Buying out of state?
 

Hi all! Long time lurker, first time poster. Please be gentle with me. :)

I'm 30 years old. I am a confident negotiator with some prior (non-auto) sales experience. However, I've never bought a new car before and I'm pretty ignorant of the whole process.

Question 1. Is it worth it to buy out of state? The Mazda dealers in Las Vegas are sub-par, judging from the posts I've seen on these boards and my own limited encounters with them. I travel to San Bernardino and Los Angeles fairly often. St George, UT is even closer. Do the standard sales tax rates apply? That could make buying in Utah very attractive (and CA less attractive). Are there any other factors to consider when buying out of state?

Question 2. I'm shopping for an '04 Sport MT with nav. There seems to be plenty still available, especially since I'm not picky about color. Using zipcode 89031, carsdirect.com lists the invoice at $27,932, with a target price of $28,900 (includes $1500 rebate). That seems very high compared to most the posts I've seen here. I already set up financing with my own bank and I don't have a trade-in, so that makes things simpler. Where should I start negotiating, and what price should I settle for?

Thanks,
Dan

I would go to Edmunds.com and request quotes from the areas you go to often . I did that , and had them beating each other over the head with quotes . When salesman killed them off the bat , was upfront and said no one would beat his price ...he was right ! I did it all through e-mail ....$1500 off invoice ( at the time (Oct)) , flew in for 40 bucks , and happly drove off the lot in a hour and a half with my car . I had him fax everything over , gave him a deposit to insure the car would still be there . It honestly worked out great , was easly and less headaches . Good luck !

That should be " One Salesman killed them off the bat"

Thanks DrRockin99. The "Customer Cash Adjusted True Market Value" at Edmunds.com was $26,788 with my options. This number appears to be an average of what consumers have paid. I will initiate requests for dealer quotes after Thanksgiving weekend. Too much going on with the family to have the phone ringing off the hook.

If anyone can answer my state taxes questions above, please do! According to this site:

St George, UT 6.25%
Las Vegas, NV 7.5%
San Bernardino, CA 7.75%
Los Angeles, CA 8.25%

That mean I'd save over $320 for driving 90 minutes?

Hehheh, I realize that wider selection and dealer competition in SoCal will likely produce a much lower price, but if this tax statistic gives me one more lever to push... :cool:

Thanks,
Dan

Sales Tax
 

I live in Washington where the sales tax is 9.1%, the highest in the nation, I believe. Next door is Oregon with no sales tax, whatsoever. As you can imagine, this would lead consumers to buggy down to Portland to purchase their cars.

Unfortunately for this bit of tax avoidance, you pay sales tax on a vehicle in the state you register it, not where you purchase it. I suspect strongly this is the case for you, as well. Rather than shopping for the lowest sales tax, you should be more concerned that you're not dinged twice, in the state where you purchase the car and the state you register it. ;)

Same here. In Wisconsin, you don't pay "sales" tax on cars, you pay "registration fees" and this includes sales tax. If you buy a car from a dealer here, they will arrange registration and title, and even give you a license plate, as part of the purchase process. I don't know what would happen if you (a NV resident) bought a car here, but I assume that the dealer would charge you NV tax and registration fees, not the WIS fees.

Same for me in CO. Obtained a car in Texas, and paid the tax of the area where I live in CO. There was some sort of goofy state tax for Texas but I had my dealer take it off. For the most part you can any car out of state if the options, color and stuff you want are not there in your state. They all use a nationwide database, they put in the details and it tells them who has that car. You can deal with a dealer out of state but when you drive it home the sales tax is figured on where you live.

Cool. Thanks everyone!

I'm a Wis. resident and bought my Acura in Illinois. They took car taxes, registration and tags without a hickup--I also bought a car in PA when I lived in NJ--same thing. Dealers seem to be savy on the details.

That should read "took care of taxes..."

One thing that may be helpful is to go to Edmunds and start with your base model. (Sport MT, I beleive.)

Then, print out every option available on the car so that you know the dealer cost for all the options.

It's good to have this info, because someone may quote you a price on your car that is hundreds less than another dealer, and you may find that the higher priced car may be the better value because it has more options to begin with.

I would say that dealer invoice less $1500 should be the maximum you should pay. That includes any dealer crap "add-on's" or "processing fees". Do not pay these, or if they are built into the P&S agreement, have them take the exact amount off the net price of the car.

If you've been in sales, you know how it works.

It's the Thanksgiving hoilday, the end of the month, and the last thing that people are doing is shopping for cars. Tell them you'll take delivery before 11.30 and have at it!

This site might be helpful:

http://www.carbuyingtips.com/

Also, I used the following to track down the best deal. When I used their fax method, (cost $35 for their reports) I found a car out of state WAY below invoice. Didn't end up getting that one, but thats another story altogether...:mad:

http://www.fightingchance.com/

Happy hunting.

taxing
 

you pay the tax for the jurisdiction you title the car in.