Vehicle shipping — UK to USA
One lane, two federal age clocks and a document chain that has to be right before the car is loaded. We run it end to end, and we settle eligibility before a deposit moves.
- Southampton, Liverpool and Bristol/Portbury into New York, Baltimore, Brunswick and Jacksonville
- Licensed customs brokers instructed and coordinated on your behalf
- Agreed-value marine cover placed through regulated brokers
The lane in four numbers
- Typical door to door, UK collection to US delivery
- Typical door to door, UK collection to US delivery
- NHTSA gate for FMVSS-exempt entry, run from the month of manufacture
- NHTSA gate for FMVSS-exempt entry, run from the month of manufacture
- EPA gate for the emissions exclusion, run by year of production
- EPA gate for the emissions exclusion, run by year of production
- ISF 10+2 with CBP before the car is laden at the UK port
- ISF 10+2 with CBP before the car is laden at the UK port
The part everyone gets wrong
Two federal clocks, and they do not run together
Two agencies decide whether a car may enter the United States, and their clocks are set differently. NHTSA exempts a vehicle from the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards once it is twenty-five years old, codified at 49 CFR 591.5(i)(1) and declared in Box 1 of DOT form HS-7. The twenty-five years run from the month and year of manufacture — the plate on the door jamb or the chassis, or the factory build record — not the model year. A car built in March 2001 becomes eligible in March 2026, not on 1 January 2026. It is a rolling monthly gate, and reading it off the model year is the most expensive mistake made on this lane.
EPA runs a separate, shorter clock. A vehicle at least twenty-one years old and in original unmodified configuration is excluded from EPA emission requirements, declared as code E on EPA form 3520-1. Age is the calendar year of production subtracted from the year of importation, so EPA works in whole years while NHTSA works in months. Originality carries weight. A replacement engine defeats the exclusion, unless it is the same model as the one originally installed. A certified engine with aftertreatment, taken from a vehicle no older than the one being imported, also satisfies the test.
So, plainly: a twenty-two-year-old car is EPA-clear and DOT-blocked. The twenty-one-year exclusion resolves emissions and nothing else. For permanent road use the binding constraint is the twenty-five-year DOT gate. We establish both dates from the build record before money moves. The mechanism is set out in the 25-year rule, explained. It is also the first check we run on any sourcing mandate headed west.
Process
How the lane runs
Seven stages, one point of contact, and the filing deadlines that gate the sailing.
UK collection and condition survey
Enclosed collection from home, storage or dealer, anywhere in Great Britain, with a dated photographic record at collection and again at loading. The undercarriage is steam-cleaned first: CBP requires it free of foreign soil, and a USDA hold means cleaning at the port, at your cost.
UK export formalities
An export declaration to HMRC against an EORI number, and notification to DVLA that the vehicle has been permanently exported, using the relevant section of the V5C. The remainder of the V5C then travels with the file: CBP wants the foreign registration on entry, and a missing one stalls the clearance.
Booking, cut-off and the 72-hour rule
Vehicles leaving the United States are governed by 19 CFR 192.2. Electronic Export Information is filed through the Automated Export System, and the ITN, the VIN and the original title are presented to the CBP port of export at least seventy-two hours before departure. That governs the return leg and the USA to UK lane, not a departure from Southampton. The two are routinely conflated. On a UK sailing the constraint is the carrier's documentation cut-off, which we work back from.
Importer Security Filing, 24 hours before lading
ISF, the 10+2 filing, must be with CBP no later than twenty-four hours before the cargo is laden at the foreign port. It covers containerised, break-bulk and RoRo cargo alike, needs a bond of its own, and carries penalties of up to US$5,000 per violation plus holds and examination. CBP allows a later timeline for some non-containerised cargo; we verify that per shipment.
Ocean transit
Southampton, Liverpool and Bristol/Portbury are the usual loading ports. ACL's weekly ConRo rotation out of Liverpool is the backbone of the lane, at roughly nine to fourteen nights against Halifax, New York, Baltimore and Norfolk. Published transits run about fourteen days to Jacksonville, seventeen to twenty to Baltimore and Brunswick, twenty-two to Charleston and twenty-four to Port Hueneme. Method is a separate decision from route: see RoRo against container.
CBP entry
Entry is made on CBP form 7501, supported by the shipper's or carrier's original bill of lading, the bill of sale, the UK registration, DOT form HS-7 and EPA form 3520-1. A customs bond and an importer of record number are required, and a licensed customs broker files under power of attorney. We instruct and coordinate that broker; we do not file entries ourselves.
Delivery and state titling
Enclosed inland transport from port to address. Federal release is not a title. State DMVs typically want the stamped 7501, copies of the filed HS-7 and 3520-1, the foreign registration, the bill of sale and the bill of lading, and often a physical VIN inspection. We ask which state the car will be titled in at the brief.
