75% of our business comes from importing high quality vehicles from Japan & England. Here we pride ourselves as being specialists in this complex field.When importing for a client, cars are either duty paid or duty free depending on the clients requirements. We also buy cars for our own stock , but these are duty paid.

When buying for a client, we require a 10% deposit, based on the estimated end price, here in Kenya.If we are unable to find a suitable car, the deposit is refunded.

We favor buying in Japan, as it is easier to guarantee quality because we only deal in the auctions “live” where much information is forthcoming. The cars buy are always in A1 condition .Also mileages are  much lower than UK. The reason for this is because many people commute to the main cities by train & leave their cars at home.

Web sites & the such are very often fraught with danger – in fact many unsuspecting buyers end up paying for something that does not exist! Only the other day, I met some unsuspecting Kenyans who had sent $35,000 to Japan hoping to buy a bargain & lost the lot! It was a fake company on the internet!

UK cars are inclined to be less expensive than Japanese however, they normally have high mileages & often suffer from rust. This is because of the salt used on their road in winter . Because of our duty structure, prices are less for cars 7/8 years old & thus such UK cars are very hard to find in top condition. In Japan, if one lives in a “snow region” by law, you have to fit snow tyres as salt is not used.

Buying in the auctions , we use an  auction sheet which gives one exact information about a certain vehicle. For example, we know  if a car had one previous owner or not, if the mileage is correct or not, the condition of the exterior & interior, what accessories the car has, if the car has had an accident or not & much more.

We are confident enough with our Japanese imports to give a 6 month warranty on the engine,gear box & differential (excluding electronics) , labour & parts i.e the main drive train. (This excludes driver or accident damage)  If a car is going to go wrong it will do so in the first week. It should be notes that warranty is only carried out in a workshop authorised by me.

It takes between 6 to 10 weeks to find a suitable vehicle,ship it & clear through the port of Mombasa.

Kenyan law does not allow us to import vehicles older than 8 years old unlike Tanzania,Sudan & Uganda where we also export too.

All our cars are given a bumper to bumper check over & anything found not to be faulty is repaired/replaced prior to delivery. Any paint defects, if any, are corrected prior to delivery.

In England, we use a very reliable & reputable company source our cars. Although prices can be lower than Japan, mileages seldom are.  For example, one would never find a 7/8 year old Prado with genuine 15,000km, which is not unusual in Japan. Body & chassis rust can be a major problem in the UK due to them using salt on the road during winter. In Japan, if one lives in a snow bound region, one must,by law, fit snow tyres.

We clear all cars in Mombasa & transport to Nairobi using car carriers. All duty & import parers are given in full to our clients.

We are in a position to finance cars for clients through most of the major banks. This does depend on suitable credit rating

A warning , if something is too cheap, walk away, it cannot be done !

Please take time to come & see us so we can explain in detail how it all works.

We also assist in selling cars on behalf of clients. This can be very useful for expats/diplomats leaving Kenya as they normally need to use their cars until they depart. Here we can either sell the car duty free (if already duty free) or duty paid. This alleviates people having to sell their car in a rush at “give away prices” which is often the case.  Once sold, we forward the money to them anywhere in the world.

Sean.

.Click the photo at the top for more examples of our imports

An example of a Japanese auction sheet