Live in CA - buy in another state?

You would want to buy from a 150,000 mile/ 10 year CARB state, the hassles of only having a federal warranty on a car in CA would drive you crazy. Other than that is is just a title, registration, and licensing issue, all one time PITAs.

The 2014 list of CARB States in the US | PriusChat

 

If this is new or nearly new, it probably wouldn't work since it would need to be a "California certified" model.......and those are usually not available except in Calif. and adjacent states.
And if they TELL you it is OK for California, get the VIN and run it by the Calif. DMV just to be sure.
Sales people sometimes LIE.

 

Each state has its own rules vis a vis tax. Also you definitely want a CARB ZEV car (8 other states besides California have similar rules) to get the greater warranty protection afforded by those rules. When we sold cars (in California) to out of state buyers, it was a pain, with lots of powers of attorneys and other forms. Clients could only take possession out of state, so I'd deliver to Vegas or once to Mexico, then I'd have to get proof (certified) that I'd been in Vegas, etc. on the date of delivery.
Strongly urge you seek out a better California dealer than the one you had.
I visited 4, all recommended by insider friends, and ended up with Lizette Vega at Longo. Great people and they delivered the car to my house, no additional charge.

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.....sales people ALWAYS lie, but that's not the point.

If I lived in the California then NOT buying one out of state would sound crazy to me.

Here's the deal....
Many people are unaware of the fact that we're in something of a new car glut in America.
New car loans have been below 2-percent for quite a while, and car makers have been cranking out new vehicles and finding ways to sell or lease them more rapidly than people's ability to afford them has been able to sustain itself.
(see also: Bubble.)

We all know the pattern.
Buy.
Wait 3-4 years.
Hear the siren song of new car commercials.....
Roll upside-down car loan into newer loan even more upside down.
Repeat as necessary, offering a larger supply of vehicles to a diminishing supply of available buyers.......


.......EXCEPT in places like good old So-Cal, where people drive cars to their mailboxes, and where they have these weird things like "high occupancy vehicle" lanes that nobody ever carpools in.
Caly also has recently regained in's rightful place as one of the more expensive places to get gas.

So.....in a market that is saturated with full car lots elsewhere, Primes are kinda hard to come by at MSRP-minus $2000 plus a $2500 factory-to-dealer incentive. This is why whenever you go to one of the concierge "car buying services" at places like COSTCO or USAA they always want to know where you live. If you want to have some fun....try entering different zip codes and watch the prices fluctuate.

This isn't a high hurtle.....
https://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/NonCAVeh/NonCAVeh.pdf

I'm just guessing, since I don't live on the left coast, but I've seen a lot of cross-state deals being military.
MY guess is that Primes are fully "caly compliant."
Even if you had to buy a CARB car in a CARB state to meet CARB warranty requirements, and I do not believe this to be the case, there are other CARB states according to the interwebs that are in the rust belt, and Primes are available there at a lower price point.
The Googles say:
"......States adopting the California standards include Arizona (2012 model year), Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico (2011 model year), New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia......"

I would get the straight word from the DMV before I pulled the trigger, but once you get an internet deal through to the Purchase Order step and arrange for financing yourself (something that you should be doing ANYWAY if you're the least bit interested in saving money!!!)----then you'll have all of the documents necessary to start the insurance/rebate/registration process.

If we presume that the car can be purchased for even $2,000-$3,000 less.....even as far away as on the right coast, then that's too big a price difference for me to be comfortable not investigating.

As always....informed buyers usually save.

Lastly....
The last time I drove cross country (something that everyone who lives in America should do at least once!!) it was significantly cheaper than $2000.

And..... then there's this
April 2017 Car Shipping Rate Calculator: Car Shipping Cost, Quotes



YMMV
Best of luck!

 

WOW! I hate to bust your bubble, but I sold luxury cars and RV's for almost 25 years and I never lied to sell any vehicle.
I would have been fired if that had ever happened. Now that doesn't mean that there aren't snakes in the business, hey tell me do you trust your lawyer, your Congressman, your ex, your doctor?
You can't label everybody in an industry as liars. Not true. My customers came back to me many years later to buy another vehicle or recommend me to family and friends.
I worked at the main engineering headquarters of a large oil company prior to working in sales, and I saw a lot more liars, crooks, payoffs, and pollution than I ever saw in the automobile industry. It's too bad somebody has probably treated you so badly, that was in the auto industry, but don't blame the entire sales industry for your misfortune. And yeah, we have HOV lanes in Socal, and most of the cars are occupied by more than one person. They're also used by motorcycles and do save a significant amount of time.

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(626) 672-6208, is Lizette Vega's pbone, at Longo Toyota. She was straight with me.

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new york seems to be a popular place for out of staters. it's a carb state, and they know how to handle the documentation.

 

it's in the pricing thread. i think 3-4k off, between discounts and rebates.

 

Please don't take my references to 'sales critters' personal. My experience has been ignorance is more often the root cause of misinformation than venal motives.

Bob Wilson

 

I just returned from Rochester, N.Y after driving my new Prius Prime. What a car! I live in Colorado and I bought my car using Costco. I got $1098 Costco discount along with the April 4 $2,500 Toyota cash incentive. My brother lives in Rochester, so he checked out the car for me. I flew in to Rochester, saw family and drove back, stopping at family the whole way. Great deal and I'm happy, I pulled the trigger.

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Mr. Wilson, your comments were fine to my ear; it was the other person's blanket statement about all sales people being liars that lit my torch. My sarcastic retort regarding lying politicians, lawyers, etc. hopefully showed him a different facet to people. I went into car sales convinced of his opinion, but desperate for a job. My first month I sold 16 cars and was top used car salesman, shocking the owner who congratulated me and wanted to know my secret. I told him I asked clients what they wanted fixed in the car; if I fixed that, would they buy the car. This is how I had wanted to be treated, with respect. That's really important to clients. If salesmen do that, they'll be successful. Respect and kindness: keys to success!


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I'd be really surprised if it's not available in CA anymore. I'd be less surprised if it were only available in CA.

Maybe it's *temporarily* not available in that they're still in their production ramp-up.

I noticed that the P.Prime stickers I've seen list as a feature "50-states Emissions."


iPhone ? Pro

 

yes, we don't have the hov incentives that drive cali sales. plus, it's been winter here since they started arriving, something which you lucky fellows aren't familiar with.
logistically, toyota dropped the ball. i'm not sure what history they used when deciding how to allocate, but they would have done better to ship a few to the states that aren't getting them, instead of all on the east coast. they probably went with pip states, because they don't pay attention tp priuschat, which would have let them know that many pip owners went out of state to buy one.
the reason they don't discount more in cali is simply because they don't have to. that may change, once the new model fever wears off.

 

Lets be clear. Toyota does not import different emissions versions to the US. They emit the same. Our challenge is bureaucrats, if it was not purchased in a CARB state and is not registered now in a CARB state, you get a federal warranty.

If it was not purchased in a CARB state and then brought to CA, you will certify it's compliance, not Toyota. Just PITA you do not need to go through if you are wise.

 

Maryland is very popular as a full CARB state, that many in CA have gone to for PiP in 2012.
Before they went in 2012 they checked with Toyota about CARB warranty and got the OK for MD.

I assume NY is as good as MD, but NY used to have a slightly different CARB wording, but I assume NY is full CARB.
In the past I attempted to ask Toyota for all of their state transfer CARB rules, and I was told it is case by case basis so no dice on that request.