How buying works

Mobility1 is a market for inspected used cars in Kenya. Kenya stock comes from registered dealers, and the dealer is the seller. Cars from the UK are ordered on request. Accounts are for registered businesses, dealers included.

Reserving opens once payments are live. You can open your account now, so your business is checked by then.

1. Open a business account

Give your company's name, business registration number and KRA PIN, and a contact person. We check the KRA PIN and the registration before your first offer or reservation. You can look at every car without an account.

2. Every car is inspected first

A Mobility1 inspector visits the car at the dealer's yard and checks:

• The documents. The logbook matches the seller, no bank or lender is on the logbook, import duty is paid, and the chassis number on the car matches the papers.
• The bodywork. All 13 panels, each marked clean, scratch, dent or repainted.
• The tyres. The tread of each tyre, flagged below 3.5 mm.
• The mechanics. Nine checks, from a cold start to the warning lights.
• A test drive of at least 10 km, with the inspector's notes.

The mileage on the site is the inspector's own reading of the odometer. Each car gets a grade out of 5 and photos of the whole car, the dashboard, the odometer, the seats and the engine bay, with close-ups of the damage our inspector finds. A failed document keeps the car off the site, and a car goes online only with a passed inspection from the last 30 days. The report describes the car on the inspection date; it is not a warranty.

3. One asking price, shown to every buyer

Each car has one asking price, and every buyer sees it. It never moves because of an offer: the dealer cannot change it while an offer is open, and Mobility1 checks every new price before buyers see it. For now, Kenya stock on the site is from 2020 or later.

4. Reserve at the asking price

To reserve a car, pay the buyer service fee of KES 50,000, including VAT, to Mobility1's own accounts: by M-Pesa, by bank transfer, or by card through a payment link from our card provider. The fee is apart from the car price.

• The car stays available to others until your payment arrives. The first payment to arrive reserves it. If someone else's arrives first, we refund yours in full.
• Once reserved, the car is locked for you for 72 hours, and My desk shows the full chassis number, the yard and the dealer's contact.
• The fee comes back in full if the seller does not go ahead. If you withdraw after reserving, we keep KES 12,500 for the checks done for you and refund the rest, to the phone, account or card it came from.

5. Or make a private offer, where offers are open

Where private offers are open, you can offer less than the asking price: one offer per car.

• Mobility1 answers for the seller within 24 hours: yes, no, or one counter-offer to you alone. A counter-offer stays open for 24 hours.
• Offers are answered one at a time, in the order they arrive. Nobody else sees your offer.
• An accepted offer holds the car for you for 24 hours. Pay the buyer service fee in that time to reserve it.
• Until you reserve, you can withdraw your offer. Nothing binds anyone until the offer is accepted and you and the dealer sign the sale agreement.
• If another buyer reserves the car at its asking price first, your offer closes.

6. Pay the price in two parts

For Kenya stock the dealer is the seller. You pay the price in two parts, which together make your price, nothing more.

• Mobility1's part is the dealer's commission plus 16% VAT, less the 5% withholding tax the dealer pays KRA. The dealer asks you to pay it to Mobility1 directly, and it counts as paid to the dealer. Pay it within the 72 hours of your reservation, by M-Pesa or bank transfer. The car then stays reserved for you until the sale is done.
• The dealer's part is the rest. You or your lender pay it straight into the dealer's business account that My desk shows, marked "checked by Mobility1". Mobility1 never holds it.

Example: a car at KES 6,900,000.

M-Pesa takes at most KES 250,000 in one payment; larger amounts go by bank transfer. PesaLink arrives in seconds, RTGS the same working day, and EFT can take two working days. If Mobility1's part is not paid in time, the reservation ends as if you had withdrawn. If the sale does not go ahead, Mobility1's part is refunded in full.

7. Collect the car

When Mobility1's part is in, the dealer hands over the car and starts the NTSA transfer to you on eCitizen. Approve the transfer there, so the logbook moves to your name, or to you and your lender. You collect the car at the dealer's yard. The sale is done when Mobility1's part is in, the dealer has its part, and the transfer is started.

UK imports, on order

UK cars on the site are sourced and inspected in the UK and ordered on request, without offers. Their price follows the pound's exchange rate, and we confirm it in writing when you order, on separate written terms.

• Our UK checks cover the V5C logbook, outstanding finance, the MOT history where the car is old enough to have one (from 3 years), which confirms the mileage, and the chassis number.
• Every UK car is right-hand drive and must meet Kenya's import age rule when it arrives. We do not sell insurance write-offs, and an electric car needs at least 80% battery health.
• A car ships only after it is paid in full. Delivery is expected in 70–90 days, at the latest 120.
• Pay only to the business account named on your invoice, never to a person.

To order, e-mail [email protected] with the car's Ref number.

Never pay a person