How to Read a China Used Car Offer Sheet

An offer sheet is a list of promises arranged in a conventional order, and almost every dispute we see traces back to one row that was read quickly. Read it out of sequence and you will price a car before you know what the price excludes, or approve a delivery window before you know when the clock starts. The worked example further down this page is built from three cars in our stock today, a Volkswagen T-ROC, a Toyota RAV4 and a Jetour X70 PLUS, all 2023–2025 gasoline units inside the same mileage policy.

Below is the reading order we suggest, using a real listing from our stock as the example throughout. The listing is the Volkswagen T-ROC, published at $14,000–$15,000 FOB and $17,000 CIF to the port we quote most often.

The car has to be identified beyond argument

A model name is not an identification. The same model year can contain different trims, different powertrains and different equipment, and the sheet should say which one it is quoting. Look for the specific unit reference, the model year, the powertrain, the transmission and the recorded mileage bracket in the same block. That block is what a listing in our own stock shows as model, year, odometer as recorded, fuel and gearbox, and a sheet that quotes a car without those fields cannot be checked against anything.

On the Volkswagen T-ROC above, the sheet should carry 2023–2025 as the year range, gasoline, and the mileage policy the listing states. If any of those fields is missing, the rest of the sheet is quoting something less specific than a car.

The trade term and the named port

The trade term is not a preference, it is a division of responsibility, and the ICC Incoterms rules define exactly where that division falls. A sheet that says FOB without naming the Chinese port, or CIF without naming the destination port, has not yet told you what the buyer is paying for.

This is the row where two suppliers most often look different while being identical. One quotes CIF to a port served by a direct sailing; another quotes CIF to a port reached by transhipment. The number differs, the term does not, and the buyer is comparing two different products.

The number, and the list of things it excludes

Take the published figures on the Volkswagen T-ROC, $14,000–$15,000 FOB against $17,000 CIF. The gap is the logistics portion — inland movement, origin handling, export declaration and ocean freight with insurance — and it is not a margin added by the supplier.

Everything on the destination side sits outside both figures. Duty, value-added tax, conformity approval, port charges on arrival and inland delivery are assessed and charged in the importing country, and no exporter can quote them on the buyer's behalf. An offer sheet that folds an estimate of those into a headline price is telling you the supplier is willing to guess.

The condition lines on the sheet

This row is shorter than buyers expect, and the shortness is deliberate. A credible sheet states the recorded mileage bracket, what evidence supports it, and which defects are disclosed. It does not claim a grade, because a grade is a judgement made by someone looking at the car on a particular day.

Compare the condition rows of two sheets before you compare the prices. A lower price against a thinner condition statement is not a cheaper car; it is a car about which less is known.

The dates, and what each one is measured from

A delivery window is meaningless without its starting point. Loading, sailing, arrival and release are four different events, and a sheet that names only one date has hidden the other three. Ask explicitly whether the stated period runs from deposit, from payment of the balance, from the loading date, or from the sailing.

For RoRo the constraint is the sailing schedule at the departure port. For container loading it is usually the cut-off for documentation and gate-in. Neither is under the supplier's control once the booking is made, which is why the honest sheet presents them as windows.

One sentence decides what happens when reality moves

Every order eventually meets a fact that was not in the sheet: a sailing slips, a car fails a check, a document needs a correction. The clause that governs this usually appears at the bottom and is read last. It should say what happens, who decides, and what the alternatives are.

We write it as a substitution rule. If the specific unit cannot be supplied, the buyer is offered a named alternative at its own price, and nothing moves until that offer is accepted in writing.

The same seven rows applied to two alternatives

The point of putting three sheets side by side is not to pick the cheapest line. It is to see which supplier has filled every row, because a sheet with no gaps is the one that can be executed without a second negotiation.

Offer sheet questions

Can I ask for a revised sheet?

Yes, and you should. Asking a supplier to restate one row in writing is a cheap test of how the rest of the order will be handled.

Should the offer sheet include the destination costs?

It should say clearly that they are excluded. Any supplier who includes an estimate is guessing at another country's tax and conformity rules on your behalf.

How firm is the CIF figure?

A firm CIF figure requires a named port and a sailing. Before both are fixed, the CIF figure on a sheet is an indication and should be labelled as one.

What if a row is left blank on purpose?

Treat a blank as a question and get the answer before deposit. Nothing in a used-car export is easier to correct after loading than before it.

Send us an offer sheet you have received and we will read it row by row against our own, or ask us for ours on any unit currently in stock.

See the listings our sheets are built from · Read how FOB and CIF are handled here · Request an offer sheet for a specific unit