Buying car parts from Dubai and the UAE for export

The process has five steps, and only the first two happen on our side. You message the WhatsApp parts desk with the part you need. A person checks UAE stock and the Sharjah and Dubai parts markets and yards, then replies with what is available and a quote. If you accept, the parts are prepared in Dubai. Your own cargo agent or forwarder collects them, books the freight and ships them on, and your clearing agent deals with duty, tax and any inspection at your end.

Easy Auto is a UAE car-parts directory with a WhatsApp parts desk, not a shipping company. You keep control of the freight: you choose the forwarder, you pay the carrier and you decide the route. In return you, or the agent you appoint, must organise the shipping side, and you should line that up before you accept a quote rather than after.

A quote is only as good as the identification behind it. The quickest route is the part number printed on the old part, because it names the exact item. If the number is worn or you do not have the part, send the VIN. A VIN has 17 characters and lets the desk match the part to your exact build rather than the model name, which matters because trim, engine and production date change which part fits.

Add three or four clear photos of the old part from different sides, the engine code if it is an engine or gearbox, the quantity, and whether you want new, used, rebuilt or aftermarket. Say which country you are importing into in the first message, because it changes what can be quoted and what has to be checked before you pay.

Say which side the steering wheel is on. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and South Africa drive on the left, so most cars there are right-hand drive, while the UAE, Nigeria and Ghana drive on the right. An engine or gearbox may carry over between steering sides, but dashboards, steering parts, mirrors and headlamp units often do not, and a part from a left-hand-drive donor car can be the wrong hand for yours.

Quotes are drawn from stock held in the UAE, from the used-parts yards and markets of Sharjah and Dubai, and from trade suppliers of aftermarket and rebuilt parts. A used engine, gearbox, headlamp, control module or body part normally comes from a yard that dismantled a donor car, while an aftermarket part comes off a distributor's shelf.

Our lane is used, rebuilt, aftermarket and GCC-specification parts, plus mixed orders that need several suppliers. We do not pitch ourselves as a catalogue exporter of new genuine parts by number. If a brand-new genuine part is all you need, a specialist catalogue seller is built for that job; if you need a used engine, a scarce control module or a mixed basket from several shops, that is where a person on WhatsApp helps.

A proper quote states the condition: new, used, rebuilt or aftermarket, and for a used part which car it came from where the yard knows. Ask for photos or a short video of the exact part with its number visible before you pay for anything. A supplier you can trust will not mind.

We do not ship parts abroad and we do not deliver to your address. The handover happens in Dubai, to your cargo agent or forwarder, and everything after that is between you and them. We do not clear customs in your country, and we do not promise delivery dates, because they depend on carriers and customs authorities we do not control.

We do not publish a price list on this page, and we do not name payment methods or terms here. A person quotes your part and confirms how to pay on WhatsApp. If a message in our name gives you different instructions, stop and check it on the number you first used.

We do not rank or recommend shops, yards or forwarders. We do not supply dangerous goods, covered below, or the destinations on our refusal list. And we cannot promise that a used part will pass your country's inspection, because those rules are published by your country's authorities and they change.

The price on your quote is only the first line. Landed cost, meaning what the part has cost you by the time it is cleared and in your hands, is the sum of the part, packing, freight, insurance, import duty and taxes, any inspection or certificate fee, your clearing agent's charge and local transport. Each line has a different owner, so ask for each one in writing before you commit.

Duty and taxes stack. In Kenya, for example, PwC's tax summary, reviewed on 17 July 2026, gives the import declaration fee as 2.5% and the railway development levy as 2% of the customs value, and puts VAT at 16% on a base that includes duties and levies, so tax is charged on tax. Ask your clearing agent whether freight and insurance count towards the value your duty is charged on, because if they do, an expensive freight bill raises your tax as well.

The country pages set out the duty, tax and inspection rules for each destination we cover, with the source and date of every figure. Read the one for your country before you ask for a quote, because some countries require an inspection certificate for used parts that has to be arranged before the goods leave the UAE.

Freight is priced by weight, and a small part meets a fixed cost that does not shrink with its size. DHL's UAE rate guide, valid from 1 January 2026, lists a 12 kg express parcel to Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania or South Africa at AED 3,146.71, and to Ghana, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe or Malawi at AED 3,792.16, in both cases before the fuel surcharge, duty and tax.

Consolidated cargo is cheaper per kilo, but it is sold in bands. A Dubai air-cargo consolidator's Nairobi rate card, dated 17 July 2025 and read on 7 October 2026, starts at a 30 kg band of AED 38 a kilo, which is AED 1,140 for 30 kg, and lists no band below it. Ask any forwarder whether a lighter parcel is billed as that minimum. Where a country inspects used parts the fee has a floor too: Kenya's manual sets 0.6% of FOB value with a minimum of USD 265 per unit or consignment for used spare parts from the UAE.

