Checklist for Buying a Used Ex-Jap in Zimbabwe

Buying an Ex-Jap that has been abused on Zimbabwe’s roads by Zimbabwean drivers is something that we actively discourage. However, should you have decided to follow this route, instead of buying a “new,” car directly from Japan, there are a number of things that you can do to protect yourself. The first thing that you need to know is that every business transaction involves people trying to get the most advantage. This applies for car purchases. What you need to do is make sure that you get as good a deal as is possible when making your purchase. Here is the checklist for buying used Japanese cars that have been driven in Zimbabwe;

Checklist for Buying used Japanese Cars

1. Check out the car’s suspension. If you cannot do this yourself, don’t hesitate to hire the services of a mechanic who will help you in this regard. What most people do not know is that sorting out a car’s suspension can be unreasonably expensive. Just to give an example, I know of someone who was quoted $500 to sort out the suspension on a Toyota Vitz whose value is no more than $2500.
2. Is the car that you wish to buy mechanically sound? This is another important thing on the checklist for buying used Japanese cars that have been used in Zimbabwe. Again, you may wish to hire the services of a professional mechanic, who will check out the condition of the vehicle that you wish to buy.
3. What’s the state of the car’s interior? You will notice that the interior has a large bearing on a vehicle’s purchase price. The other time, I put an advert out for a vehicle that I owned. Most of the people that called wanted to have me send pictures of the car’s interior.
4. You also need to have an idea of how much the vehicle that you wish to buy costs in Japan. That’s because the landing price for a car tends to have a bearing on the price that you can expect to pay when buying the car in Zimbabwe. Understand this; most people rather have grandiose ideas about the worth of their vehicles. You will find, therefore, people trying to sell a vehicle that has been driven in Zimbabwe for two or more years at the landing price. Indeed, such a vehicle should be sold for half the landing price. What this means is that if an XTrail’s landing price is USD10000, don’t agree to pay anything more than USD6000 for that car. That is all, of course, going to be dependent on the mileage and on the overall condition of the car.
5. Check out if you can buy a similar car in a better condition or at a cheaper price. Buying a car should not be a knee-jerk thing. Make sure that you have carried out proper research before making your purchase.