xingba: Man,if Na me,I prefer to buy it in Germany whose car is more endurable and no need to shift d steering, cheap as well

iykbethany: Hello everyone, I want to buy a van from the UK but I have the following questions.

1. I have a shop in Port Harcourt so im in need of a VAN to convey my goods from Aba to Port Harcourt etc. Considering that UK cars are mostly left hand drive, will this be a problem with Nigerian police/Road Safety? is there any law in Nigeria banning left hand drive cars? I am saying this because I don't want to have problems with the authorities. I know some people might say why not convert the car to right hand drive in ladipo but i don't want to do experiment. If left hand drive cars will be a problem i will rather buy the car in Lagos or USA.

2. Does anyone here know any shipping company in the UK that I can use? if so please drop the contacts here. I am presently in UK and happens to know someone that works in a loan company. In their premises many cars are there for sale. cars are from customers who default on their loan repayment and their cars repossessed. I have checked the costs of cars in USA and lagos and I have found out I can get better deals here.

I would like to bring 1 or 2 cars from here if there wont be any problems with the road safety and police. For example someone wants to sell his 2003 fullest option Mercedes C240 to me at the rate of £1,200. Car mileage is 98,000. I didn't make him any offer bc I am not thinking of buying any private car just yet, what i need is a VAN for my shop.

I will appreciate your advise about road safety issues concerning left hand drive vehicles in Nigeria. I hope someone who owns or uses such vehicle in Nigeria will comment. Its always good to hear direct from the horses mouth instead of mere hearsay. Cheers

bravolad: In the UK, their vehicles are mostly right hand drive though left hand drive is permissible but with a huge tax and special permit. In Nigeria, left hand drive is permitted but you need a special permit (which I think requires annual renewal) to be able to drive right hand car. But trust me, even with that permit, you will have a hard time with law enforcement agents such as the police, VIO, FRSC and sometimes, the military guys at check points will harass you. Why would you want to go through this headache just to own a van?

It is better to convert it and have lesser issues to deal with. Important to note is that most of the Toyota picnic and Ford Transit used for transport in Nigeria are imported from the UK and converted. I have personally imported about 5 vehicles from from the UK on different occasions. I currently have two converted cars in my fleet of taxi in Abuja and they are all doing great. I believe perhaps, your fear is based on issues that arise with conversion in Nigeria. But as I said, trust me, there are no worries if done by a professional with complete replacement of the entire dashboard, steering rack, wiring harness etc. I speak about cars of the 1990s and 2000 models only. I have not converted a recent model but have seen an RX330 that was also converted. Looked and drove great when I saw it last year in Lagos.

It important to emphasis that some those cars in the UK are cheap because they are older models and attract more tax.

iykbethany:
Great imput/write up.
Am still checking if it's worth the troubles, when you add the conversion fees, parts to buy, risks involved plus workmanship it seems better to just buy left hand drive van from other parts of Europe or USA.