Narrator: What if the solution
to skyrocketing car prices
is to build cheap knockoffs by hand?
A tiny Tunisian car company called Wallyscar
is giving it a shot.
That's because buying a car is unaffordable
in this North African country.
Even used cars like Volkswagens and Toyotas
sell for twice their US market value.
So how did cars get so expensive in Tunisia?
Back in 2006, a pair of Tunisian brothers
opened the country's only homegrown car manufacturer.
This is Wallyscar.
Its body is fiberglass instead of metal,
and the tiny engine maxes out at 86 mph.
Corvettes and other cars used to have fiberglass bodies.
The material is cheap, but it has low safety ratings
and requires labor by hand.
Omar Guiga: Today, to find a car which is 100% made by humans
and not made by machines,
at $13,000, it's impossible to find.
Narrator: The price goes up as buyers customize
the colors, wheels, and interior.
Omar: People come buy a Wallys
because they are looking for something
that they cannot find somewhere else.
Narrator: Wallyscars are assembled in Tunisia,
but the engine is imported from France
and costs about $7,100.
Omar: So when we started,
we produced 20 cars the first year,
and then the second year we produced 80 cars.
And then you went step by step.
Narrator: Wallyscar may be cheap in many places,
but it's unaffordable for most in the country,
since the basic model costs the average Tunisian
almost three years of salary.
That's like if the most basic Ford model
started at more than $100,000 in the US.
Taxes are a major part of the cost.
First, there are import taxes
that are among the highest in the world.
Then there are consumption taxes
with wildly ranging figures
that can easily double the cost of the car.
Consumption taxes are based on the age of the car,
the size of the engine, and what kind of fuel the car uses.
Last but not least, there is a 19% value-added tax.
So it means that for most of the car,
the price is for more than 50% linked to the taxation level.
Narrator: So a used Ford Fiesta
that costs $3,000 in the US
sells for around $7,500 in Tunisia,
the difference accounted for
in tax and the cost of shipping.
Omar: It's crazy how taxation are in Tunisia.
The government found this solution to make money.
And who is paying for it is the Tunisian people
who cannot afford any car now.
The cars are too expensive.
Narrator: Noura and her husband, Mekves,
have a $5,800 budget to buy a used car.
Narrator: They tested, inspected,
and circled around the used car market.
Turns out they can't afford one.
Narrator: If they were shopping in America,
this would be well within their budget.
And if there was an efficient public transportation system,
car ownership wouldn't be such an issue,
but that's not the case.
Here in Tunis, buses are unreliable,
and taxis charge about a dollar a mile.
Many have no choice but to save and pay more
for even the most basic cars.
With the demand high,
this small country of 12 million people
imports a staggering 400,000 cars a year.
Only 50,000 of those imports are new cars.
The rest are used cars.
A new Toyota Corolla sedan starts at $32,000.
In the US, the same car starts at $20,000.
Narrator: In recent years, inflation triggered
by major economic and political upheavals
pushed the cost of importing goods further out of reach.
First, it was hit by the 2008 financial crisis.
In 2010, weeks of antigovernment protests
ended with the ousting of longtime president Ben Ali.
That marked the beginning of the Arab Spring
that spread across much of the Arab world,
including Libya, Egypt, Syria, and beyond.
If that didn't stop people from visiting,
a series of terrorist attacks against tourists did.
Twenty-one people were killed in an attack
on the Bardo National Museum in 2015.
The economic collapse that followed
affected rental car companies so badly, many closed.
In the last decade, the dinar lost 50% of its value.
Narrator: Average income in Tunisia
is around $400 a month, and that puts a car out of reach.
Ibrahim: The market is really used-car business-oriented,
and the new cars, registration's still very, very low
considering the potential of the market.
Narrator: And it doesn't help
when prices change drastically from year to year.
Narrator: Wallyscar doesn't have the capacity
to affect the market yet.
In nearly 15 years, they've sold 2,200 cars.
But there are big dreams of more.
Omar: Our wish is to see more Arabic
and more African cars around the world.