Leasing a car from California, while residing at Seattle

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Hi Team,

I was trying to lease a car from BMW California, based out of Seattle, when almost lease was finalized, the dealer mentioned to me that 1) I would have to pay the Washington Sales tax on a monthly payment(which I agree, that’s’ correct). 2) They mentioned that the car would be registered with a CA license plate for 1 year then I would have to go to local DMV to change the license plate to Washington address(I am based out of Seattle), is this legal way of doing this? or How are the Registration/license plates are dealt with if a Washington resident want to lease a car from CA?

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Sounds like your dealer doesn’t want to deal with WA registration.

I wonder WHERE they would send the plates to in CA?

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But How are the Registration/license plates are dealt with if a Washington resident want to lease a car from CA?

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Normally? If they SHIP it to Washington, they would just sell it without registration.

If you plan to drive it from CA to WA, then I’ve heard of a ‘temp plate’ but not sure if they really exist. It also sounds like they charging you CA tax, hence why they want you to ‘hold it’ for 1 year.

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Definitely shouldnt get ca plates of you ship it

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From my understanding If a car drives out of state on its own they have to charge you CA tax so silly

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7

California offers transit tags. Plus 10-day rule.

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ooo self driving cars!

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10 day rule is only for Lease Buyouts AFAIK

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I “assisted” 2 people buying from CA and both times dealer said they would collect sales tax if it was on its power
Ship only for no tax

Maybe the dealer was full of it

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Are you even getting a good enough deal to make all this worth your while?

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oh ok, are were they trying to cheat me here? They rushed me to make the deal for a BMW x3 lease for $750 on MSRP of $59K. There were always two people in the call, you could hear the whisper sounds, one guy instructing another person “to respond to me in a certain manner”. When I mentioned that I am not comfortable with their solution, they kind of started talking aggressively. Next day they called me again, when mentioned to them that “I will consult my lawyer”, they never called me back again.

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on BMW x3 xdrive (MSRP 59K, cost to drive 55K, total discounts 6K), for 36/10 lease $755 pm including taxes.

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This may be an ignorance over malice issue.

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How were you planning to get the car from CA to WA?

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One of the best dealer stories in the last few months for sure. Might not even be factually accurate, but the way it was told is worth the price of admission every time.

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I have done this. If you are going to drive it back to WA you just need a one trip permit. You will pay CA sales tax just on the 1st payment. You don’t need CA plates. I believe the dealer will want to register the car in CA and then transfer the title. You will need to get a temporary tag from your WA DMV and most likely need to extend it because it will probably take some time before your DMV gets all the paperwork.

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Thanks for the info. A clarifying question - would one need to pay CA registration fee in addition to the fee for WA registration?

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I don’t think so. You may have to pay some small CA fees but nothing crazy. I don’t have the numbers in front of me but I definitely paid less than 200 bucks in CA fees on a 55K car.

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I was asking them to ship it to me, I would pay for the shipping costs