Unsuspecting car importers, mainly from Tanzania and other East African countries have lost millions of dollars due to these scams.  These car importers were lured into buying used Japanese cars by the low prices offered by these fake online exporters.  Many of these Web-based used car exporters are phony companies, which disappear once they receive the payment from customers.  Many of these fake companies are actually owned by Tanzanians living in Japan, who sell used motorcycles, cars, and trucks.

The scam operates in the following fashion

• Customer can not get in touch with the dealer after sending payment.
• The dealer does not ship the vehicle for a long period of time.
• Vehicle received by customer is different from the vehicle he ordered and of low quality.

Please follow these safety precautions to avoid being scammed

• Make sure that the dealer’s address is noted on his website.
• Do not deal with companies whose phone numbers start from 81-90 or 81-80 (Mobile phone numbers).  Such dealers are hard to trace and can easily disappear.
• Make sure that the dealer is an authorized member of [JUMVEA (Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association).
• Some of the bogus companies involved in such scams are ‘Global Trading Co Ltd’, which is alleged to have become bankrupt, and ‘Car Zone Japan’, which is alleged to have cheated 9 customers for  over $90,000 and not delivered any cars. Other fake used car exporters include ‘41 Expo Inc. Ltd,’ ‘Progress Ltd’, and ‘The Trading Club’. We request our customers to take note of such bogus online car dealers from Japan.

We believe in delivering high quality vehicles to our customers and we feel sorry that such unscrupulous car dealers are tarnishing the image of Japan.  Please beware of such bogus car dealers and keep enjoying shopping with us.

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Kenya overtook South Africa as the biggest importer of Japanese used cars as used car imports in South Africa experienced a 34% decline in the second quarter of 2009.

Other countries like UAE, New Zealand, Bangladesh, who are also heavy importers of Japanese used cars recorded a drop in demand of up to 45% compared to 2008.  Russia recently changed its regulations to put restrictions on imports of right-handed used cars from Japan and other countries.  All these factors contributed to make Kenya as the largest importer of Japanese used vehicles.

Generally, Kenyans are not so keen on extra performance of the car, but they look for value for their hard earned money.  So, Japanese used cars are popular as they are reliable, efficient, low-dollar vehicles.  There has been a big demand of used cars in Kenya, but increased competition from used car dealers has made the market over-saturated.  Besides used car dealers, many private individuals from Kenya import cars and sell at lower prices as they don’t have to pay dealer fees.

Destination port for importing used cars is Mombasa in Kenya.  As per the Importing regulation in Kenya,   the age of the used vehicle has to be under 8 years, the vehicle should be Right Hand Drive, and it should be inspected and passed by Japan Export Vehicle Inspection Center (JEVIC).

Technorati Tags: used Japanese vehicles, Kenya, Japanese car, Japanese used cars, cars, Japan