#TurboPicks: The cars of North Korea that you never heard of (I know what you're thinking, man.)

Hello once again, my fellow CTzens! It’s the TurboCarl with your weekly slice of TurboPicks. For this episode, the title says it all - we’re tackling the “hermit kingdom” and its cars. Seriously, you might be thinking that a country like North Korea doesn’t have vehicles. Well, it has, but not that much. Actually, there’s only one manufacturer, and it only sells 14,000 cars every year. And the brand name? Pyeonghwa Motors. The name actually means peace, but I don’t think it best suits the country they’re serving. But let’s cut to the chase - here are some of North Korea’s cars that you never heard of.

Kaengsaeng 88 Agera

First up is the Kaengsaeng 88 Agera. At first glance, all Mercedes-Benz fans knows that this isn’t a real 190E. In fact, this is like a carbon copy, and in no way can this look any luxurious, even if you name it after a Koenigsegg.

Pyeonghwa Hwiparam

Next up, a car that was based on a Fiat Siena, the Hwiparam is the smallest car made by Pyeonghwa Motors, and if you look closely, they forgot to rebadge the hood with their logo. An 1.5L I4 mated to a 5-speed manual, it does not go that fast, in fact, the 80hp engine makes it go 180km/h, if it can. If you’d look at the video below, you’ll see how North Korea brags about their vehicles.

Dacia 1310

Finally, here’s the car that was brought to North Korea when it was shipped all the way from Europe - the Dacia 1310. If James May can say the famous saying “That’s the Dacia Sandero!”, the guys from DPRK can say, “Well, we have a Dacia too - It’s the Dacia 1310!” Still powered by the 1.2L I4, and a 4-speed/5-speed manual transmission, it’s a car worth seeing, if you can appreciate it.