How to buy a car on mobile.de and bring it to Latvia
Close to half of every imported car in Latvia comes from Germany, and mobile.de is where they are found. Registering it costs less than a tank of fuel. The tax that actually adds up arrives every year after that.
Finding the right listing is the hard part. Everything after it is negotiation.
The short version
- 47 percent of buyers get no discount at all. The biggest saving is asking.
- 5 to 10 percent is normal at a dealer, up to 15 when the car has been sitting.
- A written repair quote beats any argument. Defects are the strongest lever.
- A German dealer owes you a year of statutory warranty. A private seller owes nothing.
- Collecting it costs 205 EUR to 370 EUR per 1,000 km, plus about 150 EUR for export plates.
- No duty, no import VAT and no registration tax. CSDD costs 60 to 80 EUR, then the operating tax arrives every year.
Skip ahead: check a car nowwhat Latvia charges
Already found the car? The listing tells you what the seller declared. A history check tells you what actually happened before you get there.
Check it before you travel
The listing tells you what the seller declared. A history check tells you what actually happened before you get there.
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Know the number before you speak
Most negotiations are decided before they even begin.
If you do not know what the car is worth, you are negotiating from a weak position. mobile.de can estimate a vehicle value in a couple of minutes and show enough comparable listings to reveal the price range it should sit within.
Run the valuation on the exact specification and write the figure down. Treat it as a range rather than a final answer. The tool cannot see the condition of the specific car in front of you, and condition is exactly what you will be negotiating over.
Where the discount actually comes from
A survey of around one thousand German car buyers found that 47 percent received no discount at all. Among those who did negotiate successfully, the average was 5.7 percent, roughly 915 EUR on a car priced at 18,310 EUR.
Expect 5 to 10 percent at a dealer, and up to 15 percent when conditions are favourable.
| Lever | What it is worth |
|---|---|
| A written repair quote | The exact amount. Dealers rarely argue with a garage estimate |
| Timing belt due | 400 EUR to 900 EUR |
| Tyres worn | 400 EUR to 800 EUR for a replacement set |
| Long time on the market | Pushes you toward the upper end of the range |
| End of month or quarter | Flexibility that does not exist mid-month |
| Season | Spring is cheapest, winter dearest |
A repair quote is the strongest of these by a distance. Arrive with a mechanic estimate and deduct it, and you are not haggling, you are correcting a price.
If the price will not move, move something else
German dealers are more willing to include extras than to reduce the advertised price, because the headline figure is what many dealerships are measured on.
Ask for a free service, winter tyres, an extended warranty or a service package. Each can be worth several hundred euro to you while costing the dealer less than an equivalent cash discount, which is exactly why they agree to it more readily.
Asking for an extra after a discount has been refused works far more often than asking for the discount twice.
Dealer or private, and why it is not only about price
| Dealer | Private seller | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Higher | Lower |
| Statutory warranty | One year minimum, by law | None |
| Recourse if something fails | Real | Very limited |
| Room to negotiate | 5 to 15 percent | Usually less |
A German dealer sale includes Gewaehrleistung, a statutory liability period of at least one year that cannot simply be removed from the contract. A private seller provides no such protection.
That legal protection is part of what the higher price pays for, which is why the cheapest listing is not automatically the best value. Note the distinction: Gewaehrleistung is required by law, while Garantie is an optional product sold on top, and that one is negotiable.
Reading a German listing
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Unfallfrei | No accident history claimed. A claim, not a guarantee |
| Unfallfahrzeug | Accident vehicle, priced accordingly |
| Nach Unfall instandgesetzt | Repaired after an accident. Ask who repaired it and to what standard |
| HU neu | Fresh roadworthiness inspection. Worth real money |
| HU abgelaufen | Expired. Budget for the test and any repairs it uncovers |
| Scheckheftgepflegt | Full service history. Ask for the book, not the word |
| Bastlerfahrzeug | Project car. Assume repairs are needed |
HU is the German roadworthiness inspection. A car with a recent HU has just been examined by an independent engineer with no incentive to overlook problems, which makes it the closest thing to a free third-party inspection on the platform.
