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Buying and customizing a 4WD in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a 6 months overland trip Buying and customizing a 4WD in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a 6 months overland trip
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4 wheel Overland Travel NON-technical 4 wheel forum, for subjects specific to TRAVEL with 4 (or more!) wheeled vehicles. e.g. Driving Techniques, Shipping etc.
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  #1  
Old 28 Nov 2013
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Buying and customizing a 4WD in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a 6 months overland trip
Hello everybody,

my name is Johannes and I am planing to do an overland journey from Addis to Senegal in August 2014. I would like to start our trip in Addis because after my last journey through Ethiopia I founded an association back in Germany to support the education of children in Addis Ababa and I want to see the children and out Ethiopian partner.
Is it possible to buy a car and modify it in Addis? I am thinking about a Toyota Land Cruiser with a little cooling box, storage room and the possibility to sleep inside or on the roof with a roof tend. The thing is I don't know a lot about cars. I want to let it be checked out before we buy it. Does anybody know a guy living in Addis who is reliable and could support us?

Is it possible to purchase all those special tools we will need in Addis? How much time will we need to register the car, get an insurance and modify the car?

The plan is to drive like this, it is all together 11800km from Ethiopia through Senegal:
Are there any border crossing problems?



I really appreciate the help.
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  #2  
Old 28 Nov 2013
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Start in Germany, and go further south
Hi Johannes,

Especially if you don't know too much about cars, It's gonna be way easier, cheaper, and probably faster too to buy a car in Germany and drive it to Addis Abbeba or have it shipped to somewhere on the east coast.

As for your route, unless you're intimate with the region, I'd recommend to go further south and approach congo trough Angola.

If I did it again, I'd drop the cooler. I didn't find it very useful in Africa. Most people don't have coolers, hence, there's not a lot that needs cooling to buy along the road.
A rooftent is nice.

In terms of preparation, if the car is sound, the only thing I'd consider a must is good tyres and a toolbox.

Good luck!
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  #3  
Old 29 Nov 2013
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Crossing to the West via DRC
Hello Johannes

here are my thoughts to your project:
1) Ethiopia has a 100% Tax on Car Imports. So it's probably the wrong place to look for a 4x4 in the first place.
2) There is no road connection from East to West in the DRC even if Google Maps suggests otherwise. This country can be crossed only by plane or by road from Goma till Kisangani and then on a barge down the Congo River till Kinshasa. (very time consuming since you'll have to wait between days and weeks in Kisangani to get on a barge and it'll be expensive.)
3) The "road" further South from Lubumbashi to Kinshasa is nearly non existent. Not something you wanna do alone.

Best regards from Kinshasa

Claudio
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  #4  
Old 2 Dec 2013
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Thank you both for your helpful answers. I also found out, that it is not possible to buy a car in Ethiopia and leave the country with it. So I pretty much dropped the plan of buying a car in Ethiopia and traveling from there to western Africa. Not just because of the issues of the road but also due to the politically instability in many areas of west Africa at the moment. The new plan is to buy a car in south Africa and make the way up to Ethiopia via Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya and so on. How are the possibilities of buying a car in Cape Town which is also modified for camping. Are there any operators offering a package with insurance and so on? I guess it would properly be the best to buy the car from other overlanders how are finishing there trip. That way the risk of buying crap is smaller. Does anybody have good contacts or tips who might help?

Thank you so much!

Johannes


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  #5  
Old 2 Dec 2013
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Cars for sale
How about this:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...g-driver-72570

or
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...southern-73422

Greets

Claudio
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Old 4 Dec 2013
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Buying in South Africa is by far the best option. But to get into Kenya you will need a Carnet from the South African AA, so take that into account when looking into the paperwork side of things. Pain in the butt.

In case you haven't noticed, the simple act of driving a motor vehicle is vastly overcomplicated because of the compulsory pieces of paper that need to have the correct letters & numbers on them.

There is a whole industry in SA to do with vehicle camping:
http://www.outdoorwarehouse.co.za
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Old 4 Dec 2013
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Carnet
Roamingyak

Fact is that you can drive all the way up to Kenya (incl Kenya) without a Carnet de Passage. Friends of mine did it with a SA registered Volkswagen Golf.
A Carnet could make things easier at the border but is not mandatory. They
sold there car in Uganda to another expat without problems, since no Carnet was involved.

Greets

Claudio
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  #8  
Old 4 Dec 2013
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Thanks mate - perhaps you could start a new thread with details on that as most people I know are under the impression that you do need a carnet to get into Kenya (except if you come through Lake Turkana in which case you can drive all the way to Nairobi without doing any paper work at all ;-p)
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