First time here so be gentle lol.
My current Audi lease ends Jan 15th.
I’m interested in a few hybrid suv’s and am having a lot of trouble here in paradise finding a dealer who will negotiate.
Unfortunately, there is a monopoly going on here as every high end manufacture only has dealerships owned by the same company.
Basically, every BMW, Mercedes etc dealership on all the islands is owned by the same head company. So if I try to do a deal with the BMW dealership on Maui, it’s the same dealership as on Oahu.
I have heard of people living here buy a car on the mainland and ship it here.
Since Hawaii knows that people do this, you would have to buy a car 90 days ahead of shipping to Hawaii or else, pay a huge tax on the vehicle.
Has anyone done this before?
Individual or dealership say in California (closest to port)?
I know I would have to register the car in CA at a friends house, keep the car at the dealership for 90 days, pay 3 months of payments, and pay to ship it here.
While this sounds crazy, I have heard it’s still cheaper.
Just reaching out to see if anyone has done this and could shed some light on the process.
I’m looking to lease an X5 40e (if any 2018 remain) Mercedes GLC 350e, or possibly a Lexus hybrid. (Would also appreciate any input on owners of these)
Mahalo.
Wow. That’s just insane. The same company owning all the benz dealership is pretty similar to over here in FL and that’s why its its better to do a deal from out of state. If that 90 day restriction is from the State, what happens if there is a manufacturer that does not have a dealership in HI? Also with all this headache, wouldn’t it be better to just get cars from swapalease since you still have to pay shipping either way.
Sounds like a lot of great reasons to own the car for a term longer than a typical lease. The more you can amortize all those upfront costs, the more you save over your lifetime. Three wasted payments and a hefty shipping bill really eat into any cost savings from leasing.
Plus there should be a healthy demand for used cars that are already on the island, when you eventually go to sell.
Are you 100% sure about that 90 day huge tax thing? That sounds crazy.
I would talk to some BMW, MBZ, or Lexus dealers in the Los Angeles area to see if they’ve come up against this. Maybe there’s a workaround.
A dealer can have a car shipped from the factory to another dealer and pay a (usually $500) courtesy delivery fee. I suspect that the HI dealers are aware of this and refuse to do a courtesy delivery, though. But you never know. It can also be a no-no with the manufacturer to sell a car outside one’s home area, too. Mercedes used to be big on this- I have no idea if any of those brands currently are.
I looked in to this a couple years ago and this “huge tax” that you’re referring to is likely the sales tax you would have had to spend if you bought the car in Hawaii. They have the rule in place so that people like you don’t buy a car in Oregon (no sales tax) and have it shipped over to HI. Makes sense to me! If you were living here and you bought a car and used it as your primary car for at least a few months and then shipped it to HI you would not have to pay HI tax however if you bought it on the mainland with the sole intent of shipping it to HI they want you to pay the tax.
That seems reasonable to me. Heck, in CA you have to pay sales tax on the car if you register one from out of state regardless of how long you’ve owned it (assuming you paid less than what CA would have charged or something like that)!
In the end if you can negotiate a better deal here and find a dealer willing to ship you the car to HI you could still come out ahead but you should pay the tax on it, just like everybody else that’s driving a car in paradise.
Reasonable thought but a very poor plan. See link below for citations.
It’s not three months from purchase, it’s three months excepting time the car is in storage/under transit. So realistically you are looking at four months making payments without the car. Second, you need to be a non resident of Hawaii when you bought the car. This would at a minimum involve getting a cali license (which you would need to do anyway to register the car). That costs money. You would also need to fly to California at least once.
Even then, the state may call BS since they may be able to see your earnings continued to be in Hawaii the whole time. No way math works out. Get car on Island.
Form G-27, Rev 2013, Motor Vehicle Use Tax Certification - Hawaii.gov PDFeHawaii.gov › files › tax › forms
May not be worth it if you are trying to go the fully legal route.
Shipping will be at least $2500 with Matson, and can get exorbitant with larger vehicles. I pay about 7-9K to ship trucks over there. Then there is the real possibility of damage while in transit.
If you buy in Cali, just use your address and pay the Hawaii tax, then pay to ship it over. Unless you are saving over 5K on the buy price, the savings will be negligible, and the time wasted will wash that out.
I would also look into the courtesy shipping that K 3.6 mentioned. If that is the case you may be able to force the local Hawaii dealers hand on selling you a car, at a fair price.
I have a great suggestion. I will swap my MA house for your Hawaii house for the next 90 or so days till spring. That way you can buy a car in MA and ship it to yourself without taxes. You can google how to use the snow blower and ice scraper. Leave me the surfboard.
I’m having a hard time getting actual numbers. I was told they would do $750 over invoice then apply any applicable rebates/incentives.
I don’t believe the 40e’s are a hot item now being the next model for 2020 will be extremely better.
I was awaiting mf for October to get rates.
