What a car from China actually costs: duty, VAT, shipping, RAR

The most common question on WhatsApp is not "what range does it have", it is "and what does it come to in the end?". The short answer: the figure on the card. The long answer is this article, because a price you cannot take apart is a price you cannot believe.

The pieces, in the order they are paid

1. The car. The purchase price in China, for that particular car, with its mileage and its specification. You see it as a separate line in the quote. It is not a list price — it is what the seller is asking for the car in the report, with photographs of its own dashboard.

2. Shipping. Export paperwork, inland transport to the port, loading onto the ship, the crossing, unloading at a European port, and a truck to Romania. For a saloon, the order of magnitude is a few thousand euros; the exact figure depends on the route and which ship is available that month. We write it in the quote as a sum, not as "approximately".

3. Customs duty: 10%. Calculated on the value of the car plus shipping. Not on the car alone — that is a common mistake in kitchen-table sums, and it is a mistake worth several hundred euros.

4. VAT: 21%. Applied to everything so far: car + shipping + customs duty. Yes, you pay VAT on the duty as well. That is how importing from outside the Union works, and it is not something we can negotiate.

5. RAR type approval and registration. Individual type approval, the registration certificate, the registration fees, the plates. How type approval works.

6. Our fee: €1,500, flat. Written separately in the quote, the same on a €30,000 car and on a €90,000 one. It is not a percentage, so that we have no interest in selling you a more expensive car.

An example with figures

A €30,000 car with €2,500 of shipping:

• base for the duty: €32,500
• customs duty, 10%: €3,250
• base for VAT: €35,750
• VAT, 21%: €7,507
• subtotal before RAR and our fee: €43,257

On top of that subtotal come type approval, registration and the flat fee. The final figure is the one in the contract, and the contract says it is final: if customs asks for more than we estimated, the difference is ours.

Note the proportion: of that €43,257, nearly €11,000 is tax. A quarter. That is why a €30,000 car in China cannot arrive at €32,000 in Romania, whatever anyone promises you.

Why used cars, not new ones

Because the taxes are charged on value. A new €45,000 car pays €5,000 more in tax than the same car with 10,000 km bought for €30,000. The first drop in value — the brutal one — was paid by the first owner, in China, and so were the higher taxes on it. You get a practically new car at a price the taxes no longer inflate in the same way. How we check the mileage is genuine.

How you pay

Not all at once. By default, 30% on signing and the rest once the car is in Romania and you have seen it. The deposit covers the purchase and the shipping; the rest comes after you have stood next to the car. Nobody should be asked to pay in full up front for a car coming from ten thousand kilometres away, and we do not ask it of you. Anyone who prefers otherwise — in full on signing, or through finance — has the options set out on the home page.

What is not in the price, so it does not look as if it is

• A commercial warranty. We do not offer one, and we say why.
• Servicing. We have no workshop. We tell you where it gets repaired.
• Insurance and annual road tax. Yours, as with any car.
• A home charger. A few hundred euros plus installation, if you want to charge overnight. About charging.

Why we insist on "final"

Because the import market is full of "from" prices, with taxes "separate" and surprises at collection. A buyer who has been caught out once trusts nobody again, and we live off the second customer, not the first. The calculator on the site does the same sum, on your own figures, in thirty seconds.