How buying through us works
Roughly eight weeks from the day we win a car to the day you drive it. Here is what happens in each stage, and exactly what you pay at each one.
- 1
Step 1
Talk to us
Tell us the model, the budget and what the car is for. You get one person handling your import from here to delivery, not a different name on every email.
If you are flexible we come back with options across a few price points rather than push one unit.
- 2
Step 2
Purchase at auction
Once the specification and budget are agreed, we identify suitable units, read the auction sheets and bid on your behalf. You sign a sales contract setting out the terms before anything is bought.
You see the auction sheet and photographs before every bid, with the inspector notes translated.
- 3
Step 3
Export from Japan
We collect the car from the auction house, de-register it in Japan, put it through the pre-export roadworthiness inspection and move it to the docks.
The car leaves Japan two to three weeks after purchase. The sea crossing to Mombasa takes roughly four weeks.
- 4
Step 4
Clearing at Mombasa
Import duty is paid to KRA once the car reaches the clearing terminal (CFS) in Mombasa. Clearing and registration are both completed there.
From arrival to leaving the port takes about a week, then the car travels up by carrier.
- 5
Step 5
Delivery
We deliver the car to you as agreed, registered and with plates fitted.
If you are financing through a bank, delivery follows the bank releasing the loan — allow roughly another week for that.
The payment schedule
You never pay for the car in one lump. It is split across the import, and each stage has to be reached before the next payment is due.
1. 1st instalment
Our local KSh or USD account
10% of CIF
A purchase deposit that lets us inspect and bid. Refundable in full if we do not win a car for you. The JPY conversion rate used is printed on your invoice.
2. 2nd instalment
Remitted to Japan, in JPY
40% of CIF
Due when the car reaches the export yard. Photographs taken at the yard are sent to you before you remit.
3. 3rd instalment
Remitted to Japan, in JPY
50% of CIF
Due before the vessel docks in Mombasa. You may combine this with the 2nd instalment to save on remittance charges.
4. 4th instalment
Paid directly to KRA
Import duty
Paid once the car is received at the Mombasa terminal, against KRA’s own assessment of the unit.
5. Final instalment
In KSh, on delivery
Local balance
Clearing and transport, settled when you take delivery and inspect the car in Nairobi.
Electric vehicles are different
An EV has to be paid for in full — 100% of CIF — before it ships from Japan. Batteries travel by container under stricter handling rules, and the shipping line wants the unit settled before it is loaded.
Remittances go to the account named on your invoice and sales agreement, never to an account given over the phone or by message. Payments can be made in KSh, USD or JPY depending on the instalment.
Two things to get right
The eight-year age limit runs from first registration in Japan, and it is absolute — a car outside it cannot be registered at any price. Read the rule.
And KRA taxes its own valuation, not your purchase price, so work out the duty before you fix your budget. Use the calculator.