The filters that set the tax you pay every year
Latvia charges almost nothing to register an imported car and then charges you every year afterwards. Nothing about the price you negotiate touches that annual figure. The technical data on the listing sets it, before you have spoken to anybody.
| Filter | Set it to | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Leistung and Hubraum, power and engine capacity | As low as suits you | The annual operating tax is worked out from them, every year you keep the car |
| HU, roadworthiness | Valid, not expired | You have thirty days and a test to pass once the car is here |
| Scheckheftgepflegt, service history | Filter for it | German imports arrive at seven to nine years old, the age where history stops being visible |
The third row is the one worth dwelling on. Close to half of every imported car in Latvia comes from Germany, and it arrives at seven to nine years old. That is exactly the age where the service book stops being complete and the history stops being visible, which is why the cheapest listing on the page and the well kept one are usually closer in price than they look.
Ask for a live video call. Most of it ends right here.
The scams, and how they find you
Most fraud targets buyers who cannot easily inspect the vehicle in person, which means foreign buyers are the preferred target.
Fortunately, most scams fall apart the moment you request a live video call showing the VIN plate, the dashboard and a cold start.
| Signal | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Far below a tight cluster of comparable listings | Something is undisclosed, or the car does not exist |
| Refuses a live video call | No car, or not the car being advertised |
| Wants to move immediately to WhatsApp | No paper trail wanted |
| Deposit before viewing | Fraud |
| Payment through a personal account, crypto or gift cards | Fraud |
| Offers their own shipping or escrow service | Fraud. Genuine escrow is arranged by the buyer |
| Documents only shown as photographs | The documents may belong to another vehicle |
The moment you buy the car, it is uninsured, registered to somebody else, and not legally ready for you to drive away.
Export plates carry a red band on the right, showing the date they expire.
Export plates, and the mistake that voids your insurance
Most countries offer some form of temporary registration for moving an unregistered vehicle. The distinction that matters is simple.
| Type | Purpose | Crosses a border |
|---|---|---|
| Short-term or trade plates | Movement within the issuing country | No |
| Export plates | Permanent export from the country | Yes |
This is one of the most common mistakes buyers make. Short-term plates are cheaper, easy to obtain, and the registration office will happily sell them to you. Both the plates and the insurance behind them become invalid the moment you leave the issuing country. If you are taking the vehicle abroad, say that you are exporting it.
German export plates, Ausfuhrkennzeichen, are white with a red expiry section, and the insurance behind them remains valid across Europe for the full validity period, which you choose when you buy them.
| Item | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Plates | around 95 EUR |
| Registration office fee | around 30 EUR |
| Vehicle tax for the validity period | around 15 EUR |
| Total | around 150 EUR |
You will need both parts of the vehicle registration documents, identification, proof of address, valid HU, and an eVB number, the electronic insurance confirmation. Obtaining one takes a few minutes online, and no office will issue export plates without it. It is the requirement people forget.
If the vehicle is not roadworthy, export plates are irrelevant and you need transport instead.
What it actually costs to collect
The collection trip is a real expense and most buyers underestimate it. Some costs are fixed regardless of distance, others rise with every kilometre.
Fixed: flight or train to Germany, 80 EUR to 200 EUR, plus export plates and insurance at around 150 EUR.
Per 1,000 km driven home: fuel 105 EUR to 140 EUR at 6 to 8 l/100 km, tolls 0 EUR to 50 EUR, food 40 EUR to 60 EUR, and one hotel night 60 EUR to 120 EUR. That comes to roughly 205 EUR to 370 EUR per 1,000 km.
| One-way distance | Driving it home | Transporter |
|---|---|---|
| 500 km | 300 EUR to 495 EUR | 300 EUR to 650 EUR |
| 1,000 km | 410 EUR to 710 EUR | 450 EUR to 900 EUR |
| 1,500 km | 550 EUR to 965 EUR | 600 EUR to 1,200 EUR |
| 2,000 km | 625 EUR to 1,100 EUR | 700 EUR to 1,400 EUR |
Transport costs run from about 0.72 to 1.30 euro per kilometre on shorter routes, with the rate per kilometre falling as the distance grows. Under roughly 600 km the hotel stop disappears.
The difference between the two columns is smaller than most people expect, so the choice is about risk rather than money.
Drive it yourself if the listing is the first time you have seen the car. You get to start it, test it and put the first kilometres on it while the seller is still nearby.
Transport it if you have already inspected the vehicle, trust the dealer, or the car cannot be driven.
