How Dealers Can Plan a Mixed Used Car Order from China

A mixed order is the normal shape of a dealer's first import, and it is also the shape that produces most of the avoidable problems. Putting three models in one shipment looks like spreading risk. In practice it spreads the buyer's attention across three products, three documentation chains and three resale conversations, and the slowest of the three ends up setting how fast the money comes back. The illustration below is built from three units in our stock today, a Toyota Corolla at $8,500–$9,500 FOB, a Geely BOYUE at $12,200–$13,200 and a hybrid BYD SONG PLUS DM-i priced at $19,000–$20,000.

This page is about choosing the composition deliberately rather than by instinct. 343 of the dealer conversations we logged through 2026-09-17 were about more than one vehicle at a time, so the mixed order is not an edge case for us; it is the main case.

A mixed order is one shipment carrying several models

A mixed order is a single shipment containing more than one model or more than one specification. It is not a discount structure, and it is not a way to get a lower unit price by adding volume in a model nobody asked for. Suppliers who price mixed batches as if they were simple ones are usually recovering the difference somewhere else in the sheet.

What it genuinely buys is optionality: you learn which of the three sells fastest in your own market, using real buyers rather than a forecast, without committing three full container loads to the question.

The order stops being priced per model

A single-model order can be quoted once and repeated. A mixed order is quoted per unit, because each line has its own FOB figure, its own condition file and its own CIF calculation once the loading plan is known. That is more work for the supplier and it should be visible in the sheet rather than hidden in a blended number.

The practical consequence for you is that a mixed order is harder to compare against another supplier's offer. If the other offer is a single blended figure, you are comparing a real number with an average, and the average will be wrong for at least one of the three models. Against our published bands the Corolla, the BOYUE and the SONG PLUS DM-i sit in three different price brackets, so a single blended figure for the shipment cannot be checked against any of them.

Loading and paperwork multiply; the freight does not

Three models in one container or one RoRo booking is not three times the freight. It is one booking with more line items, more photographs to match to VINs, and a loading plan that has to respect the physical dimensions of each car rather than repeating a known arrangement. The extra cost is mostly administrative, and administrative cost only becomes expensive when it is discovered at the port.

The trade terms themselves do not change — FOB and CIF mean what the ICC Incoterms rules say they mean, and both still name a port. What changes is the number of times the term has to be applied correctly.

The slowest model sets your cash cycle

Three models arriving together do not sell at the same speed. If one of the three takes twice as long to move, your working capital is tied up in that unit while the other two have already turned. A mixed order therefore has a real cost even when every unit is priced correctly, and the cost is measured in months rather than in dollars per car.

The mitigation is not to avoid the mixed order. It is to deliberately under-weight the model you are least sure about, so that a slow performer blocks a smaller share of your money.

Read your own forecourt before you choose the mix

The composition should come from what you already sell, not from what is easiest to buy. Write down the last twenty cars you sold, with model, price band and how long each sat. That list is more useful than any external forecast, because it already contains your buyers' real behaviour.

A worked mix from the stock we hold today

Here is one arrangement built from our current listings. It is an illustration of structure, not a recommendation, and every figure is live. A compact-focused dealer would read the same shape off three Volkswagen units instead: a Golf 8 at $14,000–$15,000, a T-ROC at $14,000–$15,000 and a T-Cross at $8,500–$9,500.

Read the three lines as three price positions rather than three cars: an entry sedan under $10,000, a mid-price SUV a little above $12,000 FOB and a hybrid at the top of the range. A first order built this way answers two questions in one shipment — whether the market buys at the bottom or the middle, and whether it will pay for a hybrid at all. A dealer trialling a new market gets a cleaner read from three price positions than from three units in the same band.

Unit counts, model by model

The most common mistake is a flat split. Equal quantities assume equal demand, and equal demand is rarely what the forecourt shows. A defensible starting shape is to weight the model you are most confident about, place one or two units of the model you are testing, and leave the third out entirely until the first two have sold. The table above is that shape: the Corolla slot carries the volume, the BOYUE sits in the middle at $12,200–$13,200 FOB, and the SONG PLUS DM-i is a single unit at the top of the range.

A small order that answers a question is worth more than a large order that answers nothing until everything has sold.

The cases where a mixed order is the wrong answer

If your market has one dominant model and no appetite for anything adjacent, mixing dilutes your position. If you cannot service three models after arrival, the third one will sit. And if your cash position cannot absorb one slow unit for several months, a single-model order is the lower-risk route even though it teaches you less.

The written brief we need from you

The models, the quantities, the destination port and what the order is for. 858 of our dealer contacts arrive with resale, wholesale or showroom context attached, and that context is what tells us whether the composition you have in mind is a trial or a standing programme. Send it and we will come back with the units that exist today rather than a catalogue.

Mixed-order questions from returning dealers

Is there a minimum quantity for a mixed order?

It depends on how the shipment is being loaded rather than on a fixed figure. Ask with the models and the port and we will tell you what the arrangement allows.

Do mixed orders cost more per unit?

The freight is booked once, so the per-unit transport effect can be neutral or favourable. What increases is the quoting and documentation work, and any honest quotation will show that per line.

Can I change the mix after the order is placed?

Only as far as the booking allows, and never verbally. Any substitution has to be written into the file before loading, because a change after departure usually cannot be corrected.

How do you handle a model that turns out to be the wrong choice?

That is the information the trial order was bought to obtain. Reorder the models that moved, and leave the slow one out of the next shipment rather than doubling down on it.

If you send us the composition you have in mind and the market it is going to, we will tell you which parts of it our current stock can support today.

Check live availability by model · See the dealer wholesale terms · Send a mixed order specification