Sawa Cars

About

The middleman, on purpose.

Buying a used car in Kigali usually means trusting a stranger about a vehicle that arrived from another continent with a history nobody can check. Sawa exists to be the party in the middle who has actually seen the car.

Why it exists

Provenance is the hard problem here

Not price. Not choice. Knowing what the car in front of you has actually been through.

A large share of the cars on Rwandan roads arrived as used imports, many of them right-hand drive from Japan. They come with a service history written somewhere else, an odometer that is difficult to verify, and paperwork that a private buyer has no practical way to audit before handing over money.

A classifieds site does not solve that. It carries whatever is posted to it: the seller writes the description, the seller takes the photographs, and the seller is the only person who has ever looked under the bonnet.

So Sawa took the opposite position. We take the car in, run a 150-point check across its mechanics, body, electronics and documents, photograph it in a fixed set of 36 angles, and publish the listing ourselves with the report attached. The seller keeps control of the price. We keep control of the truth.

How a car gets on the site

Five stages, none of them skippable

The same pipeline runs behind the seller dashboard, the admin queue and this website — there is no side door.

  1. 01

    Submitted

    A verified seller sends us the car’s details and asking price.

  2. 02

    Reviewed

    Our team reads the submission and books an inspection slot.

  3. 03

    Inspected

    A mechanic runs the 150-point check at the center.

  4. 04

    Photographed

    Our photographer shoots the standard 36 angles.

  5. 05

    Published

    We create the listing, report attached, and it goes live.

Where we draw the line

Four things Sawa Cars will not do

Most of what makes this marketplace trustworthy is what it refuses to offer.

  • We do not take payments

    There is no checkout in the app or on this website, and there never has been. Money changes hands in person at a center, where both parties and our team are present.

  • We do not let sellers publish

    A seller submits a car. Only the Sawa team can turn a submission into a listing, and only after the car has been at a center.

  • We do not list what we have not inspected

    Every live listing has a 150-point report behind it. Cars that fall below our threshold are not published.

  • We do not charge buyers

    Our fees come from the seller: a certification fee for the inspection and photography, and a commission when a handover completes.

Where we work

3 inspection centers in Kigali

Every inspection, every handover and every return happens at one of these. Nothing is done in a car park.

  • Nyarutarama Center

    Nyarutarama, Gasabo

    Address
    KG 9 Ave, Nyarutarama
    Opening hours
    Mon–Sat · 8:00 – 18:00
  • Kicukiro Center

    Kicukiro

    Address
    KN 5 Rd, Kicukiro
    Opening hours
    Mon–Sat · 8:00 – 18:00
  • Kimironko Center

    Kimironko, Gasabo

    Address
    KG 28 St, Kimironko
    Opening hours
    Mon–Fri · 8:00 – 17:00
About Sawa · Sawa Cars