Buying a Land Cruiser in UK or South Africa?
 

Firstly, if a thread containing this question already exists or I'm in the wrong forum location please feel free to point me in the right direction!

I'm looking to do an overland trip in Africa and am wanting to know opinions on whether it's best to buy a Land Cruiser in UK or SA. My assumption (from past research) is SA is best as it's cheaper and the vehicle is more likely to be kitted out to handle African terrain (though of course I can always worry about vehicle specifics at a later date). Is this thinking accurate?

I had thought it would be easier to start and finish in the UK but if we're talking more money for a less worthy vehicle if I bought in the UK then I'm inclined to change the route to start in Cape Town instead and buy the car there . . . . .

What do people think? Any opinions welcome.

Thanks for the advice.

Sam.

Hi Sam, this is the right place and you should get some answers. A few more details would help, how long you plan to travel for, how far and even if you would like to make return trips.
I met people in Africa who had both bought local and brought their own vehicle, if you buy in SA it can be left there for return trips and can travel a lot of Southern Africa without a carnet. I believe you can get a carnet for a SA registered vehicle but it might not be valid for Egypt.
A UK registered vehicle will have to be driven out of the continent if on a carnet which can be an expensive document to obtain in the first place but you can start and finish in your home country.
I expect someone will be along with more comments sometime soon.

Hi Mark

Thanks for your response!

Well I'm looking at a year and a half to two years on the road.
Ideally I'd like to go from UK and then enter West Africa travelling down to South Africa and then possibly back up to UK through East Africa etc, or vice versa. But if there are significant differences in vehicle costs I'd rather start wherever is cheapest to buy and i thought that to be South Africa? I hadn't considered South African registered vehicle carnet's being more complicated than those from the UK. Perhaps that was wrongly overlooked on my part. Is there a way to find out what countries are accessible on which carnet??
If I were to start in South Africa I'd probably only do Southern Africa and then head up the West to UK missing the East so Egypt wouldn't be an issue but I'm now questioning where else this could be a problem.
Long term plan for the vehicle would be to keep it (if from Africa) or sell (if from the UK). I'm really in the early stages of planning so nothing is set in stone and I'm open to suggestions.
But West Africa is a must from top to bottom so it seems to make sense to do the full Africa loop if the vehicle is destined to return to its home country anyway.

I can't help on the relative purchase costs (though a quick google of gumtree etc should help) but there certainly should be a greater number of kitted out vehicles in SA and the exchange rate is still very good. Once you have purchased and registered in SA (you'll need to provide a local address) a carnet will be straightforward. It can cover Egypt and anywhere else that accepts carnets - countries either accept carnets or they don't - it doesn't matter what country issues them. It is also considerably cheaper getting a carnet in SA compared to the UK. The SA AA website will give you all the details. I traveled in a UK reg vehicle but if I were doing it again I would not hesitate to buy in SA, mainly because of the carnet cost and the hassles of trying to travel for more than a year or keep a car out of the UK when it's on a UK carnet. It also saves you the grief of trying to get a 4x4 into Africa if you want to go down the East coast - currently only possible by container... I appreciate this wouldn't be an issue for you if you plan to go down the west coast.

Thanks itchy feet for your response!

It looks like I will purchase in SA then. I have family over there so an address won't be an issue. Great that a carnet covers everywhere, thanks for the SA AA tip, I don't know why I didn't think to check there. And I would never have thought about gumtree either, so will do some research on prices now.



Cheers to both you guys for your help :)

My only concern is that buying in ZA is that some of the vehicles, though well equipped, have been ridden hard and put away wet. My wife and I advised a couple (who became good friends) who wanted to start overlanding. They flew to ZA and bought a nice little Defender 90 that was well kitted but ended up hiding a lot of problems. Also, many of the vehicles that are a reasonable price have high mileage. At least with buying and fitting one at home, you know what you are getting.

whatever vehicle you buy, whether it's a 2cv or landcruiser, you need to run it for a time before embarking on a long trip to iron out any problems and get to know the vehicle.

Buying an unknown vehicle and then embarking on a long trip, possibly trusting your life to that vehicle would be, IMHO, foolhardy.

I'm sure someone will come on here and say how they bought a vehicle unseen from some country and then had the trip of their life, but then, you might get away with playing russian roulette one or twice as well.