The Top Four Questions About Importing A Car To Kenya.
Importing a car for the first time can be a nerve-wracking experience. To help you with your decision, we are answering the top 4 questions that we are asked by our clients. This should give you the reassurance that there are widely used solutions available and who to talk to should you need to.
Is there warranty on the car?
BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Volvo offer a worldwide international warranty for new cars which is immediately valid within Kenya. Jaguar and Land Rover cars have a European warranty which is transferrable on arrival in Kenya. When your car arrives, you simply make the transfer to an East African warranty via your local JLR dealership. For older cars or those without an international warranty, you can buy an independent warranty locally. For most people, this is easily worth it given the cost saving they have made by importing their car. It is worth noting that all MHH International cars imported with our delivered duty paid (DDP) service to Nairobi come with an automatic 3 month warranty.
How do I get Kenyan maps on my imported car?
Technology has come a long way and has really helped to make this a non-issue. The introduction of Apple Car play and Android Auto allows your phone to become your in-car assistant. By pairing your phone with your car, you can access all the apps on your phone via the car’s multimedia display screen in the centre console. So you can now have your sat nav running on Google maps or Waze via your phone rather than the car’s nav. We love this solution because it works on the multi-media touch screen just like your normal sat nav would and all at no extra cost.
The beauty of this system is that your phone apps are accessible through your car so you can listen to Audible or Spotify as you drive. You can use Google’s voice assistant to help you make calls, find petrol stations, tell you the weather forecast etc. This really brings older cars into the present day, as you can do this with older cars if they have Bluetooth and a multimedia touchscreen. Genius!
How do I change the MPH to KMs?
The introduction of digital instrument clusters displays such as the Audi virtual cockpit, BMW’s live cockpit and Mercedes MBUX digital instrument cluster has removed this issue completely. You simply change your car’s settings in a similar way you would change the clock. Within the car’s settings in the centre console, you can find the setting for your instrument cluster. By simply switching those from miles to kilometres, you are changing the format of all your car’s setting to read speed and mileage in KMs rather than miles.
How do I know my money is safe?
This is a fair question. We recommend only buying with reputable car importers who have a proven reputation. To make payments easily, we have bank accounts with NCBA in Kenya. This is much less daunting and simpler than sending large sums of money abroad. Our finance partnerships with I&M and NCBA are also significant as they enable clients to get finance for cars imported from the UK, Japan and Australia. So you can buy your car from any of these countries without making an international transaction.
It is incredible how technology has removed several of the big barriers to car importing. There are, of course, more questions around car importing which we are always happy to answer. Simply give us call and we’ll be delighted to help you.
