Leave a car in Africa
 

hi,

planning 12 months of travelling next year before i get too old, prob the last chance. asked a few question on here and got great response thanks for all the help hope i'm not pushing my luck by asking another question but maybe the answer will be helpful to other people.

basically looking at buying an Irish registered landcruiser a commercial model i.e no back seats and panels instead of back windows, due to the irish economy there is great value there at the moment E3000 would get a nice 2000/2001 landcruiser prado.

our route is planned on shipping to namibia and heading north to ireland, however if it all gets too much or the budget is getting low or we decide for any reason to abandon the trip will there be any issue with leaving the car in any of the countries along the way. realistically it will probably be kenya not sure if its worth the hassle of going thru ethipoia/sudan/egypt and trying to get to europe girlfriend is only keen on southern africa. i know many of the hardcore travellers on here will think we're sissies

at that stage we may like to go to south america backpacking with the time and cash we have left.

anyway my question is would there be an issue with leaving the car behind, obviously preferably sell it but given it will cost about E1500 each we would be willing to forego this and abandon it.

will there be issues with leaving a country by plane after entering by land, and issues with the carnet.

i'm not sure if we are prepared to take the plunge to go all the way thru northern africa. it would be nice to know if it all go too much we could just leave.

thanks for any advice you may be able to give.

No problem to leave the car, except maybe in Egypt, Kenya, Ghana where you would have to use a Carnet anyway.

Never in Africa was the car written in my passport (as in Turkey for example).

I've dropped cars in Mali, Liberia and Angola.

It will be imposible to sell a car in kenya which is older than 8 years or left hand drive! Don't even try it.

The car has to be at least 2004. If you have the right car (Prado 120?, year 2004) you could even make a nice profit. Those vehicle will sell for around 20 to 25 thousand Euro. In this country they call such a car NEW-imported.

But importing and cancelling the carnet might take too much time for you. So you will need somebody to take care.

thanks for the replies, it'll be older than 8 yrs old, not worried about selling or anything, just want to be able to scrap it/leave it in airport car park and leave. the car will only stand the 2 of us 1500-2000 euro prefer to leave it and get out of there if not enjoying it. all i'm worried about is if i have it on a carnet for Egypt and i leave it in say tanzania or somewhere else, does that effect the carnet?

thanks

If your car is on a carnet you will lose your deposit if you abandon the car, regardless of where you do it. If the entry/exit stamps don't add up when you return the carnet they will insist on a physical inspection to ensure the car has been returned.

In the UK this would amount to losing a minimum of 1.5x the value of the car (and up to 8x if your carnet includes Egypt) - not sure what the position is in Ireland.

You can try and sell it but then either you or the purchaser has to pay import duty (which in RSA for example can amount to 70% of the value of the car). Alternatively you can, I believe, keep the car on a carnet but that means the purchaser will have to take out a new carnet before yours can be discharged. This would probably only be an option if you can find another overlander who wants to pick up where you have left off and take the car back to Europe.

First thing I would do is talk to whoever issues your carnets in Ireland about the position if you want to sell/abandon.

It may also be possible to limit your travels in southern africa to places where you don't need a carnet. Again speak to the carnet provider about what is possible. However, I suspect it will severely restrict your options.

Would surrendering it to customs be an option? It worked for me in Asia (Pakistan)