KABUL — If this war-torn nation of 29 million is a magnet for foreign occupying forces that never seem to leave, it is also the land where old Corollas from across the globe come to die.
According to some car dealers in Kabul, 90 percent of passenger vehicles on the increasingly congested roads of Afghanistan’s capital are Toyota Corollas, some more than 20 years old with 200,000 miles on their odometers.
Shipped from Japan, Germany, Canada and the United States, used Corollas pour through customs, mostly via Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and wind up in car lots in Kabul’s outskirts. Ahmad Murid, 30, a dealer in the northern Kabul neighborhood of Khairkana, said buyers prefer German-manufactured Corollas, which supposedly get the best gas mileage.
Drivers usually don’t care about odometer readings because they are likely to replace most of the parts anyway. Murid was selling a 1990 model with high miles for $4,000. How long could someone expect to drive the clunker?
“Ten years,” Murid suggested.
And after that? “You can sell it back to me,” he said.
