Porsche opened a dealership in Tehran a few years back. The pressure not to do business in Iran has built to such a degree that Porsche recently decided to close its business there, but even so, it was a surprise to many that there was a lively market for these coveted luxury cars in Iran, a country in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed to spread the oil wealth to people’s tables, but not necessarily to their garages. Ahmadinejad was elected on a populist platform, by voters who had grown tired of some of the more corrupt Ayatollahs.
