How to Compare FOB Used Car Quotes from China

Two suppliers send you a number for the same model. One is $2,000 lower. On the day the container is opened, the cheaper quote can still be the more expensive car. The reason is almost never the vehicle price — it is what the two numbers mean.

This page is a method for putting rival FOB quotes onto equal footing, using two real listings from our own stock as the worked example.

Start by writing down what the FOB figure does not include

Under FOB the named Chinese port is the handover point. The car must be delivered to that port and loaded; after loading the main freight, the insurance and everything at the destination end are the buyer's. So a bare FOB number tells you the vehicle and getting it onto the ship. It does not tell you the ocean freight, the destination charges, the duty, the conformity approval or the inland delivery.

That is why a $2,000 gap between two FOB quotes can vanish or invert once you put both onto a CIF basis. Ask each supplier for both figures on the same unit, and ask which named port each figure refers to.

Put the two quotes into the same table

Here are two Volkswagen listings we hold, quoted exactly as the website publishes them. Read down the right-hand column: the CIF figure is not the FOB figure plus a percentage, and the distance between them is not a fee we add to the car.

Freight and insurance account for $3,000 of the published landed price on this listing; the remainder is the car itself. On the Volkswagen T-ROC, the same measurement works out differently because the vehicle itself sits in a lower price band and the freight is a larger share of the total. That is the first thing a quote comparison should show and usually does not.

The seven fields to demand before you accept any FOB number

1. The VIN or stock reference. A quote for a model is not a quote for a car. Without a unit reference you cannot tell which vehicle the price defends.
2. The named port of loading. FOB Qingdao and FOB another port are not interchangeable, and the inland cost to reach the port is inside the number.
3. Model year and trim. A 2023 and a 2025 of the same name are two products with different resale ceilings.
4. Recorded mileage and how it was evidenced. Ask whether the figure came from the dashboard, from records, or from the supplier's assumption.
5. Condition disclosure. Repainted panels, prior repairs, missing keys, missing charging equipment. Ask for it in writing, not for reassurance.
6. The CIF figure to your port. This is the only number you can compare across suppliers without doing freight arithmetic yourself.
7. Validity period. A quotation with no expiry is either not a quotation or not a price. Ours is written against a unit and a period.

The usual contents of a low FOB price

In practice the discount comes from one of five places, and four of them are visible if you ask the right question. A different and older model year behind the same name. A higher recorded mileage presented without evidence. A repainted or previously repaired car disclosed late or not at all. A price that excludes inland movement to the port and quietly adds it later. Or a price quoted for a car that is not actually in the supplier's hands, which turns into a different car once the deposit is paid.

None of these is exotic and none is necessarily dishonest. The point is that a quote is only a quote once the unit behind it is named.

The fields our own quotes carry

Every APXAUTO quotation names the specific unit, states the model year, recorded mileage, powertrain and transmission from the listing, states the trade term and the named port, and sets out in writing which charges sit inside the price. When a buyer asks for CIF, the quotation shows the CIF figure for the named destination port and the validity period. When we cannot confirm something — a service record, a country's eligibility rules — we mark it unconfirmed rather than filling the gap.

Those four units are the lower price bands in our stock. They exist to make a point about quote comparison: a $6,500–$7,500 FOB sedan and a $16,300–$17,300 FOB compact are not competing on price. They are competing for two different buyers in your showroom, and the freight is a bigger slice of the first one.

Quote questions dealers send us

Can I get a quote without a VIN?

You can get an indication for a model and model year, and you can see our published FOB and CIF ranges on every listing. A firm price needs a unit, because two cars of the same model from the same year are not the same car once mileage, paint and specification are counted.

Is the lowest FOB price the best deal?

Only if the two numbers describe the same vehicle on the same trade term to the same port. Otherwise you are comparing a price with a different product.

Do you charge for a quotation?

No. Send the model, model year, quantity and destination port and we will quote the units that exist. If nothing matches your budget, we say so rather than adjusting the specification silently.

Which Incoterm do you quote in?

FOB and CIF as the ICC Incoterms rules set them out. Both name a port, and the named port is what makes two quotations comparable.

Send us two quotes you are comparing, including the supplier's wording, and we will tell you which line is missing. That conversation is free and it is usually the one that changes the decision.

Read how FOB and CIF split the cost · Have APXAUTO price both terms on one car