Is a VIN prefix enough to establish the rate?

No. The first three characters point to the manufacturer and the country, but one prefix can cover several plants. The rate needs the country of final assembly tied to the full number, and that is exactly the reading you get after entering a VIN.

What if the Caprice came off a line in Canada?

Then the car does not use the preference and enters the EU at 10% duty. Canada and Mexico are the most common source of confusion, because cars from there reach sales in the States on equal terms with cars of American production.

Does zero duty also lower VAT?

Indirectly. VAT at 23% is charged on customs value with duty added, so 0% instead of 10% shrinks the tax base. Excise is worked out separately by engine size and comes to 3.1% or 18.6% either way.

Since when has the customs preference applied?

Since 2026-07-01, under the EU–US Agreement on Reciprocal Trade. It covers passenger cars finally assembled in the United States. Cars from plants in other countries keep clearing at 10%, whatever the market they were bought on and whoever sold them.

Does the model year change the assembly country?

Sometimes it does. Manufacturers move production between plants partway through a generation, so a Caprice from two different model years can carry a different assembly country. That is why the rate is set for a VIN and not for a model name.

Chevrolet Caprice from the Arlington plant and 0% duty

American assembly covers 84% of the Caprice cars in our database, and their numbers open with 1G1. That helps you sift listings, but the 0% rate cannot be pinned to a model — only the plant read for one specific VIN says whether the car meets the origin condition.

Where is the Chevrolet Caprice assembled?

Production of the Chevrolet Caprice is often spread across continents, which is why the question of where it is built has several answers at once. For duty, only the country of the plant your car came off matters: the States mean 0%, any other country 10%. Model history and target market change nothing.

Plant	Country	VIN prefix	Cars in our database	Duty
Arlington	United States	1G1	421	0% duty
Ypsilanti Twp	United States	1G1	53	0% duty
Elizabeth	Australia	6G1, 6G3	40	10%
Kansas City	United States	1G1	21	0% duty
Lakewood Heights	United States	1G1	21	0% duty
Detroit	United States	1G1	6	0% duty
Wilmington	United States	1G1	6	0% duty
Oshawa	Canada	2G1	4	10%
Musashimurayama	Japan	1N6	3	10%
Flint	United States	1G1	3	0% duty
Nagoya	Japan	1N6	2	10%
Oshawa	Japan	2G1	2	10%
Oshawa #1	Canada	2G1	1	10%
—	Japan	1N6	1	10%
Janesville	United States	1G1	1	0% duty

Made in USA • Tax 0%

How do you check a specific car?

The check runs on the VIN, not on the auction description. You enter the number of a Chevrolet Caprice and you get the assembly plant plus whether the origin condition is met. The lot description, the seller's country and the yard location say nothing about where the car was built.

How much will you save?

The gap is 10% of customs value, plus a side effect: 23% VAT is charged on the value with duty added, so a zero rate also lowers the tax base. On a Caprice assembled outside the USA neither effect fires. Work the result out in the calculator — the rates are fixed, the customs value is not.

Work out the import cost

What the import cost is made of

The structure is the same for every car and only the first line differs. A Caprice off an American line comes in at 0% duty, a car outside the preference at 10%; after that comes excise by engine size (3.1% or 18.6%) and 23% VAT. Customs value follows the hammer price and transport.

Component	Rate
Duty — car assembled in the USA	0%
Duty — everything else	10%
Excise	3.1% up to 2.0 l, 18.6% above 3.5 l
VAT	23%

Rates, not amounts — the calculator works the sum out on current data.

Zero-duty paperwork — our job

Proof of origin and clearance are on us. For a Caprice that the VIN places on an American line, we assemble the plant documentation and declare the car at the 0% rate. What we need from you is the car you picked and its VIN.

What to watch for when buying at auction

Before you raise your bid, look at the damaged area. On a Caprice it is most often features.lots.characteristics.damage_type.front_end, and then the key question is whether the body structure was disturbed. Origin is a separate check, run on the VIN — the two things are independent of each other.

Damage	Cars in our database
Front end	147
Side	82
Rear end	78

From the USA or from Europe?

The comparison only means something after a VIN check. The same Chevrolet Caprice bought in the States can come in at 0% or 10% depending on the assembly plant, so a car from the USA is not one cost category. On the European side clearance falls away, and usually so does the choice of versions.

See current listings: Chevrolet Caprice