Henry82

Hello fellow RX enthusiasts,

I'm in the market for a RX and my search has taken me from southern CA to all of CA and now to Arizona... the color combo and options/packages I'm looking for is hard to find and since Lexus is no longer producing the 3rd Gen RXs, we're basically left with shopping the remaining inventory. In any case, I just wanted to ask you guys for any insight and experience with a CA resident buying a new car in Arizona and driving it back to be registered back here at home.

• Is the RX 350 a "California-certified (50-state) vehicle"?
• Does the Arizona dealership collect the CA taxes at time of sale and registration is automatically processed... or do I have to do things manually after I bring it back?
• Any other pointers regarding tax and registration for an out-of-state vehicle?

Side questions:

• Can the RX 350 make the 380 mile trip in one tank?
• Break-in: I understand that it's best to vary driving speed to allow the car to go through all gears and engine speeds during break-in... any recommendations on how to best achieve this while making the trip back to CA?

Thank you in advance and I look forward to joining the 3RX family!
Henry

felix168

why don't you go to the CA DMV webstie? anyway, the answer to your question is you can't.

FLYCT

Just call an Arizona Lexus dealer. They should know.

California has strange rules.

I wanted to buy a Toyota in California and take a nice cross country road trip home to Florida. I wanted to register the car in Florida. California wanted to charge me California sales tax if I drive it off the lot. If I had it shipped and delivered to Florida there would be no tax collected in California.

I bought a new car in Georgia and drove it home with a dealer installed 45 day drive away tag. They did not charge me sales tax. When I registered it in Florida I then paid Florida DMV the sales tax.

I bought another car in Georgia and they did not charge me sales tax and it came delivered with a 45 day temp tag. Once I registered it in Florida the DMV collected the sales tax.

I bought a Lexus from Chicago dealership and had it shipped to Florida. The Chicago dealer collected Florida Sales tax and shipped the car. Georgia dealer has reciprocal agreements with Florida to collect certaother states sales tax.

Arizona Dealers should know. They do it all the time.

FLYCT

Everything you want to know about automobile use/sales tax in California
http://www.boe.ca.gov/pdf/pub34.pdf

FLYCT

Last post on this subject, i promise

This week a Georgia dealer quoted 65 cents/mile to truck a car from Georgia to Florida.

Henry82

felix168, where does it say "you can't"?

FLYCT, thank you so much for taking the time to share your experiences... very valuable information. It sounds like how I take delivery (shipped to CA or drive off the lot) will determine how tax is collected. I'll definitely ask the Arizona dealer for details, but I'm leery of them telling me that "everything will be fine" and "you won't have any problems" because... well... they're motivated to do so to complete the sale and, at the end of the day, I'm the left with the car and any subsequent issues.


Anyone know if the RX 350 is a "California-certified (50-state) vehicle"? Emissions plaque/sticker will look like this: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/de...t_facts/ffvr29

svidas

I have purchased cars four times from three different states. I don't live in California so I didn't have the compliance concern but the dealers all are used to out of state sales and it works well.

NateJG

Two of our current cars were purchased new while out of state on separate vacations - one in FL, and one in MA. As reported above, we had the vehicles shipped to our home in MI - and the sales taxes for MI were collected by the selling dealership. Our FL dealer bragged of shipping over 50 cars a month to out-of-state customers. I'd do it again.

As an aside: we've had no trouble finding a local dealership to service our cars (3 different brands).

FLYCT's shipper charges less per mile to ship the car than it actually costs to drive the car. I found that to be true for my FL-MI trip.

vlad_a

I have purchased our RX in PA and the S4 just came from VA. Drove to the dealership in my trade and drove back in the new car. Out-of-state dealer took care of all of paperwork and collected proper OH tax.
I don't see any reason CA should be different.

We did buy one car through a dealer-trade from MI and it was driven back 600 miles by a contractor they use. The extra charge for this service was included in the negotiated price. That wasn't the best experience.

Tom558

This should help.

Henry82

Thank you all for your valuable input... I've worked out a deal with Arrowhead Lexus in Peoria, AZ and paperwork is on its way to me as we speak. I'll share deal details later after everything is finalized, but I'll say now that my experience so far has been VERY smooth. After working out numbers over the phone, credit app and preliminary docs were all handled via email, and the car will be delivered directly to my home... I can get used to this buying process.

Car specs: 2015 RX 350, Nebula Gray Pearl / Light Gray
Packages: Comfort, Navi, Intuitive Parking, Premium with BSM, Sport Appearance, Wood & Leather Trimmed Steering and ****, Preferred Accessory