WANT TO DO IT YOURSELF?

Ten tips on how to sell a car in West Africa:

1. Buy My Mercedes Is Not for Sale! If everything goes wrong, you’ll at least have something entertaining to read.

2. Spend a few hours on the forum of Sahara Overland. That should answer most of your practical questions about crossing the desert by car. Another good source of information are the German Wüstenschiff (www.wustenschiff.de) and Swiss Desert-info (www.desert-info.ch).

3. Your destination dictates the car you should buy. If you’re going to Mali or Mauritania, you should have a diesel. In Benin, however, they love gas-powered cars. Whatever you do, don’t buy an American or a Scandinavian model (unless you’re going to Nigeria, where they’re crazy about Volvos). French cars are passé; Japanese, always okay. If you just have to travel by SUV, Toyota Land Cruisers are far more popular than Land Rovers. A safe—and I think the best—choice is a four-cylinder Mercedes 190 D from the late eighties. Recent four-cylinder 200 Ds also sell well.

4. But then those Benzes are hard to come by, at least at a reasonable price. You can pick up an old jalopy for € 1200, but figure on about € 1750 instead. And you better make up your mind fast, or someone will beat you to it.

5. Okay, you’ve bought a car, and now you’re off to Africa. At the moment (march 2008), there really isn’t a safe route anymore. If you need these tips and are driving a passenger car, the so-called Atlantic Route is the best option – although there is a real concern about Al Qaeda activity in Mauritania. The Atlantic Route follows the recently completed Trans-Sahara Highway through Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Senegal. Nowadays, if you want to drive from Holland to Gambia—and that’s a great destination and a terrific place to sell your car—you hardly have to leave the blacktop anymore.

6. In the border area between Western Sahara and Mauritania, however, you do have to drive through sand, and there are still land mines there. Take a guide or hook up with someone who knows what he’s doing.

7. The biggest problem – apart from the security issue - you’ll face is getting into Senegal. Senegal doesn’t admit any car more than seven years old. You can buy a carnet de passage, a sort of passport for your car (counterfeit carnets are sometimes also offered on Sahara Overland), but that makes for headaches if you want to sell your car. Unless you’re adept at talking and haggling, you’re probably going to have to pay a lot for an official escort through Senegal. Then you’ll drive across the country in a day or two and be released again at the following border.

8. Take enough cash: cash machines are extremely rare in West Africa. The only credit card that’s accepted is Visa.

9. You’ll have to decide for yourself what all you want to take. Water is important. And if you can do some of your own repairs, so much the better, but it’s really not necessary. There’s always a bush mechanic nearby.

10. Well, and then you’ve got to unload that moving wreck: discretely spread the word that your car’s for sale, promise a commission (and pay it, too) if someone brings you a buyer, accept only cash and preferably euros. If you bought a good model, you’ll sell it in a minute; if you show up with seconds, it’ll take forever. And remember this: the first offer is usually the best.