What It Costs to Import a Car from the USA to Europe: Duty, VAT, Shipping and the Cost of a Bad Title

Import costs
USA to Europe

Every import broker in Europe publishes a calculator, and most of them are accurate. This page explains the stack they compute, links the national ones, and adds the line they leave out.

The stack, in order

  • US purchase price, plus auction buyer fees, broker fee and any yard storage.
  • Inland transport from the yard or seller to a US port: East Coast (New Jersey, Savannah, Baltimore) for most of Europe, Gulf (Houston) for southern lots, West Coast rarely.
  • Ocean freight: shared container (cheapest per car when consolidated by a broker) or roll-on/roll-off for running cars. 2024 to 2026 quotes seen in the research ranged from around $900 to $2,250 per car to Northern Europe and $1,500 to $1,700 per small car in a shared container to Bar, Rijeka or Koper.
  • EU customs duty: 10% of the customs value (price plus freight and insurance to the EU border) for passenger cars; 22% for pickups classified as trucks; 0% for vehicles over 30 years old that qualify as collector's items. Outside the EU: Serbia 12.5%, Bosnia 15%, Kosovo 0% for US-origin goods since August 2025, Norway 0%, Ukraine 10% (0% for EVs).
  • VAT on the value plus duty, at the national rate: Germany 19%, Netherlands and Belgium 21%, France 20%, Italy 22%, Spain 21%, Poland 23%, Lithuania 21%, Czechia 21%, Slovakia 23%, Hungary 27%, Romania 21%, Bulgaria 20%, Croatia 25%, Sweden 25%, Finland 25.5%, Norway 25%, Serbia 20%, Bosnia 17%, Ukraine 20%, Kosovo 18%.
  • National registration or excise taxes where they exist: Dutch BPM, Polish akcyza, Hungarian regadó, Norwegian engangsavgift, Finnish autovero, Spanish impuesto de matriculación, Croatian PPMV, Danish registreringsafgift.
  • Homologation or individual approval: from a few hundred euros in Eastern Europe to €5,000 to €10,000 in France for a car without EU type approval.
  • Inland transport from the European port, plates, insurance.

Two classification traps

Pickups: if customs classifies an F-150, RAM or Silverado under the truck heading, duty is 22% rather than 10%. Confirm before bidding. Classics: a car over 30 years old may qualify as a collector's item at 0% duty and reduced VAT (7% in Germany), but only if it meets the criteria for originality and condition; a modified or heavily restored car may not.

The line no calculator shows

A calculator prices the car you think you are buying. If the lot you won had a flood code on an earlier auction record, or the "clean" import on a Polish marketplace was a Copart salvage car two years ago, every line above still gets paid and the car is worth a fraction of the total. The cheapest item in the stack is the history check, and it is the only one that can change the decision rather than the price.

Three things to check before money moves

  1. 1

    The US title brand

    Clean, salvage, rebuilt, flood, junk. Issued by a US state, invisible in every European registry.

    How it is checked
  2. 2

    Prior auction records and photos

    Copart and IAAI intake photos, damage codes and sale price, from every sale the car went through, not only the current lot.

    How it is checked
  3. 3

    The odometer sequence in miles

    Readings at US titles, registrations and inspections in date order. A reading below an earlier one is a rollback.

    How it is checked

Frequently asked questions

What is the customs value?

The price paid for the car plus the cost of transport and insurance to the EU border. Duty is charged on that figure; VAT is charged on the customs value plus the duty.

Do I pay duty and VAT twice if the car enters the EU in Germany and is registered in Poland?

No. Duty and import VAT are paid once, at the point of entry into the EU customs territory; the car then moves freely to the country of registration, which charges its own registration taxes.

Is shipping cheaper by container or RoRo?

A shared container consolidated by a broker is usually cheapest per car and is the norm for salvage cars that do not run. RoRo requires a running, driveable car and can be cheaper for a single vehicle to a major RoRo port such as Bremerhaven.

How long does it take?

Brokers quote four to six weeks port to port for Northern Europe and six to ten weeks door to door for the Balkans and Bulgaria. Homologation adds weeks to months depending on the country.

Check the vehicle before you pay

Enter the VIN to see which US and Canadian records exist. The preview is free; the report is $19.99, once.