Beetlemania How nation fell in love with quirky classic car

When Yared Agonafer, an Ethiopian gold and silver merchant, wanted to buy a car five years ago, he settled quickly on the model: a 1977 Volkswagen Beetle. The low price was its main draw, but nostalgia motivated him too.

- Fred Harter

"My father had a Beetle when I was a kid," said Yared, who recalls being ferried to school and family parties in the car. "Whenever I drive mine, I have these memories. I love it."

Beetles arrived in Ethiopia during the reign of Haile Selassie. When the emperor was deposed by communist soldiers in 1974, he was bundled into a Beetle on the steps of his palace and driven away to imprisonment.

Today, Beetles are still a common sight in Addis Ababa, the capital, where they can be spotted negotiating cobbled residential streets or parked in rush-hour traffic.

Their enduring popularity is a quirk of Ethiopia's distorted car market, where import duties of up to 200% mean secondhand vehicles are wildly expensive. A 25-year-old Toyota can fetch 1.3m Ethiopian birr ($11,600) for example. By contrast, Beetles cost about 250,000 birr.