems to be full of first generation Vectras) and perhaps other countries. If I remember correctly, American cars from rich Gulf countries have come in through Kuwait.

Ingo knows about the used car export trade in Germany, so he might have something to add.

Yeah, I've seen the Opel Vectras. First generation Opel Omegas (aka Vauxhall Carlton) also seem to be extremely popular there. I've also noticed some BMWs and Mercedes with German plates still on them, often E32 BMW 7-series and W124 Mercedes.

The belief is widely held that many large 1980s vehicles were stolen from Kuwaiti nationals during the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War. In connection with this topic, here is a topic I created in the past that includes photos of a 1959 Chevrolet I saw once on a base.
The pics aren't online so I don't know how to post within this thread.
http://forum.imcdb.org/forum_topic-2674-Iraqi_59_Chevy_former_taxi_2_pics.html

I think I also remember quite a few brand new Peugots being imported into the country.

I think there'd be a few Dodge vans. I was told that in Eygpt, Morroco, Iraq and countries in the middle east need big articulated vans and trucks to get stuff across the desserts and keep the things inside cool at the same time.

Since gas usually costs well under 50 cents per gallon in most middle eastern countries such as Iraq, full-size cars such such as the Chevrolet Caprice and Ford Crown Victoria are popular there. Althought the REAL Caprice ceased production in 1996 (and many of these older models are still around in these countries), Chevy has been selling a Caprice as a rebadged Holden Commodore since about the early 00s, and also a less expensive version named Lumina

Here is the website for the Caprice:
http://www.chevroletarabia.com/content_data/LAAM/ME/en/GBPME/001/G1/1C/1C_home.h- tml?cntryCd=SA

...the Lumina:
http://www.chevroletarabia.com/content_data/LAAM/ME/en/GBPME/001/G1/1L/1L_imageg- allery.html?cntryCd=SA

...and the Crown Victoria:
http://www.me.ford.com/servlet/ContentServer?cid=1178838944329&pagename=Page&c=D- FYPage

By the way, here is an intersting commercial for the Middle-Eastern Caprice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XYg1kpNm_A

Many of the older full-size sedans had Landaulet vinyl roofs, possibly to guard against sun-fading. The most common cars I saw were VW rabbits and Toyota Crown saloons. Sorry, I paid little attention to vans, but I assume there were quite a few 80s-style VW microbuses. As always, there were the usual Japanese-orign Nissan/Toyota/Isuzu pickups. Had I known of IMCDB then I would have taken pictures of the camp buses for moving soldiers around on base. I have a couple of shots of a coach bus, stuck in the sand, that soldiers who were passengers were asked to push out!

The other striking automotive item I found was an abundance of step-side American pickup trucks. I never knew so many were built between the 1970s-80s! I can only speculate that it was easer to attach various types of cargo to them.

I'm sure the automotive environment there is very dynamic. This is just what I witnessed more than four years ago.

What do you guys think about my 1959 Bel Air to which I linked earlier in this thread? (I wished I could have bought it and shipped it home!!

Here's a photo that is pretty curious:


New Chevrolet Silverados at a Iraqi parade, February 2003- considering the embargo that was in place at the time, it is sort of strange to see such vehicles in Saddam Hussein's possession.

Perhaps they made a point of buying American vehicles (via Dubai or wherever) as a way of showing how ineffective the embargo was.

I've seen news footage of the new Iraqi army and police driving Chevrolet pickups - maybe they're the same ones.

Interesting subject

I remember right after the war there were lot of old American cars on the road like 70's-80's Impala's, Caprice's and even Camaro's. Once I even saw a 1930's American car in a news footage. But very soon used cars started to flow from Europe replacing many of the older cars. In 2003-2004 you could see almost any kind of car (in news) ranging from a 1960's Sunbeam Gazelle to old Moskvitch's. Nowadays it seems that 50% of the passenger cars are Opel's. Especially models Vectra A, Omega A, Astra F and Kadett E.

------------------------

Here is a short overview of vehicles used in Iraq. It was hard to find good pictures of cars (not charred from car bombs).

Van

Over 90% of the minibuses in Iraq are Kia Besta type. I don't know the reason for its popularity. It is very common and cheap public transport inside cities. All minivan cabs regardless of the make are called Kia's in everyday language.




Taxi

The most common taxi type in Iraq is a Brazilian-made Volkswagen Passat. It is nick-named 'Brazili'. It's the cheapest car in Iraq and known for its unreliability. There was a some kind of a deal between Brazil and Iraq in the 80's and atleast thousands of cars were imported.



