Say you spot a three-year-old German estate on a European dealer site for what looks like £5,000 less than the same car on a UK forecourt. You do the sums on the back of a beermat, feel smug, and start looking at ferry crossings. My view: importing a car from Europe to the UK post-Brexit is now a bad bet for most private buyers, and the gap you can see on the advert is almost never the gap you end up with.
That is not because it is impossible. It is because the costs stack up in places the advert never shows you, and each one arrives after you have already paid for the car.
What does importing a car from Europe to the UK actually cost?
Beyond the purchase price, you pay import VAT, possibly customs duty, transport, registration costs and sometimes an Individual Vehicle Approval test. Before Brexit, a car bought in the EU moved freely. Now it is an import into Great Britain, and HMRC treats it as one.
Import VAT is charged at the standard rate on the value of the car plus shipping and other costs to get it here. If the seller is a VAT-registered dealer who charged local VAT, you may be paying tax twice unless you get it reclaimed from them, which means more paperwork in another language. Check the current rules on GOV.UK’s guidance on importing vehicles into the UK, because they are the only source that matters here.
Customs duty: the 10% that depends on where the car was made
Customs duty on cars is 10% under the standard tariff, but cars that qualify as originating in the EU under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement can come in at zero. The catch is the rules of origin. A car assembled in Slovakia is not automatically EU-origin if too much of its content came from elsewhere.
This catches out buyers of Japanese and Korean brands built in Europe, and cars with a lot of non-EU componentry. Zero duty is a claim you have to be able to prove with origin documentation, not something you assume because the plate says Spanish. Get it wrong and HMRC will want ten per cent of the value, on top of VAT. Duty is calculated on the value including transport costs, so a ten per cent hit is bigger than it first looks.
Do you need an IVA test for a European car?
Not always, but often more than people expect. A car with a valid European Certificate of Conformity can often be registered in Great Britain without Individual Vehicle Approval, because GB type approval has historically recognised EU approval. Cars without proper paperwork, or ones not built to the right specification, may need an IVA test.
The IVA is a physical inspection by the DVSA covering lighting, emissions, seatbelts, brakes and more. Typical failures on a European-spec car include rear fog lamp configuration, speedometer units showing km/h only, and headlamps dipping the wrong way for UK roads. Fixing those is fiddly work, and a retest costs time and money. Left-hand-drive cars add to that pile of small expenses.
Why the savings vanish
The advert price is only one line of the bill. A realistic budget includes:
- Import VAT and any customs duty
- Transport, either a ferry run and your own time, or a delivery firm
- The cost of getting an EU Certificate of Conformity if one is not supplied
- An IVA fee, if required, plus any rectification work
- DVLA registration, first registration fee and UK number plates
- A UK MOT if the car is over three years old
- Resale risk, since a foreign-history car can be harder to sell
Add those up and a £5,000 apparent saving can shrink to nothing, or turn negative. Then there is the matter of warranty. Many European dealers will not honour cover once the car has crossed a border, and a UK franchise garage may not accept a car that was not first sold here.
The fair objection: some imports do make sense
The honest counter-argument is that some cars are cheaper abroad for a good reason, and a few are simply unavailable here. If you want a specific diesel estate in a specification never sold in Britain, or a low-mileage example of something rare, the premium may be worth it. Enthusiasts importing something unusual are paying for the car, not chasing a discount.
Those buyers usually know what they are doing. They have the paperwork lined up before they transfer a penny, and they treat any saving as a bonus. The trouble starts with the person doing it purely to save money on a mainstream model, where the UK market is deep and competitive and the arithmetic rarely survives the tax bill.
If you are curious about the wilder end of the spectrum, our look at grey import cars covers non-European specification vehicles, where the type approval headaches are even larger.
What I would do before sending any money
Price the whole journey first. Ask the seller for the Certificate of Conformity, confirm the country of origin, and work out the VAT and duty using the GOV.UK guidance. Get a written quote for transport. Then compare the landed cost with a comparable UK car, including its warranty and any dealer guarantee. If the gap is under a few thousand pounds, buy locally and keep your weekend.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I pay VAT when importing a car from the EU to the UK?
Yes. A car brought into Great Britain from the EU is subject to import VAT at the standard rate, calculated on the car’s value plus transport and related costs. If the seller already charged VAT, you may need to reclaim it from them to avoid paying twice.
Is there customs duty on cars from Europe?
The standard tariff is 10%, but a car that qualifies as EU-origin under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement can enter duty-free. The car must meet the rules of origin and you need documentation to prove it, so manufacture in Europe alone is not enough.
What is an IVA test?
Individual Vehicle Approval is a DVSA inspection that checks a vehicle meets British safety and environmental standards. It applies to some imported cars that lack acceptable type approval paperwork, and covers lighting, brakes, seatbelts and emissions among other items.
Can I drive a left-hand-drive car in the UK?
Yes, left-hand-drive cars are legal on UK roads and can be registered here. They bring practical drawbacks such as overtaking visibility, headlamp adjustments and a smaller pool of buyers when you come to sell.
Do I need to register an imported car with the DVLA?
Yes. An imported car must be registered with the DVLA before it can be taxed and driven on the road, and it will be issued UK number plates. You also need to tell HMRC about the import so VAT and any duty can be settled first.
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