I live in Oregon. My lease is up in October and I’ve been reading the forums. Thanks to everyone for the laughs and education!
I did read someone mention about buying a car in CA then driving it to their home state, registering and that they may save money. How would this work, what’s the reasoning behind it?
CA charges taxes on all cars regardless of where the buyer/leasee state of residence is. Maybe the best way to ask this question is: since Oregon is a sales tax-free state, how much of a deal should I aim for to make it worthwhile, if at all?
Thanks for the reply.
I promise i did search, didn’t see anything that was what I was looking for
the topic you linked isn’t even that old. I wonder how I missed it.
I just leased an Odyssey from Washington state before finding this forum. LH score of 8 years for a minivan seems to be all right. I’ve leased a few cars before, but I now know more about leasing which will help me for my next lease in October.
I do feel that I was lucky with the Honda, as it seems the MF is static.
I see. When I inquired a couple years ago, a couple NoCal Lexus dealers told me that it was CA law that any car purchased or leased in CA had to have CA taxes.
According to the topic (Oregon Resident Leasing Volvo from SoCal Dealer), just the first month of the lease is CA tax.
I mean this respectfully: I’m not sure how a dealer not wanting to deal with out-if-state leases applies to my question unless you were also implying that of the dealers that ARE willing to deal with out-of-state, there is a way to avoid paying any CA taxes.
Here’s how it was explained to me by a dealer in CA, where sales tax on leases is charged monthly (I posted this in another thread, but can’t find it back either!):
If you take delivery in CA as an out-of-state resident, you pay sales tax to CA for the first month no matter what.
You will get two temporary registrations.
One is a sticker that is good for one day. If you get stopped in California after one day you can be cited for willfully failing to register the car in CA.
The second is a temporary plate that’s good for 30 days outside of CA.
Once you register your vehicle in your home state you will be subject to the tax rules in that state.
In Oregon, where there is no sales tax, you’re done with tax as soon as the car is registered.
In states WITH sales tax, it’s very possible that you’ll pay tax to two different states for at least the first month.
If I sign my lease in CA, I’ll let everyone know what I’ve found out and what I did.
All I know is that when I get my lease from CA, I’ll be enjoying my drive because I’ll have saved so much money.
Good luck with the shopping and please post how it goes. I’ve considered moving there and your situation and questions came to mind but it was premature for me to dig in much.
I leased a car a couple days after my last post!
Here’s how it went since the dealer didn’t take care of my registration and such.
Leased the car, paid my taxes online at Oregon’s depth of Revenue (0.5% of cap cost), waited a week or so for the MSO from the title clerk (sort of like a title, but since it’s being leased), took that to the DMV along with the registration app, and proof of tax payment and got my proof of registration at the DMV.
A dealer that does out of state deals is much more convenient. They handle everything for you.
I lived in Oregon but worked in Texas for a few months so I purchased a car. Got Oregon registration and my plates mailed to me in Texas. It was super convenient.
Just leased my BMW from a dealer in CA and shipped the car to MI, because dealer did not allow me to drive it back. I probably can write an article about all the hassle on this. But my advice is you’d better make sure the deal in CA is good enough to offset the extra money/time spent (wasted) on this…
