Legality of selling a vehicle
 

A small group of us from Australia are looking to travel from London down to Mali next Xmas. We want to do the outbound trip by car but want to fly across Africa from Mali then on to the middle east and eventually back to Australia. This means we would need to dispose of the cars in one of the countries in west Africa.......Mali, Senegal etc.
Can anybody fill me in as to whether it is possible to either sell or give away the cars legally.

Regards..........David

The Right Car
 

Hi, check back a couple of pages to the above thread. It's been covered. Linzi.

Linzi,

thanks for pointing out that thread to me. I had in fact read it at the time and it seems that most of it was concerned with getting the car out of Germany/Netherlands etc. Only a couple of actual mentions of selling a car and apart from the last post it was not made clear whether or not the sales are legal (except Morocco where a non-resident cannot sell a car). Like everything in life, things can be done on the sly but sometimes it comes back to bit you in the b.m! I would not want to get to the airport and find that I was detained and "fined" an exorbitant amount for having sold the car.

David

Sorry, don't know beyond that. If it's a UK car obviously you need to make sure it doesn't remain on anyone's record as registered here. Perhaps try contacting one of the guys who has already sold in Mali? Linzi.

Hi David,

We are currently living in Bamako and have looked into selling our cars and bikes. When you enter the country, customs issues you a Laissez-passer valid for 1 month. There are no stamps in your passport and it's not yet computerized. This paper is tied to the car more than it is tied to you. This means that if you leave without the car, they won't try to stop you. The problem arises if you try to stay in the country and drive the car after the laissez-passer expires but this won't be the case for you. All they care about is that the car is imported if it stays in Mali but this isn't your problem once you sell it. We've already helped three travelers sell their bikes and they had no problems.

You won't have any problems doing it the way I mentioned but if you would like to be 100% completely legal, you could get a bill of sale notarized and get a copy of the importation paper for the vehicle that the new buyer has set in motion. This really isn't necessary though because nobody will know you brought a car in.

One last thing, do not use a carnet for your trip. If you do, they won't give you your money back unless you reimport the car back to the original country or have importation papers from wherever your car will stay. The carnet is not required for any of these countries.

When you guys do make it to Bamako though, you should stop by. We are starting a bed and breakfast and restaurant and should be opening in the next few months. We would be glad to help you out with the whole process.

Safe travels,

Gael & Sonja

Thank you
 

Gael & Sonja, thanks for the info. I have also sent a message from your website.

David

Gael & Sonja

Can you publish your GPS co-ords?

Sure thing.

Here they are:

N12º 39.717 W 007º 58.449

We're in Hippodrome very close to the Tamana Hotel.

Gael