Imported cars in Europe: where they come from – and what buyers should know

You’re scrolling through used car listings and suddenly notice a familiar phrase: “Freshly imported from Germany.” Or maybe “just arrived from France.” In Europe’s used car market, that description appears almost everywhere.

Imported cars have become a normal part of buying a vehicle. In many countries, they’re not just common – they make up a huge share of the market. Buyers often believe imported vehicles are better maintained, better equipped, or simply a better deal.

And sometimes they are.

But when a car crosses borders, parts of its history may stay behind. Accident records, mileage data, or ownership details often remain in national databases that don’t always communicate with each other. For buyers, that can turn what looks like a bargain into an expensive surprise.

To understand how imported cars move across Europe and what risks buyers should be aware of, we analyzed thousands of vehicle history reports generated by our users during 2025.

Key facts of the research

• Germany dominates Europe’s used car exports, ranking among the top five import sources in 17 of 18 countries studied.
• In Croatia (21.2%), Romania (20.1%), and Poland (20%), roughly one in five imported used cars comes from Germany.
• Audi leads mileage manipulation statistics in Europe, with 8.5% of imported models showing clocked odometers.
• BMW is the most damaged imported brand, with 57.2% of vehicles showing accident records.
• Clocking rates vary strongly by country, reaching 19.6% for imported Audi cars in Latvia.

Germany stands out as Europe’s used car powerhouse

Europe’s used car market is highly interconnected. Cars rarely spend their entire lifespan in one country – many cross at least one border before reaching the end of their road.

In many markets, local supply simply isn’t enough to satisfy demand. As a result, dealers and buyers often look abroad, and imported vehicles have become a normal part of the European used car landscape.

Germany plays a particularly important role in this system. In almost every country included in the study (17 out of 18), Germany ranked among the top five sources of imported vehicles. France appeared in the top five in 16 countries, Italy in 14, and Belgium in 11, although import routes vary widely from market to market.

Some countries rely especially heavily on German vehicles. In Croatia (21.2%), Romania (20.1%), and Poland (20%), roughly one out of five used cars checked by carVertical users originally came from Germany.

The picture looks very different in the United Kingdom, where only 0.2% of imported vehicles originate from Germany – largely because British cars use right-hand drive, making imports from most continental European countries less practical.

Among left-hand-drive markets, Italy (7%) shows the lowest dependence on German imports. This is likely because the country has a large domestic vehicle market, meaning many buyers can find suitable used cars locally without needing to import them.

Germany’s strong presence in the import market is no coincidence. The country has one of Europe’s largest car fleets and a massive leasing market. Every year, thousands of relatively new vehicles return to dealerships once leasing contracts end, creating a steady flow of used cars that are later exported to other countries.

For buyers elsewhere in Europe, this constant supply often means access to newer vehicles with better equipment and competitive prices – one of the key reasons imported cars remain so popular.

Popular car brand = clocked?

Whenever browsing imported car listings across Europe, you’ll notice a pattern almost immediately. Different countries, different dealers, different ads – but the same brands keep showing up.

According to our data, the most frequently imported cars across Europe include BMW, Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and Opel. They’re familiar, widely available, and relatively easy to resell – which makes them perfect candidates for cross-border trade.

But popularity comes with a downside. The brands buyers trust the most are also the ones dishonest sellers sometimes exploit.

Among imported used vehicles checked on carVertical in 2025, Audi showed the highest share of manipulated mileage (8.5%), followed by BMW (8.1%), Volkswagen (7.7%), Opel (7.3%), and Škoda (6.4%). When a car already has a strong reputation on the market, reducing its mileage by tens of thousands of kilometers can make it appear far more valuable than it actually is.

Drivers often have psychological mileage thresholds when buying a car. For some, anything above 100,000 km feels like too much. Others draw the line at 150,000 km or 200,000 km. Dishonest sellers understand these limits very well. If a car has 260,000 km on the odometer, reducing it to 170,000 km can suddenly make it far more appealing to potential buyers – and significantly more profitable to sell.

Looking at individual countries, the numbers become even more revealing. In Finland, for example, Ford stands out with one of the highest clocking rates in the study – 13.6% of imported models had manipulated mileage. In Romania, Audi leads the list with 11.4% of vehicles showing signs of odometer tampering, while in Lithuania the situation is similar, with BMW and Audi both reaching 11.8%.

Southern Europe tells a slightly different story: in Portugal, Renault tops the chart with 4.1% of imported cars clocked. Meanwhile, in Spain, Renault stands out with 5.5% of vehicles showing manipulated mileage. In Germany, BMW leads the list with 6.5% of clocked vehicles, in France – Opel, with 3.8%.

Bad news for buyers – half of cars from popular brands have damage history

Damage records tell a similar story. More than half of imported BMWs (57.2%) and Audis (53.8%) checked by carVertical users had some form of damage in their history. The numbers remain high for other popular brands as well, including Škoda (52.4%), Ford (51.2%), and Volkswagen (50.7%).

