Importing Your Dream Car From Europe Is Easy But It’s Not Cheap

One of the coolest moments you can experience as a car enthusiast is buying your dream car, especially if it’s something that was never sold in your home country. Most of the discussions revolving around imports involve buying a car in Japan and bringing it to America. There is, however, a whole world of cars out there, and plenty of forbidden fruit is sitting in Europe just waiting for you to bring it here. And it’s not even difficult! Here’s what you need to do to import a car from Europe, and how the process is different than importing a car from Japan.

Finding information on importing a car from Japan is easy. That’s because getting a car from Japan is almost too simple. Japan has a robust auction system, globally-popular car sales sites, and countless businesses and individuals have access to these systems. The nation has what’s essentially an entire industry dedicated to sending old Japanese cars to other places. Because of this, it’s simple to fire off an email to just about any importer and get the process started.

Importing cars from the island nation is also remarkably cheap. This is due to a winning combination of inexpensive shipping, worthless vintage Japanese cars, and a U.S. dollar that’s stronger than the Japanese yen. Not everything in Japan is as wildly expensive as a Nissan Skyline. I’m serious when I say you can buy a running and driving 25-year-old car for just a couple hundred bucks in Japan.

So, how is Europe different? Several readers have been asking me this, and it just so happens that I’m in a position to find out.

A Different Game

This year, I want to get back into car imports. Yes, I said that back in 2023 and again in 2024. Unfortunately, I buried myself under a pile of junk so high that I couldn’t really focus on much else. Finally, having gotten rid of my terrible project cars, I can really chase the stuff I want.

I want to import another car from Japan and one car from Europe. The Japanese car has been easy thus far. I just emailed my favorite auction service and I’m already cruising the Japanese auction system. As for the European car, I’ve been dreaming about the Audi A2 ever since David wrote about one for the old site. It’s a tiny car that was crazy over-engineered and way too expensive for the segment it was trying to compete in. I mean, that has me written all over it. Audi A2 production began at the very end of 1999, so if you’re playing things by the rules, only the earliest Audi A2s are now legal to import.

But how do you do it? Europe doesn’t seem to have a super simple auction system nor does there appear to be a massive industry of companies that make it super easy to just choose a car and send it off to America. A Euro car importer confirmed such to me back in 2021.

If you search Google for “import car from Europe” or other variations of this, your results will likely be lots of shipping companies and exporters. These companies will get your car onto a truck or a boat and to America. That’s great and all, but how do you get the car into your possession and then send that car to that shipping company?

Here’s where things get immediately more difficult than importing a car from Japan. It’s super easy to find dozens of companies to help you bring a Japanese car over to America. The same isn’t exactly true for European imports.

Back in 2021, I asked U.S.-based import firm Orchid Euro about how to import a car from Europe. Orchid Euro has over a decade of experience in importing cars from Europe, but at that time in 2021, the firm was not taking any orders. Orchid Euro’s representatives presented me with the options they felt were the most feasible. The first option was to do all of it yourself.

This is pretty much as annoying as you think it is. You’ll have to contact the dealership or seller yourself and hope that these entities would be willing to sell their vehicle to someone an entire ocean away. If you’re really lucky, the seller might even help you prepare the car for its voyage across the ocean. If you’re buying a car that you want to be in good condition, you’ll also have to find some way to get the vehicle inspected.

This is sort of a wild way to go about this. Ideally, you’d fly out to wherever that car is in Europe to facilitate the purchase and then the shipping back home. That way, you could at least see the car in person. However, you’re still left taking time off from work, paying for an expensive flight, and then going through the work of contacting a company to help you get the thing on a ship and off to America with the correct documents.

The way many enthusiasts go about importing a European car is by using a combination of a vehicle sourcing company, a shipping company, and an importer. This is the kind of work performed by the likes of Orchid Euro. You tell them to find you a car. They’ll find you examples and should you choose one, they’ll have it inspected, prepared for shipping, and then have it put on a transport. But how, exactly, does it work? Perhaps more importantly, how much will it cost?

I didn’t move any further on my European import plans in 2021, but I was motivated to give it another try after seeing that Doug DeMuro successfully imported an old Mercedes-Benz A-Class (above). In fact, I decided to contact the same entities Doug used to import his car, vehicle sourcing agent Dutch Munich and import firm Inbound Motorsports.

No Auctions, Still Easy

Dutch Munich explained to me how it works. You give Dutch Munich your parameters and they’ll search Europe for cars that fit your criteria. Once they find cars that fit the bill, they’ll send you a list with an estimated cost breakdown for each car. Should you choose one of those cars, they’ll have it inspected, purchase the vehicle, and then do all of the work needed to get it to America.

Once it gets to America, you can either handle things yourself or have an importer finish the job. In Doug DeMuro’s case, he used Inbound Motorsports to get the car to America. Dutch Munich elaborated in a message to me:

We can handle everything—from sourcing the car when you give your requirements, to delivering the car to your doorstep anywhere in the US. We collaborate with Inbound Motorsports, who manage everything on the US side, while we take care of the European side.

