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 SL 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.

Does mechanical condition affect duty?

No. A damaged SL clears at the same rate as an intact car from the same plant, because what counts is the country of final assembly. Condition does affect the purchase price, and through it the customs value and the taxes charged on it.

How long does a VIN check take?

A matter of seconds. You enter the number and get the country and city of the assembly plant plus the answer to whether that SL meets the condition for the customs preference. The check is free, needs no account and can be repeated for every lot you consider.

Saturn SL from the Spring Hill plant and 0% duty

American assembly covers 99% of the SL cars in our database, and their numbers open with 1G8. 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 Saturn SL assembled?

SL cars off American lines carry the VIN prefixes 1G8 in our database. A prefix shows the manufacturer and the country, but the 0% rate is decided by the final assembly plant read for the specific number. The table shows how many cars from each plant have passed through us.

Plant	Country	VIN prefix	Cars in our database	Duty
Spring Hill	United States	1G8	1,115	0% duty
Lordstown	United States	1G8	1	0% duty

Made in USA • Tax 0%

How do you check a specific car?

Type in the VIN of your SL and we read the country and city of the assembly plant from the manufacturer's data. A plant in the States means the car qualifies for 0% duty; any other country means 10%. Do it before you bid, because the rate moves the sensible limit.

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 SL 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 cost of importing a Saturn SL splits into rates you know in advance and a customs value you do not. Fixed: duty at 0% or 10%, excise at 3.1% or 18.6% by engine size, VAT at 23%. Variable: the purchase price, transport and port charges.

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

You put nothing together yourself. We check the origin of the car by VIN, prepare the papers and run the clearance; if the production data points to assembly outside the USA, we declare it at 10% so the bill does not change when you come to collect.

What to watch for when buying at auction

The most common damage on a SL in our database is features.lots.characteristics.damage_type.front_end, so start the photos and the report there. Repairing that area can eat the whole advantage of 0% instead of 10%, which is why you count it together with duty rather than separately.

Damage	Cars in our database
Front end	473
Rear end	142
Side	139

From the USA or from Europe?

The comparison only means something after a VIN check. The same Saturn SL 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: Saturn SL