TL;DR: Landed cost is what the car actually costs you by the time it is sitting in your yard, not the FOB price. Budget FOB plus freight plus duty plus clearing, and duty is calculated on CIF rather than on the price you paid.
Landed cost is the single number that decides whether an import deal works. It has four parts:
- FOB price — the car, loaded on the vessel at a Chinese port
- Ocean freight — container or RoRo to your destination port
- Duty and taxes — assessed by your customs authority, calculated on CIF value
- Clearing and inland — agent fees, terminal handling, port charges, transport to your yard
The part that catches new importers is the third one. Duty is not charged on what you paid the exporter; it is charged on the CIF value, meaning the cost of the car plus insurance plus freight. So a higher freight bill also raises the duty bill. And customs may assess against their own valuation table rather than your invoice if they consider the declared value low.
The rates differ enough between markets to change which car you should buy. Ghana runs roughly 30-35% of CIF on a used car; Nigeria roughly 50-70%. On the same $11,111 vehicle that difference is around $3,600 in duty alone. Age-based penalties apply in both markets and get steeper the older the vehicle.
Every model page on this site shows a worked landed-cost estimate for Ghana and Nigeria so you can compare before committing. Treat those figures as planning estimates: duty schedules and exchange rates move, so confirm the final number with your clearing agent before you pay for a car.
Compare with FOB, which is only the first line of this calculation, and CIF, which is the basis your duty is assessed on.