Total Landed Cost Explained — From Hammer Price to Your Port
“Landed cost” is the total to get a car from a Japanese auction to your port. Here is every line, in the order it’s added — and a worked example you can reproduce in our calculator.
The build-up, line by line
| Line | What it is |
|---|---|
| Hammer price | The winning bid — paid to the auction, not to us. |
| Commission | Our agent fee: a flat ¥35,000 up to ¥1,000,000, then 3.5% of the hammer price above that. |
| Export Package | A flat ¥65,000: auction-house fee + inland transport (covers up to ¥10,000) + export handling. |
| Inspection | Where your country requires a pre-export inspection (JEVIC/QISJ etc.), billed per destination. |
| = FOB | The car loaded on the ship in Japan. |
| Ocean freight | RoRo or container to your port — varies by country and vehicle size. |
| Marine insurance | 0.25% of FOB, minimum ¥3,000. |
| = CIF | Your total cost to your destination port. |
A worked example
A ¥1,200,000 hammer price, medium-sized car, shipping to Kenya:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Hammer price | ¥1,200,000 |
| Commission — 3.5% | ¥42,000 |
| Export Package | ¥65,000 |
| Inspection (Kenya) | ¥35,000 |
| FOB | ¥1,342,000 |
| Ocean freight (Kenya · medium) | ¥211,707 |
| Marine insurance (0.25% of FOB) | ¥3,355 |
| CIF Mombasa | ¥1,557,062 |
Put those same three inputs into the landed-cost calculator and you will get this number back. Everything above is in Japanese yen; the calculator also shows an indicative US-dollar figure at CIF, converted at a reference rate rather than a live one.
What moves each line
Commission has a floor, not just a rate. Below ¥1,000,000 the 3.5% would come to less than ¥35,000, so the flat minimum applies instead. A ¥600,000 car and a ¥1,000,000 car both pay ¥35,000; only above that does the percentage take over.
Inspection is zero for about half our destinations. It is charged where the destination government mandates a pre-export check — Kenya and Tanzania ¥35,000, Guyana ¥35,000, Jamaica ¥45,000. Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the UK, Ireland, Cyprus, Norway, the USA and Canada are ¥0 on this line. See pre-shipment inspection for what the check actually involves.
Freight moves with both destination and size. Our freight master is quoted per country for a medium car; small cars scale to 0.8× and large to 1.4×. Same ¥1,200,000 car to Kenya:
| Size | Ocean freight | CIF |
|---|---|---|
| Small — kei / compact | ¥169,366 | ¥1,514,721 |
| Medium — sedan | ¥211,707 | ¥1,557,062 |
| Large — van / SUV / pickup | ¥296,390 | ¥1,641,745 |
On a stock car we can do better than a size band: each stock listing scales freight by that model’s real cargo volume from the specifications catalog, so the number on a car’s page is specific to that car.
Insurance is the smallest line on the page. 0.25% of FOB, minimum ¥3,000 — on the example above, ¥3,355.
The same car to three destinations
Freight is usually the line that separates one quote from another. The ¥1,200,000 medium car again:
| Destination | Inspection | Ocean freight | CIF | ≈ USD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hong Kong | ¥0 | ¥94,092 | ¥1,404,360 | ~$8,955 |
| Kenya | ¥35,000 | ¥211,707 | ¥1,557,062 | ~$9,929 |
| UK | ¥0 | ¥329,322 | ¥1,639,590 | ~$10,455 |
Same car, same commission, same Export Package — a ¥235,000 spread, almost all of it sea freight. For how long each of these takes, see transit times.
What’s not in the landed cost
Your own country charges import duty, VAT/GST, and registration on arrival, assessed on the CIF value. These vary by market and are paid locally — see your country import guide. We never include them in our quote because only your customs authority can set them.
Two things buyers get caught by
Comparing an FOB quote with a CIF quote. FOB stops when the car is loaded in Japan; CIF carries it to your port. On the Kenya example that is a ¥215,062 difference for the identical car. Always check which term a quote is in before comparing it with ours — Incoterms explains what each one covers.
Forgetting that local duty is assessed on CIF, not on the hammer price. A higher freight bill therefore raises the base your customs authority taxes. It is one reason the cheapest-looking hammer price is not always the cheapest car on your driveway.
Get your number
The landed-cost calculator gives a live FOB and CIF for any hammer price, country, and vehicle size. For a car we already hold, the stock pages run the same calculation against that car’s real volume. For the shipping terms behind these lines, see Incoterms.