It beats my imagination why the prices of cars have been crashing in Naija (especially Lagos) lately while the cost of purchasing them abroad (especially in US) and clearing in Lagos have been going up in the recent times.
Dealers in the house should comment on this for exchange of ideas` sake.

Thanks.

where re the Dealers in the house now?

Oga fhemmmmy, Mr Inspired, the german man, Mr Kunle A, . . . .

@poster.
My brother its called competition. thats the WORD.
everybody in the US is sending car home, what do you expect?
prices will drop.

I totally agree that competition have a great influence on price, so also the law of supply and demand must definitely play it`s role. But with the present pricing scenerio, it is possible for some dealers to be selling their vehicles below profit margin because the more you keep a car on sale the more cost you incure (i am refering to vehicles without blemishes)

the prices some sellers(especially the new ones) quote is just absurd sometimes--weird thing is they can check the the 'going' rate of same specification on this site
but they just go against the grain like there is a lxi,elx,es attached to the name or some other unnecessary button--Pluto enabler- included in the spec

for some there are just too many agents involved

Hmmm, scratching head and in two minds about the discourse of this thread.

OP, why are you calling out the car dealers? Are they the ones who set the rates of clearing, shipping, ctn, numerous phantom taxes, etc to the extent now that to get the oldest car permissible out of the port, you are looking at parting with no less than N600,000K/N750,000K i.e. up to $5,000 to ship and clear a 2000/2001 car.

Are they the ones who employed the bent workers based at these ports? Are they the ones responsible for the wharfrats too who oftentimes have to be settled if you want your car to come out in one piece?

ANSWERS ON A POSTCARD PLEASE.

As an example, for those familiar with craiglist, the least amount you can get a clean toyota camry or honda accord 99/2000 model without any issue is around $5000.00,  you may get those with minor scratches or dents around $3500 & $4500 . You may have to pay for towing to the port of departure if insurance has expired, you pay for CTN, Shipment, Courier delivery of Bill of laden to Naija and finally you pay for clearing at Lagos port as the case may be.
If you add up all these expenses, you will definitely arrive at a figure between N1.1m and N1.2m as the landing cost, but presently we these vehicle types on sale on NL at prices around N1m. Is it that some of the above mentioned expenses can be avoided or skipped if you know your way or what? so that one can sell within the prevailing market price and still make profit or there is something  i`m not getting.

The difference is in the condition of the car.
A car from auction with less than desirable condition will cost less than a car source from a seller in excellent condition.

You will know by users having to work on gearbox, brainbox, oil leaks; all these indicate that car was not serviced as scheduled.

Nigerians basically ask for these cars when they request for cars in the N1m-N1.3m range($6000).
Shipping and duty alone is $3000, so any Japanese car less than (100k miles)8yrs sold for $3000+ tax in US should come with a big [size=16pt]?[/size]
Good working cars are not cheap, so when you buy a running junk, it will cost you a lot more to keep it running over time when compared to a well used car.

This is why they have CPO(certified pre-owned) cars in the US to give buyers confidence in their condition.usually  2yrs <40k miles.

@GABRIEL

There are many reasons for price differentials, factors such as the trim, what optional extras it comes with, the transmission, the condition, the source of purchase, etc affects how much a car costs.

Asides this, one's persuasion skills could also come into play, the final price you would fork out for that Honda/Toyota is not the same price i would pay. For example, as a female, the first thing that comes to my mind when i see a ride is the colour, and naturally when i am at a Car dealer, thats the first thing that comes outta my mouth and in that Dealer's mind, he thinks he has landed a gullible fool. By the end of the transaction, the same person would be forced to shake hands with me, acknowledge that i have done my homework properly, gruffly acknowledge that he underestimated me and hastily send me off with my purchase.

And like over here, a car advertised with a high mileage hovering around the 100k mark, would be lucky to be sold to a savvy person for about 60% of the actual price. Same thing applies to cars that gets listed on craigslist, autotrader, ebay, etc with problems such as no engine, no water pump, no mot, no road tax, a bit tatty and needs tidying up, a few rusts, etc they too usually command very low prices.

In addition to this, where the car is purchased makes a lot of difference too, you would not pay the same price for the same car purchased at trade price/
Part exchange/Public Auction/Trade Auction/Car supermarket/Insurance writeoffs/Salvage repaired/Salvage not declared/etc. The price would differ by a few hundred thousands.

And personally i will never pay $5,000 for the car you mentioned above, and no i ain't from Ijebu, i don't think i can pay more than $2k and thats me being very generous.