We would like to sell our car (an old VW Golf) in Mauretania. Does anybody know if it is possible and do you know something about the procedure? When we enter Mauretania we might get a stamp in the passport. This stamp might be a problem when leaving the country without car. Thanks for your advice!

Gereon and Corinne

I believe that selling a car in any African country is potentially riddled with risk and I don't recommend it. What currency to you expect to be paid in, and where will the locals get this currency from?
And will you ever get the money out of the country without being split on by an informer, mugged or apprehended by customs?
I took a Land Rover to Mauritania a while back, received lots of offers for it and didn't believe ANY offer was straight. So I drove it back again and had a great trip.
The old hands sell their cars to the police... and I'm sure you can get more info on this forum, but this is always going to be a hi risk venture!
Happy travels Kitmax

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Kitmax

The car has been offered to us and it is a VW Golf. For us it is not so important to sell it. We just want to get until Mauretania, from where we go with public transport to other countrys.
In the worst case we offer the car to somebody in Mauretania.
But I thought it might be a problem with the stamp in the passport when we leave the country?

Hi, there is a customs procedure to 'remove' the stamp from your passport which will of course cost you money. Someone posted about doing this recently - have a search on the forum. The ideal situation might be to sell through a recommended contact.

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Pictures, Mauritania 2011

HI ,.

Yep , you can clear -legally - the vehicle's entry from your passport in any custom's office.

Assuming that you sell it .. you go with the buyer ./. and for -I think- 200 Euro they remove the entry .. leaving you free to exit the country . Obviously these 200 Euro is paid by the buyer .. but be cristal-clear while specifiying this to the potential buyer

IMHO , Selling a vehicle in Mauritania is definitely not a good idea. If you can get to Mali or Gambia you can sell it way off more easy -no passport details-

Good luck

Hi,

Last year I sold a VW Jetta (technically a golf just with an added boot) in Gambia.
Same as Javier I would recommend to sell the car the car in an other country than Mauritania, especially since you mentioned that you want to move on anyhow.
Why do I recommend to sell Not in Mauritania:

1. As Javier mentioned: More complicated paperwork in Mauri(you can circumnavigate that by avoiding the stamp at the border as mentioned in an earlier post)

2. And in my opinion Mauritania is NOT a VW country, therefore I expect the prices to be lower than in say Gambia or Mali, where I saw plenty of VW Golf II taxis etc.. It was quite difficult to get Golf spare parts in the Mauritanian Capital, while they where easily available in Bamako and Banjul.

I my humble opinion it is easier to sell a common car. But my information is nearly one year old, maybe the situation changed and of course you can sell the the car in Mauritania, we where asked all the time if we wanted to sell, but I suspected the prices to be lower and wanted to go on anyhow.

Hans

I entirely agree with Hans.

Mauritania is not a VW country ./ They will like it , show some interest on it .. but I seeriously doubt that they will actually buy it .

Also .. I find doing business with Mauritanians extremely harsh and tiring. , . They are un-polite , they keep lowering and loweiring the offer . Even that you agree one price .. and they will still oferring less and less and less.



As ussual , It doesnt matter what you agree about paying the douannes .... that -at the custom's - they will forcibly try you to pay for all the expenses -regardless what you agreed before-

Remember that -upon entering Mauritania - you sign a Engagement Sur le Honeur in which you compromise not to sell , even not to offer for sale the car. Remember that , 'cos if you sell a car in Mauri .. you are technically commiting a crime. And that leaves you ( a foreigner with lots of Cash ) in a really vulnerable position .



seriously , been there , done that .. and NEVER AGAIN. Id steer well clear of selling cars in MAuritania.



However selling cars in gambia is another different story. There are well-known car dealers -wolfgang Srhourbm from Camping Sukuta's park- which will definitely help you to sell the car with German efficiency . No tricks , no hassles , no nothing : Here is the car .. .here is your money.

also .. now that I remember .. VolksWagens are somehow popular in Gambia . You will get a better offer than elsewhere.

Javier

Thanks for the advice!

The thing is that we have no Carnet de passage and as far as I know we cannot enter Senegal without such a carnet!
And therefore we cannot go to Gambia either to sell the VW, which is a pity. Thats why we thought about Mauretania...

Corinne

Do not worry about entering sengegal with the car. The topic has been covered extensively in this forum.
In short: the rule is only enforced when you come from the northern (Mauritanian) border, and even crossing this border with an old car is usually possible without a carnet, either you take a custom officer on board, or you do it the African way and pay a bribe (up to 100 Euro) for an temporary import permission (Laissez-passer).
I personally entered Senegal from Mali, the custom officers asked about the age of the car (and where astonished), asked if we have a carnet (we did not) and issued us a Laissez-passer for the offical price (which I do not remember somewhere between 5 and 15 Euro) the whole procedure took us around 1 hours, during which we visited 4 different offices.

Hans