What Latvia charges
A German car is an intra-EU purchase, so there is no customs duty and no import VAT at the border. There is no registration tax either. The registration itself is the cheapest and quickest part of the whole exercise.
| Charge | Typical amount |
|---|---|
| State fee, first registration | 15 EUR |
| State fee if new plates are needed | 20 EUR |
| Roadworthiness test | 24 EUR to 45 EUR |
| Typical total for first registration | 60 EUR to 80 EUR |
| Registration tax | None. There is no such tax in Latvia. |
| Individual certification, cars not built for the European market | Several hundred euro |
Then the part that does not appear on any receipt at the counter. The vehicle operating tax is annual, is worked out from the car rather than its price, and recurs every year the car stays on the road. These are individual points on the scale, not the whole table.
| Worked out from | Operating tax |
|---|---|
| Gross weight 1501 to 1800 kg | 36 EUR per year |
| Engine 1501 to 2000 cm3 | 27 EUR per year |
| Power 56 to 92 kW | 27 EUR per year |
The deadline is the other thing to hold in mind: thirty days from bringing the car into the country, with a roadworthiness test to pass inside them. Book the test early. On an imported car it is where anything quietly repaired abroad tends to surface, and a failure inside a thirty day window is not a comfortable place to find that out.
One number to keep the rest in proportion. The average German import into Latvia arrives at around 11,500 EUR, while the median car actually on sale here is about 6,550 EUR. Imports are the upper half of this market, which means the money at risk on one bad decision is larger than the median suggests, and the registration bill is the smallest figure in the whole exercise.
What goes wrong on the way home
The export plate expires before you arrive. You choose the validity period when you buy it. Choose longer than you think you will need.
The insurance does not cover your route. Policies name specific countries. Check every one you will pass through, especially if the route leaves EU territory.
You are too tired to drive safely. A long flight followed by hours in an unfamiliar vehicle is the most dangerous part of the entire purchase. Budget for a hotel.
Before you hand over money
- Establish the market value of the exact specification.
- Obtain the VIN in writing and run a history check.
- Request a video call showing the VIN plate, dashboard and a cold start.
- Confirm the HU status and date, and get repair estimates for visible issues.
- Verify in person that the VIN matches every document.
- Confirm both parts of the vehicle registration papers are present.
- Confirm a Certificate of Conformity exists, or price the homologation.
- Calculate registration costs at home for that exact vehicle.
- Arrange eVB insurance and export plates before travelling.
- Decide your maximum price, and keep every German document afterwards.
The advertised price is the number everybody argues about. Every other number in this article is where the rest of the money goes.
Before you sign anything
Know what you are buying
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Frequently asked questions
Is there customs duty or import VAT on a car bought in Germany?
No. A German car is an intra-EU purchase, so there is no customs duty and no import VAT at the border. Latvia has no registration tax either, which is why first registration at CSDD costs less than a tank of fuel.
What does it cost to register an imported car at CSDD?
The state fee for first registration is 15 EUR, new plates 20 EUR and the roadworthiness test 24 to 45 EUR. A typical first registration comes to 60 to 80 EUR all in. A car never built for the European market needs individual certification instead, at several hundred euro.
How long do I have after bringing the car in?
Thirty days, and a roadworthiness test to pass inside them. That is the whole reason to check the car before it is loaded rather than after it arrives: a failure inside a thirty day window is an uncomfortable place to discover a repair somebody made quietly abroad.
What is the vehicle operating tax and how much is it?
An annual tax worked out from the car itself rather than its price, using gross weight, engine capacity and power. It is small per year but it never stops, so a heavy older car and a light newer one can differ by enough to matter across the years you keep it. Calculate it for the specific car, not a similar one.
About this guide
- Scope: this is the Latvia edition. The pan-European edition covers what registration costs elsewhere, and the Germany edition covers the market close to half of these cars come from.
- CSDD fees and the operating tax: state fees for first registration and roadworthiness test ranges as published for 2026. The operating tax rows are individual points on the scale, chosen to show which properties of the car drive it, and are not the full table. Calculate it for the specific vehicle before relying on any figure here. The thirty day deadline applies from bringing the vehicle into the country.
- Market figures: Latvian import shares, volumes, arrival age and average import price for 2025, with median asking price from 2026 market reporting. Averages describe the import flow, not the whole car park.
- Discount figures: from a survey of approximately one thousand German car buyers. The 5.7 percent average is across buyers who negotiated successfully, not across all buyers.
- Plate and travel costs: typical estimates rather than fixed prices. They vary by vehicle, route, insurer and registration office, and are worth confirming for the specific car before you budget from them.
- Listing terms: the German words are left as they appear on the platform, because a translated term cannot be searched for. Unfallfrei in particular is a seller declaration, not a verified fact.
- Why the VIN matters here: a border crossing is where a car paper trail usually goes missing, covered in how to check an imported car, and the mileage side in odometer fraud.
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