Rides of Heads of State (Part 25)

A few housekeeping matters before we continue. First, I want to thank those of you who have read my compilation, used it as inspiration for your blogs/websites, and cited this humble blog. It means a lot to have my work acknowledged.

Second, semantics. As you can tell by now, the cars I've listed may belong to a country's head of state, i.e. president, or head of government, i.e. prime minister. In certain circumstances, the car may be attributed to a ceremonial head, such as a king. Finally, as was the case of Bangladesh yesterday, I identified the de facto leader's vehicle, who may not necessarily be a president, prime minister, or ceremonial head. The point of this list is to give the public a taste and peek at what "leaders" around the world ride in, one country at a time.

Finally, the countries. My goal is to list the vehicles of every one of the 192 members of the U.N., plus Taiwan, the Vatican, Palestine, and Kosovo (which should be declaring independence and receiving near universal recognition this weekend). With today's list, I will have 163 countries, which means I am 83% done. The rest will be challenging, as I will need to find cars from Andorra, Burkina Faso, Micronesia, Sao Tome and Principe,....

158. Switzerland. The Swiss are ruled by a seven-member Federal Council. Here, we see one of the members with her A8 behind her.

159. Kuwait. The Emir steps out of a GMC Suburban. I was expecting a Maybach or at least an S-class. But seeing as how us Amurikans saved the Kuwaitis' asses, they should buy one of our gas guzzlers.


160. Ethiopia. Here we see the president stepping out of his old Lincoln Town Car.


161. Cyprus. This was a tough one. First, I confirmed that the photo was taken in Cyprus by identifying the uniforms of the officers behind Papadopolous. Then, the car. After examining the roofline, the shape of the rear view mirror, and the shape of the headrest, I have concluded that this is a Merc S-class.

162. Djibouti. With the entire country virtually fed, clothed, and housed with U.S. military dollars, no wonder Guelleh rides in a Hummer-- with whitewall tires no less. That's class.

163. Peru. In a show of austerity, President Alan Garcia put a few presidential cars on the auction block. The car in the forefront (which I shall officially attribute to Peru on my list) is a 1972 Chrysler Imperial. The boat in the background is a 1973 Chrysler New Yorker. That's pimp.

Updated tally:
S-class: 54
7 series: 15
Land Cruiser: 15
A8: 9
Maybach: 6
Phaeton: 4
Caddy: 4
G-wagen: 4
Suburban: 4
Holden-Chevy-Opel: 3
H2: 3
Mitsubishi Montero/Pajero: 3
Jag: 2
ZIL: 2
Volvo: 2
Touareg: 2

One of each of the following: Lancia, Hyundai, Skoda, A6, Peugeot, Renault, Lincoln, VW van, London taxi, Daimler, Toyota Century, Hongqi, Bentley, Rolls, Ford Fairlane, Aston Martin, SEAT, Ford Expedition, Nissan Patrol, Stutz, Suzuki, Camry, Toyota Crown, Toyota Sequoia, Proton, Land Rover, Ford F150, Mitsubishi Galant, Lincoln Town Car, Hummer H1, Chrysler Imperial

CKY