Weight is not only what the scale says. Carriers bill the larger of actual weight and volumetric weight, and DHL works volumetric weight out by multiplying length, width and height in centimetres and dividing by 5,000. A box of 60 by 50 by 40 centimetres filled with light plastic body parts is billed as 24 kg whatever it weighs, so pack tightly and have the dimensions checked before you accept a freight quote.

The practical rule is that a single low-value used part rarely justifies air freight or an inspection fee on its own, while heavy items bought in quantity, or several parts consolidated into one consignment, spread the fixed costs. Light, valuable parts such as control modules and headlamp units suffer least from the floor. For more than a couple of parts, ask your forwarder to quote the whole basket together.

Export economics reward weight that is worth its freight. Heavy, valuable items such as engines and gearboxes make sense when they travel in quantity or by sea through your own agent, and light, valuable items such as control modules and lamp units make sense by air. Cheap, light wear parts and bulky, fragile ones are where small orders lose money. The table below is a general guide, not a quote: your forwarder's rates and your country's rules decide the real answer.

If you buy in trade quantities, such as a regular list of parts or a container load, read our wholesale page before you ask for single-part quotes, because the fixed costs above are spread across a whole consignment. For engines and gearboxes in particular, our half-cut engines page explains what to ask a yard and what a buyer's agent needs to see.

We do not quote batteries, airbags and seat-belt pretensioners, gas-charged shock absorbers, oils and other fluids, aerosols, or engines that have not been drained. Air carriers regulate many of these as dangerous goods under the IATA rules, which means a trained shipper, special packing and a contract with the carrier. DHL's UAE guide says fully regulated dangerous goods need a contractual agreement, and a 2023 compliance article from J. J. Keller names engines, carburettors, fuel lines and airbags as automotive parts that can contain dangerous goods.

That is why a used engine reaches you through an agent who knows the rules, drained of fuel, oil and coolant, rather than in a courier box. If your forwarder holds a dangerous goods arrangement and wants one of these items, that is a matter between you and them, but we do not quote them for export.

Dubai Customs lists an invoice, a packing list and, where required, a certificate of origin as the documents for an export declaration, with a permit from the controlling authority for restricted goods. Your forwarder or customs broker will usually prepare the declaration. Your part is a clear commercial invoice that matches the packing list line for line, with the part, quantity, value and currency, and the word used on anything second-hand.

Customs systems classify goods by a Harmonised System code, and the code decides which duty rate applies. Most chassis, brake, steering and body parts sit under heading 8708, engines under 8407 and 8408, and alternators and starters under 8511, according to a customs broker's classification guide dated 2020. The code your forwarder uses must match the invoice.

Some countries ask for more than paperwork: an inspection of used spare parts in the UAE before the goods ship, and a certificate you present at your port. Kenya and Zimbabwe have published such rules for used spare parts, and other countries have their own. The country pages say which apply, with the source. Arrange the inspection before you ship, because goods that arrive without a required certificate can face an inspection at the port.

Most losses follow a short list of patterns. A Dubai vehicle exporter's guide published on 25 July 2026 names four patterns. The first is a price far below the market, used to rush you. The second is forged paperwork: invoices, shipping receipts or export certificates. The third is a seller who goes silent after payment, and the fourth is a request to pay a personal account instead of a company's. Its remedy is a company bank account, a proper invoice and receipt, and steady updates.

Check the business before the payment. For a Dubai company, the Department of Economy and Tourism's licence search shows the licence status, expiry date and activities from a licence number or company name, according to Khaleej Times on 15 March 2025. A company in a free zone is licensed by that free zone, so ask for the licence number and the issuing authority and check it there.

Be wary of urgency. The US Federal Trade Commission's scam guidance, dated July 2023, says honest businesses give you time to decide and that anyone who pressures you to pay is a scammer. Take the time. Ask for a photo or short video of the exact part with its number and the invoice number visible, and again at dispatch with the air waybill or bill of lading number.

Impersonation is its own problem. Copies of real businesses appear in social media groups, so confirm that the WhatsApp number you are writing to is the one published on the business's own website or listing, and treat a new number that appears mid-conversation with different payment details as a warning.

We do not supply Iran, Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Crimea, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Algeria, Ethiopia or Yemen, and we do not route parts through a third country towards any of them. Some are under sanctions and others are closed to us for banking, legal or practical reasons. The UAE applies United Nations sanctions through Cabinet Decision No. 74 of 2020, according to a guideline published by the UAE's Executive Office for Control and Non-Proliferation, and we will not quote an order whose real destination is unclear.

Each country page covers one destination: the route your parts take in, the duty, tax and inspection rules with their sources and dates, the words buyers there use for the same parts, and what usually makes sense to ship. They are listed below by region, together with pages for particular vehicles and parts, our directory of UAE exporters and the trade page for buyers who want a price list or a container.

If your country is not listed, message the parts desk anyway and say where you are. Some destinations we can check and quote, and some we cannot, and it is better to find out before you pay anyone than after.