Buy out of state but pay CA taxes?

I think you'll get the NY/CA 10yr/150,000mi warranty.

 

try corporate 800 number?

 

I'm not sure about the warranty - I believe that NY is a CARB state - if indeed it is, I believe that the 10/150,000 warranty carries over if you move to another CARB state (which of course CA is since the C in CARB stands for CA).

Another issue to watch out for is sales tax - you do not say just when you are moving, but this can be a bit tricky. I have had to deal with this twice - once when moving from Mass to RI and then again when I was living in PA but still working in Mass.

The second time (living in PA) was easy since I already had my PA registration set up - I showed up to get the car and put the PA plate on it. The first time it was a bit tougher - we bought the car about a month before moving and were told that if we were to register it in Mass we would need to pay tax to Mass. Then in RI we would have had to pay tax again and then apply to get a refund from Mass. We were told that this process could be problematic. So we chose to wait a month and had the new car delivered to RI and registered it for the first time in RI.

 

Be very careful about this. One fellow I know bought a car in DC, and immediately drove it to CA for his new job. He ended up paying sales tax in both places. I think CA requires the tax on imported cars owned less than a year. There is not "one tax" that is paid to either one state or the other. Each state has their own list of rules, and they are not necessarily coordinated to be "fair".

I wonder if there is some way you could purchase the car from a dealer/broker in CA, and take delivery in NY?

 

The last I heard (4 years ago) the CA DMV considers any car with less than 8k OR was sold new less than 3 months ago, as a NEW car-so sales tax must be paid.
So, if you wait 3 months +1 day and drive a lot (over 8k) before you register it you won't have to pay sales tax. Also, CA used to require you to license any vehicle brought into the state within 2 or 4 weeks after it enters the state.

 

Are you looking to buy the currently unreleased Prius v wagon or a currently shipping 2011 Prius?

 

I don't know about which warranty you will end up with. But I'm pretty sure, that when buying a car, boat or large appliance that you pay the sales tax based on your permanent residence at the time of purchase. You can't buy a large item in another state trying to save tax money.....

 

It is not quite that easy - I live just south of Philly and we are about 10 miles from Delaware where there is no sales tax. You can go across the boarder and buy anything and not pay sales tax. However there are a couple of exceptions - you need to pick it up yourself - for example if buying a large appliance from Sears you are fine if you take it with you, but if you have it delivered you will get hit with tax. If you buy something that needs to be registered to be used - a car for example, you too will need to pay sales tax when it is registered.

You mentioned boats - they are even trickier. Senator John Kerry (who is married to millionaire Theresa Heinz) was caught in a stink over his yacht. While he is the senator from Massachusetts he was found to be registering his yacht in RI - the state gives huge tax breaks to the boat building industry in the state - Kerry was saving something like $70k a year in taxes.

Now the flip side of the whole out of state sales tax issue is that in most places you are supposed to pay a "use tax" on items bought out of state. This is usually the same amount that the sales tax would have been. This is very difficult for states to track since they do not know what you bought and where. For years it was dealt with by the states on an honor system and most people ignored it. With tighter budgets and more technology states are getting more aggressive about it.

 

OP, can you please answer the above?

I'm guessing that you've started this thread in the wrong area...