One possible outcome is that the locals figure out lots of alternatives to driving cars: they ride motorcycles, take the bus, walk, bike, travel by boat, or ride horses.
In practice, what happens is that the locals just import cars illegally, leading to a huge black market for cars and auto repair. An auto industry is very hard to set up, but cars are still so vastly superior to other forms of transportation that people will literally drive cars across hundreds of miles of desert, then fix them up locally in order to resell them at a profit.
In practice, what happens is that the locals just import cars illegally, leading to a huge black market for cars and auto repair. An auto industry is very hard to set up, but cars are still so vastly superior to other forms of transportation that people will literally drive cars across hundreds of miles of desert, then fix them up locally in order to resell them at a profit.
Suggesting in turn that the dynamic I outlined is especially relevant in the case of hard-to-hide products, like gigantic dredging ships :D