I am getting a new Ford from a dealer in Iowa and decided to ship it instead driving it home with a temporary IA tag. I expected to get the paperwork incl. the MCO and do the registration and pay taxes on DMV in AZ.
The dealer seems to be sticking with giving me a temporary IA tag (do not need it in AZ, will need to get a temporary AZ tag here anyway) and titling the car first in IA.
This would unnecessarily prolong the whole registration process, it takes more than 1 month on IA side to do it and then ship to me.
I think they are used only to purchases in person, or a Ford policy is in effect to match the buyer name to my reservation and they want to make sure this is the case while they have the car in their hands.
Of course, if they insist, I have no recourse.
Plus, the issue of paying tax there…but at least, their tax rate is by more than 1 % lower than here, so I would pay only the difference upon registering here.
My question is whether IA insiders can tell me that it is NECESSARY to title the car in IA even if shipped by carrier out of IA. Thanks.
Triple check this. The two states in question usually need reciprocity agreements for this to be applied.
I shipped a car once and found out the state I was living in recognized and credited tax paid in only 12 other states. The car happened to be shipped/sold from one of those states, otherwise I’d have to bail out of the transaction to avoid paying double tax.
Thanks for warning. No reciprocity IA<->AZ. I need to make sure I am not charged IA tax then. I am not asked to do so by the finance person in preliminary discussion. However they want my SSN (not comfortable) for: “In the state of Iowa all title applications require a social security number.” It seems the title they are getting is IN-TRANSIT title (?) and maybe this avoids the IA tax…
From email:
ATTN Out of State Customers: You will receive a 15 day transit tag from us, this is JUST to get you out of Iowa. You can not go to your DMV until you receive the title from us. We send the MCO to our county to get an IN-TRANSIT title which takes about 3-4 weeks, this means the 15 day tag you received from us will expire. Once we receive the title we will overnight it to you with an additional 30 day tag from our county. You need to check with your state on the tags, some states DO NOT recognize tags from other states. Make sure you have your purchase agreement in the vehicle with you in case you get pulled over, most instances you have 30 days from the time of sale to get your vehicle registered.
