Out of State Car Purchase Questions

[JTK]

FirstNissan, it's funny you should mention this. My BIL lives outside of Louisville and always buys his cars back in the Buffalo NY area when he comes home to see family. I always go with him. He does the trade-in with his out of state car and puts a down payment on a CC. They issue him a paper temporary plate for the new car and he pays his sales tax when he gets back to Louisville to register it.

 

[HerrStig]

Many states give the buyer a grace period for using the existing plates on a new vehicle and insurance companies can be notified by phone to transfer the policy, billing you later for the difference. SOo, call the insurer and bring your plates with you. If it's an additional car for the fleet drive it home with your existing plates and register it as soon as you arrive.

 

[Fattylocks]

I don't know how long the van lived in Chicago but one thing is for sure. Chicago is squarely in the " rust belt" .

 

[Leo99]

Originally Posted By: Kira
My turn:
MD to NJ purchase.
On 16 December 2016, a Friday. I called a Maryland dealership about a car.
I couldn't go to see the car until Monday morning.
I called at dinner time Saturday and the car was still available. At no time did I consider paying a deposit on an unseen used car.
They called back 90 minutes later to say it was sold. I thanked them for calling.
THEN they called around 9:45 to tell me the deal fell through and that they'd hold the car for me 'til noon Monday. I test drove and bought it that day.

A branch of our bank was up the street so I got a cashier's check.
All we did was leave the sales tax square blank. I simply stated I was going to pay the NJ sales tax myself at the DMV desk.
I was also going to transfer my registration (reuse my plates) so we didn't even have to get involved with some out-of-state registration/plate service nor FedExing paper. A little bit of money saved.

I do love the idea of paying your home state's tax with a separate check. I love the way I did it more.

I had he idea to grab a blank sales form at the dealership and fill it in with a $27 total price and pay 49 cents sales tax but my friends talked me out of it.

What's funny is that those out-of-state car reg services are ALL OVER eastern Pennsylvania.



DMV, at least in NJ, is all over that trick. They can charge you sales tax on the fair market price if you put down a below market price.

Since sales tax is so expensive, many folks finance it and roll it into the total price. If you're paying cash anyways, I'd do like you and pay the sales tax when you register the car.