Second popular type is a big Toyota Crown.



Also GAZ Volga's are quite common.


Iraqi Army

Mostly pick-up's with a machine gun mounted to the bed. Various makes and models in use; Isuzu D-Max, Toyota Hilux, Nissan Pickup, Chevrolet Silverado, Ford F-Series Heavu Duty etc.

Chevy Silverado and Ford F-250 and even Dodge Ram's are numerous in Iraqi security forces. These are usually lightly armoured with thick metal plates covering the doors.



Police forces have Land Cruiser, Tahoe SUV's + few old UAZ 469 vehicles.


Civilian vehicles


As I said most popular make is Opel and therefore Opel-based Daewoo's are also very common (Daewoo Nexia, Prince, Espero etc.). Infact all South-Korean vehicles are popular (except SsangYong). From other German makes most widely seen are BMW 5 [E34], 7 [E32], 3 [E36], MB W124 and MB S-Klasse W126.

Traffic view from Baghdad.

It seems that the US bought new UAZs for the Iraqi army. They were assembled in Ukraine, I suppose so that the Americans could pretend that they weren't buying Russian vehicles.

It is pretty interesting to chart the history of Iraqi police vehicles before the war and after. Before the invasion, most Iraqi police had a mixture of Hyundai Accents, Nissan Cefiros and Toyota Land Cruisers; Nissan pickups were also very popular among the security forces. Most of these were destroyed or damaged during the first two years of the insurgency, and were gradually replaced by primarily American vehicles, such as the Chevrolet Trailblazer, Silverado, Dodge Ram, Dodge Stratus, and Ford F-250. They seem to be either painted in the standard white and blue scheme, or in green.

BTW, if anyone was watching the news over the past few days, there were a lot of videos showing burned out Dodge Rams and Polish Dzik-3 armored trucks in Basra.

I noticed that too. It was shame to see almost brand new armoured troop carriers burning down. I counted at least three Dzik-3 trucks and one tank destroyed.

Tank (what type?)


Dzik-3

In the 1980's, the Iraqi government ordered several Chevrolet Malibus from GM Canada, however, the order was cancelled, and the cars were auctioned off to the Canadian public. My grandfather bought one, they were different than US Spec Malibus. They had a heavy duty cooling system, steel rims, no defroster, and a manual transmission.
I assume most of the new US cars came from Dubai, as it is a Free port.
On GMs website for the Middle East, it states that there are currently 3 dealers selling new Chevrolet cars in Iraq.

So those were Passat's! My mistake :(. I do have several images, if anyone would like to host them, I could email them to the willing party.
One is a newly imported European car of some sort. Another is a large traffic intersection that includes a military convoy, and to the right one of the step-side pickups the Iraqi people seemed to love. A third shows a MB W126 and a late 80s BMW 5 or 7 series. The fourth image is one of several I took of a massively _useless_ freeway stack-type interchange north of Mosul.
Also here is the link again to the 59 Chevrolet I saw on a base in Mosul:
http://forum.imcdb.org/forum_topic-2674-Iraqi_59_Chevy_former_taxi_2_pics.html

If this thread ever branches out to include trucks of any kind, I will add that I saw many MB cab-over and Scania tractor trucks. The MB's displayed large gaudy MB emblems (sometimes 3 with 2 smaller ones flanking a larger one). Another popular ornament was similar to the Packard cormorant. Did Scania also use this kind of mascot?

One last observation, is that South Korea must be a major trading partner in that region, not only in automobiles, but also in electronics with the presence of Samsung and LG equipment and retailers that could be seen when I was stationed there.

You can use Imageshack to host images.

It's always great to see a classic '59 Bel Air or a '60 Impala, but not in a state like that! possibly the owner still drives it and might keep it for restoration one day. Then again, maybe they'd sell it.

A BMP-1, a number of them were refurbished and sent back into service with the army. Not exactly the best vehicle to use when your opponents have lots of anti tank weapons.

Some more photos of Iraqi police vehicles from last week:

Dzik-3, captured by the Mahdi Army after they attacked the Al-Arabiya TV building and later set on fire.


A destroyed Dodge Ram

A Mahdi Army Humvee- Not quite sure whether this was captured by them, or given to them by the police.

I've read in the newspaper, that the Opel Vectra (imported as used cars from Europe) is so popular for suicide-bombers, that the soldiers were getting suspicious, when they see one.

Terrorist-groups are preferring Opel Omega's.