A BIG thank you to Gary, who is one of the 3 people to ever help me share the interesting cars from other parts of the world, by simply taking a handful of photos while out walking about, so the rest of us can see what ordinary commuters are like in other countries

Cuenca is the 3rd largest city in Ecuador with a population of around 750,000 of which are approximately 10,000 North American and European expats. 

It is the cultural capital of Ecuador - art, music, textiles, jewelry, and literature 

 It is also a world heritage site, located in a valley in the Andes mountains at an elevation of 8500 feet, 30 miles from the pacific coast.

Year round daytime temperatures ranges between 55 and 75. No snow, furnaces, or a/c. 

 We walk everywhere and my vehicular observations are based on that. I’ve written all that because the result is that the only vehicular rust comes from broken paint due to accidents. 

 At least 3/4 the vehicles have standard transmission. - I see maybe 2 ford f-150’s a day. 

About 20% of cars are “A” size (think Chevy Spark.) - Stillantis has a good presence with Peugeot and Citroen brands 

Chevrolet has a ton of D-Max smallish 4 door pickups and seems to dominate that segment. A lot of Aveo’s cars here too

I see about 3 of the 1970’s miniature pickups a day. 

 Misc:

 I’ve seen maybe two Mercedes Benz a week, one each Tesla and BMW. 

-Also saw an either Land Cruiser or Land Rover stake truck in a neighboring town and the rear of another original Mini as it zipped down the street from our apartment. 

 Now the bad news: about 15% of the new vehicles are Chinese- mainly pick-up trucks and SUV’s. Many brands, mostly all ICE power. An Ecuadorian friend who just bought a Citroen said people are buying Chinese because they are cheaper but they depreciate quickly and the quality is less than the competition.

thank you Gary! 

about a dozen years ago, I had a girlfriend that could afford to vacation in Jamaica, for the diving, and she sprung to pay for me to vacation with her, and I was fascinated by the cars and mini vans that are not found in the USA at all.

I am intrigued by the variety of the way different countries arrive at the same goal, daily drivers, but from different ways, which I will suppose are subjected to importing, tariffs, taxes based on the size and cost of the vehicles (Europe had that high tax on 4 wheel vehicles that prompted the manufacturing of Piaggo Apes, Morgan 3 wheelers, Isettas, and other motorcycle engine powered cycle cars) and not having the high level of federal crash safety testing etc. 

Darryl in Australia sent me a LOT of terrific photos, dozens of them, of all the late 60s and early 70s Australian cars that are interesting, and Nik in Brazil shared a lot of Brazilian cars and trucks. I can't recall the nice guys in Budapest by name, but they had a cool website that shared a lot too.