Guides

Import guides written per market: conformity regime, port and transit time, landed cost structure and the mistakes importers make.

Flood-Damaged Cars: How to Spot Water Damage Before You Buy

Flood-Damaged Cars: How to Spot Water Damage Before You Buy

5 min read

Flood cars are dried, cleaned and sold on, sometimes across borders because their history does not follow them. Where water leaves evidence, how high it rose, and what that means for the car.

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Why Joint-Venture Petrol Sedans Are Turning Up in China's Export Stock

Why Joint-Venture Petrol Sedans Are Turning Up in China's Export Stock

4 min read

New energy vehicles passed half of China's market in 2025 and joint-venture petrol brands shrank. How their remaining stock reaches export, where it is a bargain, and where it is a liability.

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Odometer Fraud: How to Check a Used Car's Real Mileage

Odometer Fraud: How to Check a Used Car's Real Mileage

6 min read

Digital odometers did not end mileage tampering; they made it quieter. Where else a car records distance, the wear that cannot be reset, and the paper trail that exposes a rolled-back reading.

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Marine Insurance and Transit Damage Claims

Marine Insurance and Transit Damage Claims

3 min read

What a standard cargo policy covers for vehicles and what it quietly excludes, the survey requirement that decides most claims, and the timing rules that void an otherwise valid claim.

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Pre-Delivery Inspection for Imported Vehicles

Pre-Delivery Inspection for Imported Vehicles

3 min read

What to check before a vehicle leaves China and what to check again on arrival, why the two lists are different, and the defects that are cheap to fix at origin and expensive to fix at destination.

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Spare Parts Strategy When You Introduce a New Brand

Spare Parts Strategy When You Introduce a New Brand

4 min read

The initial parts package that keeps early vehicles running, how to work out what to stock before any failure history exists, and the part shortage that kills a brand's reputation fastest.

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Accident-Repaired Cars: Structural Checks, Paint Readings and Panel Gaps

Accident-Repaired Cars: Structural Checks, Paint Readings and Panel Gaps

5 min read

Cosmetic repairs are normal on used cars; structural repairs change what the car is. How to tell the two apart in thirty minutes with a paint gauge, a torch and a methodical walk-round.

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Fuel Quality and Engine Selection in Emerging Markets

Fuel Quality and Engine Selection in Emerging Markets

3 min read

Diesel sulphur content, petrol octane and fuel contamination as specification inputs rather than local details, and the engine configurations that survive where fuel is inconsistent.

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Emission Standards: What Each Market Actually Accepts

Emission Standards: What Each Market Actually Accepts

3 min read

How the China VI, Euro and equivalent stages map onto each other, why a higher stage is not automatically better for the destination, and the fuel sulphur limit that decides the answer.

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