selling a car in west africa
 

i would be grateful for any useful info how to succesfully sell a car in west africa (preferably mauritania).
i read one story in s-files (desert dealers) but my impression was that it consisted of pretty big portion of luck that it turned out well..it is necessary, no doubts, but still i would like to know some general know-how, scams, etc. if anybody can provide..thank you

Hear hear, interested in this too.

Next time you're in a bookshop have a look a p.461 of the book. There's some info there

CS

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Author of Adventure Motorcycling Handbook 5 and Sahara Overland II

http://www.sahara-overland.com and http://www.adventure-motorcycling.com

hello
i'mù from morocco and i had meet some of my friend coming from eurtope and they sold thezre car in mauritania with a good prices specialy mecedec and 4*4wd
so if you are unterested i can help you with that email me



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the desert its the only place where you can found your self

Chris, I've got both of your books, however, they are not readily available at my hand... I am in UK until end of this week and am going back home to Slovenia, so I'll read it then I suppose!
Cheers!!!

“Selling a car in a West African country is a hazardous pursuit, accompanied by changing regulations, graft, bribes, police restrictions, false money, un-discharged carnet and possibility of theft after the deal is done… Try and avoid it unless you are an experienced car-dealer.”
I wrote this paragraph in reply to another query a while back - and I still believe it.
If you are making a habit of selling to West African countries, travel with someone who has done it all before - drivers are always wanted.
This is not a job for a holiday trip.
Regards

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Kitmax - Traveller
http://www.kitmax.com/

thanks for your advice kitmax, of course i knew it is not like selling a car in europe, however,
do you have any more specific experiences?

I drove from Holland last year and sold my car in Tombouctou (Mali). I bought the TLC LJ70 for 1250 euro in Holland and sold it for 2,5 million CFA (around 3800eur?).
Took a few days to sell, buyers don't keep their promises and that sort of stuff.
But at the end it worked.
As soon as we got the money, we disappeared as fast as we could. We found a few fake banknotes in the cash, but we spend them in the pub.

Laisser Passez you get at the border, we burned. And there is nothing in your passport. So you can leave the country easily. No carnet is needed.

For Mauretanie it is more difficult, cause they stamp the car in your passport.

In January we do the same with an HJ60.

Cheers Mathijs

thank you mathijs,

this sounds a bit more optimistic than kitmax´s posting..i heard too that mali is probably the best country in WA to sell the car..as i found out lately there should not be at least any official burden - no need for carnet, no stamps in the passport, of course there is still the risk of robbery or fake banknotes when one gets the money as kitmax mentioned above and this is definitely serious
danger..

Hi There,
This is my experience. Last summer i drove a small nissan micra to Nouackchott.
There is a camping-place, I don't remeber the name, but the lady who runs the place is called Olivia. Ask arround in the city. There they have many contacts with car-buyers. Even the husband of olivia buys cars...
To have an idea of the value of the car i drove arround and did some talks with car-buyers in town ( ask arround, for exemple at the gasstation...) there i found out that the value was 800 euro ( smal and old car, and not a diesel. In the campingsite they gave me the same price for it. In euro's !
They also take care of the stamp you need in your paspoort. Leaving Mauretania, to Senegal, the costums did gave me some problems becouse I would need some kind of a white paper form... but then again : a 10 euro gift opens many doors ...
In Mali the value of a car is ofcourse higher...
So, for my opinion, it worked well !
a few years ago i sold a hondaXL125 bike in bamako. that bike I bought a few months before and drove it from Ghana tot Bamako. In Bamako, I worked together with some young guys, so they could look for a buyer. If you make a very clear agreement : "the one who find a buyer, gets a commision" then there is no problem...

That'll be dilated pupil Olivia who runs the Auberge Menata.
She's pretty cool, and sharper than she lets on.

what about Niger?
what do u know about selling car in Niger?

A possibility to avoid fake banknotes is to go to a bank and ask the buyer to to give the money to the bank officer and get new money from him (probably not fake).
A better option would be to go to a Western Union branch and say that the buyer pays you there and you send inmediately the money back to Europe (to a friend or family, as Western Union forbids sending money to your own's). Note:you should not allow the buyer to send the money to you, as he/she can always withdraw the money at any time with the security transaction ID.
Good luck.

+/- same like Mali - no bureaucratic obstacles.
You need time however.

Hi Mathijs
could you change your 2.5 mio Cfa back into Euros at a bank in Mali?