Quick question. Yes I researched but can’t find a for sure answer. I live in AZ. I’m going to drive to SoCal and lease a Subaru. Per the dealer on here , I have to register it with a Cali address to get the great deal. My plan is to drive back to AZ. Once the plates reach my parents address they will send them to me and I will get car registered here in AZ. Anyone see an issue with that?
You might want to see what the tax implication will be. You’ll be paying CA tax upon delivery and then AZ tax upon re-registering. There has to be an easier way.
Pretty sure tax is baked into the payment for both states, you’ll just have to eat whatever the cost of Cali plates are. How much higher is the deal in Arizona?
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Why? Does the dealer not lease out of state? Are the incentives state specific?
I’ve leased out of state and never had an issue with registering it where I lived.
First year reg is probably ~$700?
Seems like all the dealers in Cali that post on here have the same line, “we will sell to you but you must register it here”
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That’s weird. Ask for a one way trip permit if you can.
“Our tag and title clerks are the laziest in the business”
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Goes both ways I think… many dealers outside CA do not want to work with CA buyers 
(something to do with DMV and taxes? 
)
Don’t give business to anyone who encourages their customers to commit fraud.
I leased a car in Delaware and immediately shipped it to California, that dealer registered it and even had to redo the paperwork because Ford has different lease holding companies depending on whether it originates in the east or the west. No issues.
I leased a car in Las Vegas and drove it to California
The only thing I had to do in both cases was get the smog check and Vin scan so DMV could complete the registration - the cost was even rolled into the deal.
Some brands have more restrictive dealer agreements: Land Rover does not want to see (for instance) hordes of AZ folks leasing their Velars and Discos in SoCal. But I don’t think that’s what’s happening here.
Good to know 
… I was searching out-of-state earlier this year and quite a few dealers said 
to CA and never gave a good reason why.
My guess (all it is): I think out of state dealers are nervous about a car coming back because the registration can’t be finalized. Even if the car has CA emissions, the lessor has to:
- take it for a smog check
- take it to dmv for a vin scan
- get a POA from captive to finalize the registration
And the dealership has no custody of the car and no control to do that for you. The Delaware dealer just had me sign something that while they would do their part (tag and title), I had 30 days to finish registration on my own.
Going the opposite direction to a border state makes 0 sense to me. As if you can’t live in Yuma and lease a BMW in Palm Springs.
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Have done this with a purchase, dealer drove it to Yuma (unregistered). Put temp AZ plates on it and drove it home, changed address to county to avoid city sales tax …titled and registered first time in AZ
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The lease deal in Cali is about $50 a month cheaper! And it is from a dealer here on this forum that is legit. I’m assuming the dealer has special incentives or something of the sort for Cali and /or regional buyers?
That’s pretty crazy, that’s $1800 over a 36mo term.
I know that’s why I’m willing to road trip it. Just don’t want to get there and have to turn around. Lol
I think Subaru might be the same. There’s a Subaru dealer on here from NorCal (@veloist) and his deals are only valid for residents within 195 miles of his dealership.
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Subaru has a soft restriction on selling outside a certain radius (200mi) of your dealership. It’s to protect the local business potential of other dealerships for example mainly in rural areas with neighboring cities. We had a lot of SoCal deals back before 2016 before they became stricter about it. We get penalized $1000 if the Registered address is outside of 200mi. We can still sell the car, but we’ll tack on that $1000.
As far as the leasing in CA and switching to out of state, that’s a little more complicated. As far as I know, the only way to not pay CA registration and tax is to pay cash and ship the vehicle directly from the dealership to your state. I’ve personally never done an out-of-state lease and don’t plan to because even these cash deals out-of-state purchases is more of a process than we’d like.
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If you are willing to pay Reg for both states it’s as simple as you think.
So you will pay registration in CA, get the plates, register and pay reg in AZ, and then update the address as per below. It’s a simple process you’re just paying.
Since you’re taxed per month, your tax on monthly payment will be based on the city in AZ.
As far as Subaru Motors Finance all you have to do Is update the address on your online account within 30 days of the address change.
Edit: May need to be prepared to show proof of residence in CA during the approval process. All depends.
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Veloist, great info . Thank u!