Of course, not every damage record means the car was involved in a serious accident. Some incidents are minor repairs that don’t affect safety. Still, when buying an imported vehicle, these numbers are a reminder that the story behind a car can be longer – and sometimes more complicated – than it first appears.

When looking into country-specific data, one brand stands out – BMW. Seeing BMW lead the damage statistics in several countries might not be entirely surprising – after all, it’s a brand that tends to attract drivers who occasionally enjoy showing off what their car can do. Some of them simply value their driving skills a bit too highly, which can lead to accidents even in the most trivial situations.

Across Europe, BMW consistently appears among the most damaged imported cars, but the scale of the issue varies noticeably by region. In Western Europe, the pattern is already easy to spot: in Belgium, 45.5% of imported BMWs had damage records, while in Spain the share reached 45.1% and in France it climbed even higher to 49.5%.

The picture becomes more striking in Central Europe. In Hungary, 57% of imported BMWs had previous damage, and in Slovakia the figure rose to 59.2%. Poland stands out even more, with 67.2% of imported BMWs showing damage records – meaning more than two out of three cars had some kind of accident history.

The trend remains strong in Northern and Baltic markets as well. In Latvia, 61.9% of imported BMWs had damage records, while in Lithuania the share climbed to 63.8%.

Why are imported cars so complicated?

Imported cars usually reach buyers in two ways. Some drivers search foreign classifieds themselves and bring the vehicle home. But more often, the car is imported by a dealer or intermediary and then offered on the local market.

And that’s often where things get tricky.

Buying a car that has already been imported by a third party can sometimes carry higher risk. This is often the stage when a vehicle’s history may be manipulated. In some cases, the car is already registered locally, and the buyer may not even realize it was imported. If a seller avoids discussing the vehicle’s past or provides only partial information, that should raise suspicion.

In other words, a familiar badge on the hood doesn’t guarantee a clean history. Sometimes it simply makes the story easier to sell.

When a vehicle moves from one country to another, its history may become fragmented. Information stored in one national database may not automatically appear in another. This gap creates opportunities for dishonest sellers.

A typical scheme may look like this:

1. 1.A vehicle is purchased cheaply in one country and exported.

2. 2.Its mileage is reduced or accident history concealed.

3. 3.The car is registered in a new market.

4. 4.It is sold for a higher price to an unsuspecting buyer.

Imported cars can pose risks for both individual buyers and businesses. According to Bartosz Grzesiuk from Polish dealership Automotore, imported cars were always the biggest challenge for the company: “Manually verifying service history across different countries was time-consuming and didn’t always provide 100% certainty regarding incidents outside authorized service networks.”

Grzesiuk emphasizes that even vehicles that look flawless from the first glance may have hidden issues:

“We once encountered a luxury sports sedan that looked showroom-new, with flawless service documentation. Even the authorized service center conducting the pre-purchase inspection found no issues. However, the carVertical report revealed that the car had been involved in a collision abroad 2 years earlier, recorded in insurance databases with damages exceeding €30,000.”

Fragmented data sharing across the EU limits information accessibility for drivers. In February 2025, the Council of the European Union withdrew a proposal to redefine personal data under the GDPR due to concerns that it would weaken digital rights.

The GDPR defines personal data very broadly, making it difficult for drivers to access crucial information about a vehicle’s past, as different databases still do not share their data due to the GDPR. This kind of information is non-personal and can’t lead to any personal identifications, but knowing that the car was severely damaged in the past can save someone’s life.

How a VIN check helps uncover the real history of an imported car

When buying an imported vehicle, paperwork alone rarely tells the full story. One of the most reliable ways to verify a car’s past is by checking its Vehicle Identification Number (VIN).

A VIN is a unique 17-character code assigned to every vehicle. It acts as a fingerprint that allows databases to identify a specific car and retrieve information about its history.

By entering the VIN into a vehicle history platform such as carVertical, you can access data collected from insurance companies, registries, inspection centers, and other sources.

A VIN report can reveal:

• accident and damage records
• historical mileage readings
• theft records
• previous ownership changes
• export and import history
• historical vehicle photos
• past usage (taxi, rental, police vehicle)

For imported vehicles, the timeline section of a report is especially useful. It can show when a car was first registered in one country and when it was later exported abroad. This helps buyers confirm whether a vehicle’s story matches the seller’s description.

Imported vehicles play a crucial role in Europe’s used car market. Without cross-border trade, many buyers would have far fewer options when searching for a vehicle. However, transparency is essential.

Methodology

The carVertical study analyzed vehicle history reports purchased by the company’s users between January and December 2025. Imported vehicles were grouped by country of origin, converted into percentages, and ranked accordingly.

Vehicle brands most frequently imported across Europe were identified based on the most common makes appearing in imported vehicle reports. Mileage rollback and damage statistics were calculated from all vehicle history reports checked by carVertical users during the study period.