What is CIF price?

[Jagg]

Guys can I get an explanation on what is cif price and what's the difference between importing a vehicle in a buyers name details through a seller with CIF price payment and buying a vehicle in a showroom directly?

[iRage]

CIF = Cost, Insurance and Freight. It pretty much includes the cost of the item, the cost of insuring the item for shipping and the cost of shipping it self.

Eg. Cost would be the price of the car you buy it at from auction or a car sale in Japan, Freight would be the cost of shipping that vehicle from source to destination (Sri Lanka) and Insurance would be the cost to insure the car for shipment.

You can buy a vehicle from Japan through an agent. If you do so...your cost of bringing down the car to Sri Lanka will be the CIF price; plus on top of that the agent would charge you a percentage (for his work) as a markup/profit or depending on how he operates he might have already kept a small markup/profit for himself in the CIF price he gave you. Plus you would have to pay import duties.

If you walk in to a car showroom in SL and buy a car they will give you a price for the car which would have been calculated after factoring in all of the above (CIF, duty, markup/profit). In these cases the profit/markup that the showroom keeps will be higher than in the first case because the showroom has to account for additional factors such as having to stock the car for some time in the showroom, maintaining the showroom premises, staff, additional services, etc...

Edited December 19, 2017 by iRage