Used luxury cars: the traps of the Belgian market

How do you check the service history of an imported premium car?

The Car-Pass is not enough. On a vehicle coming from abroad, it only holds the odometer readings recorded since it arrived in Belgium. Everything before that has to be verified elsewhere: a stamped service book, invoices, and a workshop history printout from the manufacturer obtained through the chassis number.

The Car-Pass is compulsory for every used vehicle sale in Belgium, between private parties as well as through a professional, under the law of 11 June 2004. It costs around €6 and stays valid for two months. At the end of 2025 the database held over 345 million readings covering 27.6 million vehicles, and 855,169 documents were issued over the year.

The figure that matters to an import buyer sits elsewhere. In 2025, Car-Pass identified 1,466 odometer fraud cases. 923 on domestic sales, or 0.12% of files. 543 on imports, or 0.50%. A factor of four. When fraud is established, the mileage has been cut by 79,379 km on average. The record for the year is a 2010 diesel Mercedes E-Class stripped of 370,000 km.

On an import, the Car-Pass starts at the border. What happened before that is yours to reconstruct.

Why are German premium cars cheaper when bought in Germany?

Because the German market is deeper in the premium segment, and because the price shown there includes no Belgian registration taxation. The purchase price gap is real. It partly closes once the registration tax and the entry costs are added.

There is no customs duty and no import declaration: the purchase falls under the EU internal market. On a vehicle that is used for VAT purposes, meaning over six months old and over 6,000 km, VAT was settled in Germany and nothing is due in Belgium.

The trap closes on recent imports. A vehicle under six months old or under 6,000 km counts as new under the VAT regime. In that case Belgian VAT of 21% is due in Belgium, even if German VAT has already been paid. It is recoverable in the country of purchase, but both have to be fronted. In the premium segment, demonstrators and cars registered for a matter of days regularly fall under that threshold.

How much does the registration tax cost on an imported 4x4 in Wallonia?

Since 1 July 2025, Wallonia has dropped the fiscal horsepower calculation. The formula published by SPW Finances is: base amount × (CO2 ÷ 136 under WLTP) × (MAM ÷ 1,838) × fuel coefficient. The result is capped at €9,000 and never falls below €50.

The base amount depends on power in kilowatts and decreases with age: €61.50 up to 70 kW, €495 from 86 to 100 kW, €2,478 from 121 to 155 kW, €4,957 above 155 kW. The degressivity coefficient goes from 100% in the first year to 50% at six years and 30% at ten years. The fuel coefficient is 1 for petrol and diesel, 0.8 for hybrids, and 0.01 to 0.26 for electric cars depending on power.

Take a worked case, with the assumptions stated: a six-year-old premium 4x4, 250 kW, 270 g/km of CO2 under WLTP, 2,900 kg maximum authorised mass, petrol. Base amount €4,957 × 50% = €2,478.50. Multiplied by 270/136, or 1.985. Multiplied by 2,900/1,838, or 1.578. Fuel coefficient 1. Total: €7,763.66, payable once, at registration.

The same exercise on a 250 kW electric car, three years old, 2,600 kg: €4,957 × 70% = €3,469.90, CO2 ratio equal to 1, mass coefficient 1.415, energy coefficient 0.26. Total: €1,276.20. Six times less, at comparable power.

Which costs land before the car even moves?

Three items, all compulsory, all payable before the plate. The roadworthiness test for registration, the E705 signal, the Car-Pass.

The used-car test is billed at €84.20 in Wallonia in 2026, excluding the Car-Pass. In Flanders and Brussels it sits around €74.40, plus an environmental supplement of €5.20 for petrol or €15.60 for diesel. An imported vehicle has to go through it, unless you were already the holder abroad and your name appears on the foreign registration certificate.

The E705 signal is the second blocking point. The paper 705 sticker no longer exists: Customs now sends an electronic signal to the DIV, to be requested through the E705 application on MyMinfin. Until it is generated, the DIV does not register the car. It is not expensive, it is simply blocking, and it is what immobilises the vehicle while the road tax is not yet running but the insurance is.

Which reconditioning costs land in the first year?

Wear parts. They are covered by no certified used warranty, and the manufacturers' exclusion lists are the best available inventory of what is coming.

Porsche explicitly excludes from its Approved warranty: brake pads and discs, shock absorbers, tyres, clutch discs and pressure plate, drive belt including idler and tensioner pulleys, spark plugs, batteries including the high-voltage battery, all filters, fluids, oils and greases. On a six to ten-year-old vehicle that has been through three owners, that is exactly the first-year bill.

I publish no amount for those parts. No dated and verifiable Belgian workshop price series could be sourced as of 2 August 2026, and an estimate is worth no more than silence. What I can say: get the quote before the sale, not after, and have it drawn up by a franchised workshop on the basis of the chassis number.

Porsche, Land Rover, Maserati: what does certified used actually cover?

Three programmes, three levels of transparency. The table below lists what each brand publishes on its Belgian site as of 2 August 2026.

The difference in treatment is clear. Porsche publishes its exclusion list line by line, Land Rover its ceilings, Maserati nothing at all on its Belgian site. That is not a judgement on the cars. It is a verifiable fact about how much information the buyer gets before signing, and it belongs to the cost of ownership just as much as the servicing bill.

What should you check before signing?

In this order, because it is the order of the amounts at stake.

1. Power in kW, CO2 and maximum authorised mass on the foreign registration certificate. They set the registration tax, which is the largest single cheque in the operation.
2. The VAT status of the vehicle: over six months old and over 6,000 km, otherwise 21% to front in Belgium.
3. The Car-Pass, knowing that it starts on arrival in Belgium, and the manufacturer's workshop history for the period before that.
4. Eligibility for the brand's certified used programme, with the exclusion list in front of you.
5. The reconditioning quote, drawn up before the sale.

Mileage comes after all of that. It is the most looked-at figure and the easiest to falsify.

For the rest of the budget, the luxury car ranking gives the annual taxes and cost of ownership recorded per model. If the budget is tighter, see what €20,000 actually buys and what a €5,000 budget really covers.

Sources

• Car-Pass, 2025 annual report, consulted 2 August 2026.
• SPW Finances, registration tax amounts from 1 July 2025, scale valid 01/07/2025 – 30/06/2026, consulted 2 August 2026.
• FPS Mobility and FPS Finance, procedure for importing a vehicle from the EU and the electronic E705 signal via MyMinfin, consulted 2 August 2026.
• Porsche Belgium, Porsche Approved warranty conditions, consulted 2 August 2026.
• Land Rover Belgium, Land Rover Approved, consulted 2 August 2026.
• Maserati Belgium, Maserati Approved, consulted 2 August 2026: no warranty length published.
• 2026 roadworthiness test tariffs, recorded 2 August 2026 from Belgian approved centres.