Competitive price for UAE market? Luxury Mercedes and BMW

[Jannis]

Hi,

We are a company importing used cars to countries around the world. As UAE is a new market for us, we are still in the process of finding out if we can offer used luxury cars in UAE to car dealers at a competitive price.

Therefore we would hereby like to inquire if an offering as the following, would be competitive in the UAE market.

Example 1:
2006 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class CLS500 Coupe
14,700 miles
premium package, comfort package and lots of other extras
excellent condition

65.000$ (= 238.693 AED), including transportation, without customs (5%?), without income tax

Example 2:
2005 BMW 6 Series 645Ci COUPE SMG
14,400 miles
sports package and lots of other extras
excellent condition

64.500$ (= 236.857 AED), including transportation, without customs (5%?), without income tax

We would really appreciate your input on this. In case this is a competitive price for the UAE market, we are looking forward to build serious relationsships with car dealers (Buyers) in UAE. Please contact us if you are intered.

Regards,
Jannis K.
Argonaut PG

[root]

Interesting!

Can you quote prices for some Porsche Caymen or Boxster S?

Where are the cars coming (bought) from ? Germany, Belgium?

[Jannis]

Hi,

the two offers mentioned before are cars from some of our premium dealers in the U.S. However, as our company is based in Germany we are also very active in the german market.

As for your question, I can give you a quote an the Porsche coming Sunday. Currently I am on a business trip and have not the means to access our vehicle database.

About my initial question on competitiveness... what do you think?

regards,
Jannis
Argonaut PG

[ewap8]

what happened to the prices? ur prices look good. post more prices so that i can get a better idea.

[Jannis]

Dear all,

sorry for not having replied for such a long time, but we were (and are) currently very busy in restructuring our business processes and developing a new appearance in the internet which will be quite different from the "convential" car dealer sites.

So I ask for some of your patience until we have finalized our reorganization.

You can visit us at http://www.argonaut-motors.de as soon as we are ready.

regards,
Jannis
Argonaut Motors Ldt.

[Jannis]

Dear all,

finally, after a lot of work we are online. We also have some price quotes on our site, for those who are interested.

http://www.argonaut-motors.de

Comments are welcome !

Kind regards
Jannis K.

[Overdrive]

Thanks for the link - the prices are not 'WOW' ... especially when you've taken into account the risk that your cars may have had major repairs done to them after serious accidents. There was another dealer selling junk like that on Autodealer a couple of months ago - I think he got kicked off by the person moderating the forum.

Is there any type of official certification in the US (or germany) that can certify your claims?

[Jannis]

Overdrive,

thank you for your comment. Regarding your remarks to the prices; these just example prices for vehicles and you have also noticed that the description of the vehicles is far from being complete - that is almost no information on the options. That is intentional, we only want to give some kind of impression. Prices can vary considerably.

as for the certification, I do not know of any that can certify the content of our website is true. I would appreciate it, if you can point me to one.

kind regards,
Jannis

[Overdrive]

Yes, that'll make stuff more interesting. And even an Autodealer type search and display facility will be cool (yes, I have a bias for this site, they were the first serious car site in dubai).

As for rating, you can check out any large/medium sized car porta in Japan as they follow an organized and comprehensive rating system.

In dubai, you can atleast have the basics checked, such as engine, braking system, etc. This is done by authorized service centers representing Bosh automotive technology.

Regards,

Anwar

[Jannis]

Overdrive,

I thought you were referring to the content of the website, rather than to the vehicles themselfs. Of course there are also certified service centers in Germany and our vehicles are also checked if everything is in order prior to selling them to our customers. After all, we are bound to our contracts and cannot deviate from it without consequences.

Regarding the example to internet sites you mentioned. It would be nice to pm me some addresses if possible.

Kind regards,
Ioannis

[root]

they were the first serious car site in dubai

Yeah!!!!!

[root]

Overdrive has actually a valid point regarding the condition of the cars.
Used car exports from Germany onwards to other European countries has been very common. I myself once bought a car in Germany and drove it back.

But there are some non-serious (and criminal) people involved in this trade as well. The evidence of this fact is that in many European countries if the car is 'privately' imported from Germany, the insurance goes up. Some insurance companies refuse to insure those vehicles, and demand that you get a certification from the authorized dealer that you possess all the keys etc.

For my BMW, I had to go to BMW and get them to check that I had all the ignition keys (that BMW had a car-theft ignition lock if the key was not pre-registered) and certify for that. Furthermore, the insurance company required me to get the number plate engraved on all windows. This was not required for locally bought BMWs.

The reason for the above was mainly that some dealers would sell an expensive car but keep a key for themselves, and then after a few weeks send some guy to go bring the car back. Those cars were then resold somehow.

Also, there are issues of accidented cars being rebuilt and sold as un-accidented.

Germany is not the only market with this problem. We have that issue here in the UAE as well with dealers winding back the meters, selling stolen cars, etc.

The question is really if there are any good certification mechanisms in Germany where one can buy with peace of mind?