How to Import a Salvage Car from the USA: Step-by-Step Guide for EU Buyers

Everything starts at the live inventory — 500,000+ Copart and IAAI lots (plus 16,000+ Canadian vehicles) at the live auctions page. Turn on the one-click insurance-sellers filter: the cars are sold by insurance companies, not by dealers dumping problem stock.

• Condition data: damage description, odometer, title type, keys, Run and Drive status and full photo sets on every lot.
• Export flags: every lot carries a status — 🟢 export and Poland registration OK, 🟡 export OK but contact us before purchase to check registration (extra fees may apply), 🔴 export or Poland registration not possible. Never bid on a red lot you plan to register.
• Price reality check: the free sold-price archive holds 175,000+ recorded auction sales with final bids and original photos — browse the model at /en/salvage and run any VIN through the free VIN check before you commit.

Every lot page already shows its full delivered-to-Europe cost, so you compare cars by the number that actually matters.

A refundable deposit unlocks bidding — a requirement of the auction houses, not ours. You need 10% of your maximum bid as deposit, paid by card, Wise or Revolut, and you can bid within 1–2 hours of paying. Decide not to buy? The deposit is refunded in full — unused deposits within 48–72 hours, with no account-closure fees.

You never need a US dealer license, a US address or a broker middleman: you set your maximum, and LS Auction's licensed desk executes the bid through official auction channels. The instant you are outbid, you know.

Win the lot and the auction house issues its invoice. Auction fees are the line first-time importers underestimate most — at both Copart and IAAI (identical brackets) the winning bid attracts:

• Buyer fee: bracketed up to $15,000 — for example $1,000 on a $10,000 car — then 7.5% of the sale price from $15,000 up.
• Live-bid fee: $0–160 depending on price.
• Flat fees: gate/service fee ($95 Copart / $105 IAAI), $15 environmental fee, $20 title mailing.

On top comes LS Auction's commission: $300 flat per vehicle under $25,000, $400 above — never any VAT on the commission. Every payment moment is marked in advance in the 16-step delivery schedule, so nothing surprises you.

After payment the car is trucked from the auction yard to one of four departure ports — Houston, Irvington NJ, Savannah or Los Angeles. The rates are real per-location lanes covering 228 US auction cities, not averages: Houston-area lots pay about $420 inland, remote yards more.

Ocean freight runs $990–1,760 to Rotterdam and $1,210–2,035 to Gdynia, depending on the departure port. Three adjustments worth knowing:

• Oversize vehicles (pickups, vans) take more container space: ocean freight × 1.4.
• Motorcycles ship at about 45% of a car's slot.
• EVs and hybrids carry a flat $250 hazmat surcharge — lithium-ion batteries are classified dangerous goods at sea.

Poland-bound cars sail to Gdynia; every other destination clears through Rotterdam. Ocean transit takes 2–3 weeks.

The customs value (CIF) = winning bid + auction fees + US inland transport + ocean freight. On that base:

• EU import duty: a flat 10% on every vehicle, at both Gdynia and Rotterdam. There is no US-origin duty exemption for these imports — confirmed by Leśniewski's own customs desks at both ports. Ignore any calculator promising 0%.
• Import VAT is charged where the car is released into free circulation: 23% in Gdynia (Poland) or 21% in Rotterdam (Netherlands), on customs value + duty (+ akcyza in Poland).
• Polish akcyza (excise) — Gdynia route only, charged on customs value + duty: 3.1% for engines up to 2.0L, 18.6% above 2.0L; non-plug-in hybrids ≤ 2.0L pay 1.55%, hybrids 2.0–3.5L pay 9.3%; EVs, hydrogen cars and plug-in hybrids ≤ 2.0L are exempt.

LS Auction clears customs with its own in-house team and settles duty and VAT for you — the customs form and clearance invoice arrive as tracked steps in your account.

A petrol sedan with an engine up to 2.0L, bought at Copart Houston for $10,000, cleared and registered in Poland — computed with the exact same fee engine as our calculator:

• Winning bid: $10,000
• Auction fees (buyer $1,000 + live-bid $160 + gate $95 + environmental $15 + title $20): $1,290
• LS Auction commission (flat, no VAT): $300
• US inland, Houston yard → port: $420
• Ocean freight Houston → Gdynia: $1,430
• Customs value (bid + fees + inland + ocean): $13,140
• EU duty, 10%: $1,314
• Akcyza, 3.1% of (value + duty): $448
• Polish import VAT, 23% of (value + duty + akcyza): $3,427
• Door delivery in Poland: $500

Total delivered: $19,129. The same car with a 3.0L engine? Akcyza jumps to 18.6% ($2,688) and VAT follows the higher base ($3,943) — total $21,885. The engine-size line on the lot page is worth $2,756. And the same sedan delivered to Germany via Rotterdam — ocean $1,100, duty $1,281, 21% Dutch import VAT $2,959, delivery $400 — totals $17,750. Run your own scenario in the delivered-cost calculator.

After clearance you either take door delivery — $500 in Poland, $400 in Germany, $520 in Czechia, with set rates for Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Romania — or collect the car at the port yourself and save the delivery fee. The 16-step tracker walks the whole tail end: payment confirmations, shipping-terminal photos, the customs clearance form and invoice, the pickup notification, then the document run.

The registration paperwork comes in the final steps: scans of the vehicle documents first, then the originals — the US title (mailed by the auction house; the $20 title fee is already inside your auction fees) and the customs-clearance documents — dispatched to you as soon as they reach our office. On a 🟢 export-status lot that is the document set your registration office expects; on a 🟡 lot, talk to us before you bid.

The typical door-to-door timeline is 4–8 weeks:

• Weeks 1–2: auction win, payment, US inland trucking to the departure port.
• Weeks 3–5: ocean transit to Gdynia or Rotterdam (2–3 weeks on the water).
• Final week: customs clearance, duty and VAT settlement, door delivery or port pickup.

Every stage is tracked live on the platform — from bid acceptance all the way to "service completed".