I don't know if you remember that wacky photo of Syrian dictator-for-life Bashar al-Assad test driving a subcompact car from a while back, but if you do, this one's for you:
Syrian president Bashar Assad tours a new car factory in the industrial complex of Hessya in Syria's central city of Homs, (160)km north of Damascus, Thursday Dec.13, 2007. The 'Sybco' factory is the second in Syria in cooperation with Iran, and will produce SABA modelswith an annual production capacity of 15,000 cars at first, and a preliminary cost of 50 million U.S. dollars. Its full capacity will reach 35.000 cars a year. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi).
Only 9 months from initial design to production? Not bad for a thugocratic dictatorship, right?
For what it's worth, the car is reportedly a rebadged Peugeot design. The reliability of the Post Office, the versatility of a pencil.
Classy.
Tags: bassem tellawi AP #Dictatorship
