Sweden's best-selling sweet, and it is a car
Ahlgrens Bilar have been made since 1953 and have been Sweden's best-selling sweet for most of that time. There is no clever reason — they are small cars, they are mild, and everybody has eaten them since they were four. The nickname is bilar, which simply means cars, and asking a Swede about them is a reliable way to get a story about a grandparent. More on the Ahlgrens brand page.
What they actually taste like
Technically marshmallow, but that word sets up the wrong expectation. They eat like a dense, slightly chewy cloud — closer to a firm foam than to the soft American marshmallow, and the flavour is gentle and vanilla-ish rather than sugary. The texture is the point: it gives way slowly, and a handful disappears faster than you meant.
Which version to buy
Original is mild and the one to start on. Sursockrade adds a sour sugar coating and is the most-bought of the variants. Fruktkombi swaps in fruit flavours, Gröna Bilar is the green one people are unreasonably loyal to, and Limousines are the same idea made long. There is also a chocolate-covered version under the Polly name if you want the texture inside chocolate.
Most people who try all three end up loyal to one and faintly offended by the others. If you cannot choose, they turn up in most of our candy mixes.