tyrenfroe

Excellent advice. I've bought out-of-state before and in some states, the home state DMV won't take your money (believe it or not!). They WILL calculate the sales tax you'll owe, but the selling dealer has to collect it from you and mail it to the DMV along with "dealer's title" from manufacturer. Out-of-state car buyers MUST get their home state tax and registration procedures nailed down BEFORE purchase. Otherwise, you can end up in bureaucratic "jail" where you can't proceed and can't unwind the deal either. Watch out!

twadem

Great suggestions and advice everyone. I really appreciate your time. Guess Lexus owners are a smart bunch. The dealer is still insisting that I have to pay Santa Monica sales tax. I'll take nospinone's recommendation to stop asking the dealer and ask my insurance company or the DMV.

Btw, I currently own a 2008 ES. Drove my first LS last week and I was concerned I would be reminded of my ES, but not at all. Totally different experience and that is why I am currently in the market for a LS. My wife thinks I am nuts for wanting to travel long distance for the vehicle, but tried to explain there is low inventory around here and would have to compromise on aspects of the car just to get an LS.

Tee

I have no issues buying out state, just the world we live in now. I bought my SWB from Park Place Lexus in Plano, TX and bought the current LWB in Littleton, CO. I will search coast to coast if it means finding what want at the price I'm willing to pay. Here in GA no matter where we buy the car we have to pay the county tax (7% for me) where we live, based on the value of the car by GA calculation. Make sure the finance person is knows the tax laws and you as well to make sure it's taking care of, in the end it will fall on you.

greg3852

Just bought my LS from Maine. Drove 3 hours each way. Being from Mass, the dealer collected the taxes, and I took the plates off my trade. In Mass you can transfer plates from one car to another for 7 days provided you lose ownership of the original car.

After paying the taxes to the dealer, they sent me a check in that amount to bring to the Mass DMV.

Only issue I had was a 3 hr wait at my local DMV. Hate them.

aypues

I saw the car you're talking about online. I don't think it's an incredible deal. It's a strange configuration to have the Executive package and no Advanced PCS or even regular PCS. They give that away free basically on other pre-owned cars. Its a $6400 option for A-PCS.

On a side note, you def want the car to have CPO. When things go wrong (and they will), it's very expensive to repair. Everything is covered under the CPO warranty. If you drive a lot of miles you might want to extend it to 125k miles and 5 years.

twadem

Thanks for the advice everyone. Here is the latest - I bought an LS460 today, but not the one out-of-state. I bought one locally. 2010 LS460 swb w/15k mi. non-ML for $41.2K. Overall I believe it was a fair deal. I was offered a 5yr/70k warranty (if i recall correctly) for $2100, but declined. I'll probably drive less than 7k mile annually. Does anyone have any thoughts on buying a warranty for this particular vehicle?

http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail...nal&listType=1

peteybabes

Sounds like they offered you an excellent option. . .

I paid that price for 3 year/ 50K and I drive about 13,500 miles/year

CJITTY

This has been discussed at nauseum if you search..but there is no way I would buy a car of this magnitude without a warranty..preferably through Lexus or a CPO. I had 4 control arms replaced..cost was $2k. I didn't pay a dime so back to zero essentially. ..then I had about $1000 in repairs after that, so now I have already saved $1k. Any repairs from now until 2017 are even more gravy and my warranty investment has easily provided a positive return on investment. One thing to note, if your nav system goes out..appx $10 to $12k to replace. One headlight assembly is $4k. Get the idea?

Nospinzone

Congrats on the new car! We expect you to be a regular around here now.

If that is a Lexus Platinum warranty, that is a good price. Since you only drive 7000 miles, you will get the full 5 year benefit, that's only $420 per year for piece of mind. It's up to you and your risk tolerance, but I'd take it.

tyrenfroe

Are you still on original factory warranty (4yr/50k)? If so, you have a limited time (4th anniversary of in-service date) in which to purchase extended FACTORY warranty. Note that extended factory warranty is refundable if you sell the car before it expires. For details, consult a Lexus dealer. If you're not covered by original Lexus warranty, you're looking at 3rd party warranties for coverage and they're not going anywhere so you have lots of time to decide.

twadem

CJITTY, yes I apologize - I have seen other posts regarding warranty. My anxiety got the best of me, so I asked the question. Not sure if the warranty offered to me at the MBZ dealer was third party, but I assumed as much at the time. I will talk to Lexus about extending the factory warrant. I'll look int 3rd party as well.

twadem

By the way, is the control arm/bushing issue a problem with only specific years or all LS460s?

RR601

Original owner purchased my 2011 sport in December 2011. So does that mean I have until Dec.2015 and not Jan 2015 to extend warranty?
Thanks

CJITTY

I think control arms from 07 to 09 are at most risk. There are non oem alternatives that are a little cheaper. My 600 needed them replaced so its not just a 460 issue

Nospinzone

I believe you have either 4 years from date of first purchase or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first, to buy a Lexus extended warranty.