In Europe, we will source and locate the car for you. If we find one that meets your preferences, we will give you more objective info on the vehicle, allowing you to make an informed decision. We negotiate directly with the seller in person, which is more effective in Europe. If we reach an agreement, we will handle the payment, export documentation, and arrange transport (enclosed or open) within Europe, as well as sea freight (or air freight if preferred). Once the vehicle arrives in the US, Inbound Motorsports takes over, managing the import process and delivering the car to your location. They specialize in importing cars, doing this on a weekly basis.

Throughout the entire process, we will maintain direct communication, so you can ask questions at any time—either to us or Inbound Motorsports.

If you go through this route, it is not much different on your end than using, say, The Import Guys service to import a car from Japan. You choose the car and they do all of the work to get it to you. On your end, the main difference is that you don’t have access to a candy store of cars as you do in the Japanese auction system. Otherwise, it’s functionally similar in that you just pay a number of intermediaries to get a car across a vast ocean.

The price here is also significantly different. The U.S. dollar is stronger than the Japanese yen, so everything in Japan is cheaper than it appears. Unfortunately, the opposite is true for cars in Europe, where the price you’ll pay is more expensive than the price you see. I’ll demonstrate what this means.

I asked Dutch Munich to find me a 2000 Audi A2 with a diesel engine, a manual transmission, and painted in a color that’s not black. Sadly, Dutch Munich informed me that the kind of car I’m looking for is rare at this time and the ones worth buying are deep in Europe nowhere near an ocean port. That’s not to say that diesel Audi A2s are rare, but that it’s currently February 2025 and only the first few months of Audi A2 production are legal to import. If I’m willing to compromise on color or engine I would have better luck.

That being said, Dutch Munich gave me options and estimates, anyway. The cheapest Audi A2 Dutch Munich found me was the 2000 1.4 diesel (above) with 133,594 miles (215,000 kilometers) for $2,500 (2,390 Euro). Perfect! It’s just the kind of car I’m looking for. So, what would it cost? Here’s the breakdown:

Asking price of the car: $2.500
Sourcing, inspection, payment, documentation, and transport handling: $1.500
Transport within Europe (open): $500
Ocean shipping to New York: $2.250
Customs entry fees: $450
Import duties (3% of vehicle value):$75
Service fee – Inbound Motorsports: $1,500
Total: $8.775

I was shocked by this. My Honda Beat was $1,900 in auctions and when all was said and done I paid about $4,700 total for The Import Guys to buy me the car, handle all of the paperwork in Japan, ship it to a port, ship it to America, and get me an American title.

Auto Scout 24 SellerThere are a number of differences that make the Audi more expensive. Putting a tiny car on a Roll-On/Roll-Off vessel in Japan for a trip to the United States costs about $1,000. It appears that doing the same trip from Europe costs over double. I also paid only a few hundred for documents and land transport in Japan while the same costs $1,500 in Europe.

The Customs entry fees and import duties can’t really be changed, but I could save about $1,200-ish by having a different firm like All Ways International Shipping handle the U.S. entry of the Audi. This was the company I used to handle documentation in the U.S. for my Suzuki Every importation. If I try really hard, I could maybe get this price down to about $7,500. That’s before any further negotiation on the above prices.

Still, this amounts to paying $7,500 for a $2,500 car, which is a hard pill to swallow. Things get more expensive if I want to choose a car with fewer miles.

Look at the beauty! It’s another 2000 Audi A2 1.4 TDI. This one has 112,965 miles or 181,800 kilometers, but costs $5,522 or CHF 4,990. The first car was also located in Germany while this one is in Switzerland. How does that change the math? The costs rise even higher:

Asking price of the car: $5.500
Sourcing, inspection, payment, documentation, and transport handling: $2.000
Transport within Europe (open): $1.250
Ocean shipping to New York: $2.250
Customs entry fees: $450
Import duties (3% of vehicle value): $165
Service fee – Inbound Motorsports: $1,500
Total: $13.115

Admittedly, I’m not in a rush to spend $13,000 on a $5,000 old economy car.

To be fair to Dutch Munich, the biggest problems here are that there aren’t many Audi A2s out there that are legal to import and the ones that are deep inside of Europe, which makes everything more expensive. Keep in mind that pretty much no matter where you buy a car in Japan, it’s not going to be far from an ocean port. At the same time, we also have that problem with the exchange rate.

So, what can you do in a situation like this? A lot of people just import European cars from Japan. Yes, these cars may have steering wheels on the wrong side, but the exchange rate will be on your side and fees are apparently cheaper. This is why you’ll see JDM importers in America bring in Japanese market BMWs and similar. Sadly, I’ve yet to see an Audi A2 in a Japanese auction.

I’m probably going to press pause on the Audi A2 idea for now. Maybe I’ll wait for more examples to become legal to import. Or maybe I’ll wait until the much cooler Audi A2 3L becomes legal. Either way, I’m not going to import one right now.

That being said, if you’re looking to import a car from Europe, now you should have more insight into what it would be like. You can either fly out and do it yourself, pay other people to do it for you or get a European car from Japan. Any of these methods should get you that car you’ve been looking for. Either way, this is a ton of fun and I can’t wait to bring in another car.