kschawaii

About 8 months ago I went down to my local (the only) dealership in Hawaii and talked to them about the 2006 IS350. I went there knowing exactly what i wanted. I wanted a Smokey Granite Meca 350 with black interior. The options i wanted was the Sports package because i didnt want the wood interior and a DVD navigation system. After telling them what i wanted, we ran into some problems. First of all, they told me that ALL the IS models in Hawaii does not come with Navi reason being that there is no mapping for hawaii. I told them that i wouldnt mind if the navigation didnt work but i just wanted my car to be equipped stock with Bluetooth, DVD system, and a back-up camera. I didnt want to go aftermarket with all those options because of some bad past experiences.

Anyways, instead of getting my IS 350 like this.... http://www.lexus.com/lexusConfigApp/...Accessories.do

they told me that the closest they would be able to get to that would be to go with package "I"

which is
Choice "I" ($4,295):
(HW) Headlamp washers with headlamp cleaner
(ST) Performance Luxury Plus Package (18" RWD)
225/40R 18+255/40R 18" alloy with summer tires
High Intensity Discharge + Adaptive Front Lighting System w/Auto Level Headlamps
Heated & Ventilated Front Seats
Sport suspension
Memory
Perforated leather seat upgrade
(PA) Parking Assist

here is the link to the hawaii lexus site where you can see what options you are offered in hawaii..

http://www.lexusofhawaii.com/

so that is why i want to buy a car from california and ship it down to hawaii...

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

That is the reason why I'm holding off buying any new Lexus (Aside from maybe the GS since it comes with the LCD screen) until Lexus gets some map rights for Hawaii and offers the navigation. That really does irritate me a little that Acura has navigation in Hawaii but nobody else does yet

Anyway, what are you asking? Are you asking if it is possible to buy out of state and ship to Hawaii or if any dealership is willing to do that? Either way it is possible and shipping should be around $1100 or less.

hapaboy

good luck dealing with servco. maybe we should all band together and write to toyota for a dealership franchise to compete! there was an asian gal, forget her name at the moment, who was very knowledgeable and wanted some business. however, when you bring the car to california, it presents a emissions problem, plus tax issue, etc. so i'm just buying mine up here. your specs that you list look great, the 350 at the base lux pkg already has the heated seats/perforated. i guess heated seats are great for HI still! hehe. maybe cooled seats is really what you're after? although many have expressed underperforming results. perhaps you should look at getting the car from oregon, since they don't have to add on any emmissions BS to weigh down your car. plus there's no sales tax, and if HI hasn't figured it out by now, you won't have to pay the adjusted tax when you register it......

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Unfortunately I believe you do now. I think they passed that law 5 or so years ago? Anyway, for news cars bought out of state you have to pay state tax. For used cars though you don't have to pay any tax. If you can find a state that you can buy from and register it there without having to keep the car in state for 6 months or however long, that would be perfect as it only cost about $10 or so to reregister the car in Hawaii. The problem is, you might as well just pay the Hawaii tax as it is only 4.167% as opposed to the 6-8% many west coast states have. I guess used cars are still the best bang for the buck as used cars in Hawaii are expensive compared to many mainland states.

kschawaii

well, i called several lexus dealerships in Cali and none of them really took me seriously.. One even told me that Lexus doesnt allow you to buy a car and then ship it to hawaii...

If anyone knows of a salesman maybe in the area of Cali or maybe even Oregon that could help me out that would be great....

paeko73

I don't really understand your first sentence. Which state should he "register it there without having to keep the car in state for 6 months"? The state where he purchases the car, or Hawaii?

kschawaii

hopefully i would be able to get it registered in hawaii and get to pay the hawaii tax too...

paeko73

Call this place to find out ... and keep us updated:

For vehicles purchased Out-of-State, please contact the HONOLULU MOTOR VEHICLE OFFICE.

Honolulu County - Department of Motor Vehicles and Licensing
P.O. Box 30330
Honolulu, HI 96820-0330
(808) 532-4324

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Well, basically what I was trying to say was that either way you will have to pay tax on a new car purchase bought out of state. You with either pay the state tax in the state you bought the car from, or you will pay the Hawaii "Use" tax when you bring it back to Hawaii and register the car here. The only way you don't have to pay the Hawaii "Use" tax as far as I know is if the car was bought from a private party under a "Casual sale" status, or if you personally registered the car in another state and were simply trying to transfer the registration to Hawaii (As if you just moved to Hawaii). When it comes to new car registration, as far as I knew most states will not allow you to register the car in that state unless you are a resident of that state. Each state has their own qualifications as to what make you a resident. I guess it just gets complicated when trying to buy new cars out of state for Hawaii owners and most people don't know about the "Use" tax. I only bought 2 used cars from California so my experienced is limmited, but I did research a little about the "Use" tax since I was worried I might have to pay that on a $30K+ car. Fortunately I didn't since I bought the car from a private party and it was considered a "Casual Sale" which is exempt from the "Use" tax. Anyway, that is about all I know and probably is outdated anyway since my experience was a few years ago.

PHML

iTrader: (33)

Chris is correct....a few years ago....the Legislature in Hawaii passed a law where you have to pay Hawaii sales tax on new vehicles purchased on the mainland and shipped to Hawaii....this was mainly for cars purchase in Oregon (no sales tax). Im not sure about cars purchased in other states as its sales tax is much higher than Hawaii's.

Shipping is about $1K from the west coast to Honolulu....and a bit more to the neigbhor islands.

Good luck!!

Pete

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

As far as I recall, if the tax you paid to another state was higher than Hawaii you don't have to report the landed value and don't have to pay Hawaii any tax. If the tax was less than Hawaii, you pay the difference to equal the Hawaii tax. So if you only paid 3%, you simply have to pay the 1% difference.

I guess if I'm understanding this correctly, Hawaii doesn't really have a sales tax as we have a general excise tax which is a tax for the business. The business just passes on that 4.167% tax to the customer. The Hawaii "Use" tax is supposed to be similar to the other states sales tax and that is the tax we supposed to report and pay to the state of Hawaii whenever we buy things out of state. Technically, if you bought a new T-Shirt from Oregon we supposed to report its value and pay 4% "Use" tax on it, but who really does that