What this site is, and what governs an instruction

They apply to anyone who uses this site: clients, advisers acting for clients, suppliers, and anyone reading a guide such as Importing a car from the USA to the UK. Using the site means accepting them.

Nothing published here is an offer capable of acceptance. An enquiry does not create a contract, hold a car, reserve container space or book a sailing. That happens only when written terms are signed by both sides.

Lucas International is a private-client advisory firm with two service lines: vehicle sourcing and vehicle shipping logistics. In both we act as agent for the client and coordinator of the specialists who do the underlying work.

We do not hold stock and we do not sell you our own cars. We are not the seller of any vehicle we introduce, and we are not the carrier, the terminal, the customs authority, the customs broker or the insurer. We appoint and supervise those parties for you.

Inspections, marine cargo cover, customs entries and haulage are performed by third parties under their own trading conditions, which commonly limit liability. We tell you which conditions apply before work starts, and we do not present another party's cover as our own.

Every figure here, and every figure in a written quotation, is indicative until confirmed. Quotations state their currency — pounds sterling, US dollars or euros — and hold only for the period written on them.

Shipping quotations remain subject to carrier space, sailing schedules, terminal availability, vehicle dimensions, seasonal demand, currency movement and the customs position on the day of entry. Ranges published in guides such as RoRo versus container are ranges, not prices.

Timeframes are estimates given as ranges. Port congestion, customs inspection and weather sit outside our control, and we do not guarantee a sailing, an arrival or a delivery date. Where a deadline is hard, tell us at the outset.

Pages in Guides and elsewhere describe duty rates, tax treatment, forms and registration requirements. That material is general information, current as at the date shown on the page. It is not legal, customs, tax or financial advice.

Rates, thresholds and procedures change. Anything here touching HMRC, DVLA or DVSA in the United Kingdom should be confirmed with that authority before you act on it. So should anything touching CBP, NHTSA or the EPA in the United States. On a point that carries money, take licensed professional advice.

Two examples make the point, and neither is ours to decide. US admissibility under the 25-year rule runs on the month and year of manufacture rather than the model year, and NHTSA's exemption is read at entry by CBP. Classification as a collectors' vehicle under tariff heading 9705 is a condition-and-originality test as well as an age test, and HMRC settles it. As at 2026 we work with licensed customs brokers on both, and where the sum justifies it we prefer an Advance Tariff Ruling obtained in advance to an assumption.

We do not give tax or legal advice, and we do not accept instructions to do so.

We take reasonable care with this site, but we do not warrant that every page is accurate, complete or current, or that the site will be available without interruption.

So far as the law allows, we accept no liability for loss arising from reliance on general content published here. That covers indirect and consequential loss, loss of profit, a lost purchase opportunity, and costs incurred on a figure marked indicative. Liability for work we are instructed to perform sits in the engagement letter, not here.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.

The text, research, photography and design of this site belong to Lucas International or its licensors. Read it, print a page, quote briefly with attribution and a link. Do not republish pages, scrape the site, or present our research as your own.

Marque, model and manufacturer programme names appear descriptively, to say what a thing is. Their use implies no affiliation with, approval by, or authorisation from any manufacturer.

We link to authorities, carriers and registries because naming them is more useful than describing them vaguely. Those sites are not ours, we do not control their content, and a link is not an endorsement.

Once you leave, that site's terms and privacy policy apply in place of ours. How we handle what you send us is set out in our privacy notice.

These terms, and any dispute arising from them or from use of this site, are governed by the law of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction. Where a client contracts as a consumer, mandatory protections in their home jurisdiction are unaffected.

An engagement letter may specify different law for a particular instruction. Where it does, that document governs the instruction and these terms govern the website only.

We revise this site as rules and rates move, and these terms may change with it. The version published here is the version that applies, and the date above records when it last changed.

Changes to a live instruction are a different matter. Those are agreed with you in writing, never by amending a page on this site.