Importing an E-Type to the USA

Two things make an E-Type straightforward to import. It is comfortably over 25 years old, which exempts it from federal safety standards, and it is comfortably pre 1975, which puts it outside the emissions regime. What is not straightforward is the tariff position, which has moved three times since early 2025 and contains an unresolved question worth about 10 per cent of the value of the car, and the titling, which is a state matter and varies. For what happens once the car is here, see owning one in America.

The 25 year exemption, and what it actually exempts

The exemption is created by 49 CFR 591.5(i), which reads "The vehicle is 25 or more years old". It is administered by NHTSA under 49 CFR Part 591.

It exempts the car from the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. It does not exempt the car from duty, and it is not an emissions exemption, which is a separate declaration to a separate agency on a separate form.

The forms, and the exact boxes

Three federal forms are in play, issued by three different agencies. Each declares a different thing, and the entry that applies to an E-Type is fixed in each case.

A Registered Importer is not needed. The bond and Registered Importer requirement sits in 49 CFR 591.5(f), which is a structurally separate provision from the age exemption at 591.5(i), and 591.6 does not extend the requirement to (i). A NHTSA interpretation letter of 2000 says the same. So the DOT conformance bond at 150 per cent of dutiable value, which is often quoted at people importing cars, does not apply to an E-Type entering under Box 1. A CBP entry bond is a different thing and may still apply.

Duty, and the part nobody explains correctly

An E-Type is a passenger motor car of HTS heading 8703. CBP's own published rate for a passenger car is 2.5 per cent, based on price paid or payable. The archive did not verify that rate line by line against the HTSUS itself, because the chapter file could not be read, and it notes that.

There is no age based reduction in that 2.5 per cent. The duty free antiques provision at HTS heading 9705 and 9706 is confined to collections, collectors' pieces and antiques of an age far greater than any E-Type. The archive attempted to verify CBP's antiques guidance directly and could not load it, so it prints no specific age threshold.

Presidential Proclamation 10908, published in the Federal Register on 3 April 2025, imposed an additional 25 per cent ad valorem tariff on imported passenger vehicles under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. CBP implemented it through the 9903.94 series and created subheading 9903.94.04 for vehicles manufactured in a year at least 25 years prior to the year of the date of entry, at a 0 per cent additional rate. So an E-Type is excluded from the Section 232 automobile tariff. This is verified from two CBP primary sources.

On 20 February 2026 the Supreme Court decided Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, consolidated with Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, Inc., by 6 to 3, striking down the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The ruling did not touch Section 232, which rests on separate statutory authority. From 24 February 2026 a Section 122 balance of payments surcharge of 10 percentage points applied to most imports, with goods already subject to Section 232 excluded so the two did not stack. That surcharge expired by operation of law on 24 July 2026. On the same day a Section 301 action took effect covering 60 investigated economies, with the United Kingdom on the 10 per cent list, exempting all articles subject to tariffs under Section 232.

What an importer from Britain most likely pays as at September 2026 is the ordinary 2.5 per cent passenger car duty, plus possibly a 10 per cent Section 301 duty depending on the answer to that question, plus a merchandise processing fee and a harbour maintenance fee which the archive has not researched. It deliberately does not publish a total, because it cannot compute one honestly.

The documents to have

Ocean shipping, roll on roll off against container, transit times and costs are outside what the archive has researched, and it will not describe them.

Titling, which is where it gets local

Importing the car and titling the car are two different problems with two different authorities. Federal law gets the car into the country. A state issues the title, and the requirements vary, so what follows describes mechanisms and gives one worked example rather than pretending there is a national rule.

The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators published Imported Vehicles guidance in March 2021. It is not law, but it is the document state DMVs work from. Its recommendations are these.

• A signed and stamped CBP Form 7501 is the only form that should be accepted as verification of a vehicle importation.
• Jurisdictions should require the HS-7.
• AAMVA recommends against requiring the EPA 3520-1, and says to accept the 7501 as evidence it was provided.
• Jurisdictions should require sufficient proof of ownership, noting that many countries do not issue a title at all, which is the position of a British V5C, a registration document rather than a title.

Virginia, as a worked example

Virginia DMV's Vehicle Licensing Guide VLIC-3.330, revision date 25 February 2025, requires one of CBP Form 7501, CBP Form 3299 or an ACE report; NHTSA Form HS-7; EPA Form 3520-1, which Virginia does require despite AAMVA's recommendation; the original ownership document; a bill of sale where the ownership document is not in the applicant's name; and English translations of any foreign language document. On the age exemption Virginia says vehicles less than 25 years old must provide acceptable proof of FMVSS compliance, so a car 25 years or older needs none.

Virginia is given as one example of the shape of the requirement. It is not a template. Check your own state.

A car with no US title

Three mechanisms exist for a car that has never been titled in the United States, and it is worth being clear about who each one is actually for.

• A bonded title. Texas is the documented example. TxDMV states the bond is equal to 1 and a half times the value of the vehicle, and that you have one year from the date of the notice to purchase the bond.
• An administrative hearing before a tax assessor collector, in Texas via Form VTR-130-ND.
• A court ordered title, which most states have an equivalent of.

A properly imported E-Type with a stamped 7501 and a V5C should not need any of this. The bonded route matters for the reader buying an already imported car from somebody who never titled it, which is a more common situation than it sounds.

The Vermont route is closed

What it was: Vermont did not title vehicles above a certain age, so a non resident could register such a car in Vermont by post on a bill of sale, and use that registration to title the car at home.

What happened: a Vermont DMV policy update dated 26 June 2023 stated that the Department will not process such transactions unless the owner can establish a legitimate connection to the State of Vermont. It was reported by Rob Siegel for Hagerty, who reports the DMV attributing the change to high volume commercial abuse, stolen and salvage vehicles and fraudulent documents. A Massachusetts RMV notice records that on 1 January 2024 Vermont changed its title law to title all vehicles regardless of age, and that the position was then revised so that a vehicle 2009 or older need only submit a bill of sale to obtain a Vermont registration. Vermont DMV's current title page states the age based titling exemption survives for a Vermont registered vehicle of 2009 or older, and notes Act 165 enacted on 1 July 2024.

The age based exemption still exists for Vermont residents. The residency screen closed the route to everybody else in 2023, and the law moved again in 2024. Anyone still recommending the Vermont route to a non resident is working from an out of date page.

What the archive has not established

• Whether a 25 year old car at 9903.94.04 counts as subject to Section 232 tariffs for the Section 301 exemption. This is the consequential one.
• The specific age threshold in HTS heading 9705, because CBP's antiques guidance could not be loaded.
• The General column 1 duty rate verified line by line against the HTSUS itself, as distinct from CBP's own published statement of 2.5 per cent.
• The threshold at which a formal entry and bond become mandatory for a personally imported vehicle, and whether a private individual may file entry without a broker. Every source found on this was a customs brokerage marketing its own services.
• The treatment of a personally owned vehicle under the Importer Security Filing rules at 19 CFR Part 149. The filing exists and in practice the shipping agent or broker makes it, but the archive could not retrieve CBP's own guidance.
• Which states, if any, independently refuse to accept a Vermont registration as an ownership document.
• Whether the discrepancy in 40 CFR 85.1511(f)(2) has ever been raised with EPA.

Common questions