Landed cost
Duty and fees
The federal line items on a US entry. Freight, terminal handling, brokerage and inland delivery sit outside this table and are quoted per shipment.
| Item | Rate or amount | Applies to | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base MFN duty, passenger cars | 2.5% | Passenger vehicles under HTS heading 8703 | Assessed on the price paid or payable. CBP's own published figure. |
| Base MFN duty, light trucks and vans | 25% | Light trucks and cargo vans under HTS heading 8704 | The 1964 chicken tax, in force ever since. Classification decides the rate, not the badge on the tailgate. |
| Section 232 automobile tariff | 25% baseline, introduced April 2025 | Passenger vehicles and light trucks, on top of MFN duty | Country arrangements have been renegotiated repeatedly since. A UK arrangement sits inside an annual tariff-rate quota administered quarterly, so the position turns on quota space at the date of entry. We do not publish a UK rate; it is confirmed per shipment with the broker on the file. |
| Section 232 exemption for older vehicles | Exempt under HTS 9903.94.04 | Vehicles manufactured at least 25 years before the year of entry | Expressed in whole years, unlike the NHTSA test, which runs from the build month. Proof of manufacture date is required. |
| Merchandise Processing Fee | 0.3464%, minimum US$33.58, maximum US$651.50 | Formal entries, FY2026 rates | Effective 1 October 2025. Formal entry is generally required at or above US$2,500. |
| Harbor Maintenance Fee | 0.125% | Ocean cargo only, on customs value | No minimum and no maximum. It does not apply to air freight. |
As at 4 September 2026, drawn from figures published by CBP. Tariffs on US imports changed repeatedly through 2025 and 2026. The Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs in February 2026, with refunds still processing. A Section 122 surcharge ran from February to July 2026 and has lapsed. A Section 301 regime took effect in July 2026. Section 232 automobile duties were not disturbed by any of that, but the position around them keeps moving. Nothing above is a quotation or a promise of the rate you will pay. Confirm the position on the day of entry with CBP and with the licensed customs broker on your file.
Documents
What CBP wants in the file
The set below is fixed. A gap in it is the usual reason a car sits on a US dock accruing storage.
Original bill of lading
The shipper's or carrier's original, not a scan.
Bill of sale
The transaction document supporting the declared value.
UK registration document
The V5C, serving as the foreign registration CBP requires.
DOT form HS-7
The safety declaration. Box 1 for a vehicle twenty-five or more years old; Box 3 for entry by a Registered Importer under bond. A federal declaration, not administration.
EPA form 3520-1
The emissions declaration. Code E for a vehicle twenty-one years or older in original unmodified configuration.
CBP form 7501
The entry summary. It becomes the federal proof of lawful import, and the document your DMV will ask to see.
Evidence of the build date
Chassis or door-jamb plate, factory build record, or first registration. It carries both the NHTSA test and the Section 232 exemption.
Customs bond and power of attorney
A single-transaction or continuous bond, an importer of record number, and a signed power of attorney to the licensed broker.
Under the gate
If the car is not yet twenty-five
Two routes exist under the gate, and on this lane both are usually the wrong answer. A Registered Importer can bring in a younger car, but only where NHTSA has already determined the make, model and year eligible, and only against a conformance bond at 150% of dutiable value with 120 days to reach FMVSS conformity under 49 CFR 592.6. Emissions run separately: under twenty-one years the car must be modified, tested and certified by an EPA-approved Independent Commercial Importer, arranged before it ships. Show or Display is the other route — a narrow petition on historical or technological significance, capped at 2,500 road miles a year, relieving nothing on emissions. The mechanics of both are set out in the 25-year rule.
What matters commercially is the arithmetic. A conformance programme on a UK-market car with no close US-certified sibling routinely costs more than the car, and CBP puts the downside without softening it: a vehicle that does not conform must be brought into compliance, exported, or destroyed. So where a target sits within a year or two of the line, the honest advice is almost always to wait for the build month and book the sailing behind it. We give that advice at the brief rather than after a deposit, and the surrounding engagement is described under how we work and vehicle shipping.
Questions
Asked on this lane
No, and it is the single most expensive assumption made on this lane. NHTSA reads the month and year of manufacture, under 49 CFR 591.5(i)(1). A model-year 2001 car built in November 2000 is eligible from November 2025; a model-year 2000 car built in March 2001 waits until March 2026. We establish the build month from the plate and the factory record before you commit. The mechanism is set out in the 25-year rule.
Only for emissions. Twenty-one years clears EPA under code E on form 3520-1, provided the car is in original unmodified configuration. It does nothing about the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, and for permanent road use the twenty-five-year DOT gate is the binding one. A twenty-two-year-old car is EPA-clear and DOT-blocked.
Southampton, Liverpool and Bristol/Portbury on the UK side; Southampton runs without tidal or vessel restrictions, Liverpool is the ACL call. On the US side: New York and Newark, Baltimore, Brunswick, Jacksonville, Charleston, and Port Hueneme for the West Coast. Brunswick is now the largest US automotive gateway, at close to 779,000 finished vehicles in 2025. The pair is chosen for the car and the delivery address, not the cheapest sailing. Coverage sets out the lanes we run.
Three to six weeks door to door is the honest range. The ocean leg is eight to twenty-six days depending on destination. Ahead of it sit two to four days of UK collection and the export formalities; behind it, five to fourteen days of US clearance and onward delivery. A vessel schedule describes the middle of that, not the whole of it. Mid-November to early January is the quietest window for US inland movement, though carrier schedules thin over the holidays.
RoRo is the cheapest deck space and the right answer for a robust runner. It needs a driveable car, the keys stay with the vessel and terminal, personal effects are generally prohibited, and a modern car carrier's decks are ventilated, so the crossing is made in sea air. A shared container removes all four for a modest premium; sole-use adds control of loading, bracing and timing. The comparison is in RoRo against container.
No. Federal release and state titling are different things. DMVs typically want the stamped 7501, copies of the filed HS-7 and 3520-1, the UK registration, the bill of sale and the bill of lading, and often a physical VIN inspection. California is materially harder for direct imports, and some federally importable vehicle types are refused on-road registration in a number of states. We confirm your state's position at the brief.
Start here
Tell us the car and the state it will be titled in
We will confirm the build month, the entry route, the port pair and the document set before anything is booked. If the car is not yet eligible, we will tell you the month it becomes eligible, and why waiting is cheaper than the alternatives.