Tom's Land Rover: A Case Where Importing Did Not Make Financial Sense

The car and the plan

Tom's Discovery Sport was a 2016 model, right-hand drive, diesel, with a CO2 figure of 178 g/km — a relatively high band under IEDMT — bought privately in the UK. Since the UK left the EU customs union, this purchase was a third-country import from Spain's perspective: no ITP, but customs duty and import VAT via a DUA instead, on top of the usual IEDMT and the headlight conversion that any right-hand-drive car needs to pass the Spanish ITV.

Running the full landed cost

Purchase price: £18,000 (approximately 21,000 EUR). Customs duty at 10% of the customs value: 2,100 EUR. Import VAT at 21%, calculated on the customs value plus duty (21,000 + 2,100): 4,851 EUR. IEDMT, based on the 178 g/km CO2 figure landing in the 9.75% band, calculated against a Hacienda table value of roughly 19,500 EUR: 1,901.25 EUR. Right-hand-drive headlight conversion to genuine left-hand-drive units, required for the ITV: 700 EUR. Car transporter from Bristol via ferry, chosen over driving because of the distance and the desire to avoid extra mileage before registration: 900 EUR. ITV inspection, Certificate of Conformity, and DGT registration and plates combined: roughly 300 EUR. Total additional cost on top of the purchase price: 10,752.25 EUR, bringing the total landed cost to approximately 31,752 EUR.

What the same car cost already registered in Spain

Tom checked the Spanish used market for an equivalent left-hand-drive 2016-2017 Discovery Sport with comparable mileage and specification, already on Spanish plates with all taxes settled. Listed prices for that exact profile ran between 23,500 and 26,500 EUR, averaging around 25,000 EUR — a car ready to drive immediately, with no headlight conversion needed, no ITV pre-registration risk, and no customs process at all.

The honest comparison

Importing his own car: roughly 31,752 EUR landed cost, plus the time cost of the DUA process, transport scheduling, ITV appointment and the risk of an ITV failure requiring further work. Buying an equivalent car already in Spain: roughly 25,000 EUR, available immediately. The gap, nearly 6,750 EUR in Tom's case, made importing the clearly worse financial choice once every real cost was counted rather than just the UK sticker price.

Why the sentimental case still sometimes wins, and why that is fine

Tom ultimately chose to sell the Land Rover in the UK before moving and buy locally in Spain instead, purely on the numbers. Some buyers in an identical financial position choose to import anyway for a car with sentimental value, a rare specification, or low mileage that simply is not available on the Spanish market at any price — that is a legitimate choice, but it should be made knowing the true cost gap, not in spite of not knowing it.

Frequently asked questions

Would the transfer-of-residence exemption have changed the outcome?

If Tom had owned the car for at least 6 months and met the other three conditions, the exemption could have waived the customs duty, import VAT and IEDMT entirely for a genuine relocation, which would have flipped the comparison heavily in favour of importing — this is exactly why checking exemption eligibility before deciding is essential, not optional.

Is a high CO2 figure always the deciding factor against importing?

It is one factor among several — right-hand-drive conversion costs and, for non-EU origin cars, customs duty and import VAT often weigh more heavily in the total than the IEDMT band itself, as this case shows.

Does this mean UK imports are generally not worth it after Brexit?

Not universally — for some models the UK price gap is large enough to absorb duty, VAT and conversion costs and still come out ahead; Tom's case illustrates why the calculation has to be run for the specific car and market, not assumed either way.