Used cars in California

Blaine,
I think the most populated areas would be Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay areas. San Francisco is probably 400 miles closer to your home so that might be the place?

Good Luck,
Art

Check out www.craigslist.org for the areas you're interested in, or use www.crazedlist.org to search the entire state at once.

Just tried crazedlist. If you are using Internet Explorer it wont work!
That is my main beef with craigslit. No statewide search function.
Jeff

Try Jaxed.com -
Click on the Mash -
Fill in your criteria and area.
It'll give you ebay and Craigslist listings.

Good luck.

Its funny, I didnt get a chance to read the replies till today. We flew into San Fran on Thursday then drove to Sacramento and picked up a 2004 Nissan Pathfinder Armada. They then told us if they delivered the car to Nevada we could avoid sales tax. So off we drove to Reno and had a fun night/day there. It so happens the Street Vibrations motorcycle show was on so the whole town was packed with bikes/bikers. It was pretty cool to see all the custom bikes. Back to the story. The following day the dealership called us and told us we needed a valid NV address to avoid the sales tax thing. Of course we didnt have one of those (I guess having an address out of the country isnt good enough ). We now have the car in Redding and are on a nice leisurely drive back up to BC. We plan to take our time a bit and see some sights as we dont have to be back till Tuesday. Anyhow thanks for the input guys.

Blaine

Blaine,

I wish I'd known you were in town, we could have hooked up, plus I live in Reno and have an address! Still the dealer should not have charged sales tax as long as you gave an out of state (i.e. CA) address.

quote:

Originally posted by Joules5:
Blaine,

I wish I'd known you were in town, we could have hooked up, plus I live in Reno and have an address! Still the dealer should not have charged sales tax as long as you gave an out of state (i.e. CA) address.

I know it sounds trivial, but when I purchased my car from P.I. back in '03 it was where you physicially take delivery of the car is what determines the tax. If I recall correctly I could take delivery in California and pay the $2,400 tax, or pay $1,100 for enclosed transport to my door and pay no tax. I chose the latter. Why it works that way in California I have no idea, when I go to Washington all I have to do is show my Oregon drivers license and the tax is waived.

ParaP is correct. If you drive the car in CA, sales tax is due.

Another alternative to avoid the tax is to have the Dealer employee themselves drive the car across state lines and have your signature notarized on a particular CA DMV form that states you, as the buyer, have taken delivery out of State.

The option that ParaP mentioned is to have the car trucked across state lines and the trucker's "bill of lading" serves as proof that the car was delivered out of state.

If you do drive the car in CA, the dealer will collect the sales tax and sell you a "one way trip permit" (about $15) that is good for seven days allowing you to move the car from point A to point B (usually your out of state address).

Finally, many States are "reciprocal". This means that if you pay tax in CA, you do not have to pay the sales tax in your residence State. However, if your State's tax rate is higher, you will have to pay them the difference. If your State's tax rate is lower, you will NOT be refunded the difference in tax rates.

If the tax rate in the area of CA where you purchased your vehicle is "close" to what you pay in your State of residence, this is an acceptable alternative.

You will need to check with your State's Department of Motor vehicles to see if your State has a reciprocal agreement with CA.

http://www.boe.ca.gov/pdf/boe448.pdf

Lastly, if you took delivery out of the State of CA and avoided the payment of sales tax, the car CANNOT return to CA (was 1 year, now 90 days) or CA will presume the car was intended for use in CA and sales tax is due. That prevents CA residents from doing an out of state delivery to avoid paying the sales tax.

If you drive a "fancy, pricy car" in the Sate of CA with out of Sate license plates, you WILL be a particular target of the CHP. They look at you as taking money out of their pocket. You better possess an out of State Driver's license and out of State insurance card.

Sorry Julian it was quite an impromptu trip and I didnt know we were leaving until the day of. Circus Circus charged for internet access so I didnt bother otherwise I would have given you a heads up. The car was delivered by the dealer to Reno so we did not take posession until then. It was the dealer that told us we needed a NV address. I would have thought being from Canada would have exempted us from most taxes. Oh well its said and done now. We made it to Salem Oregon today and took the kids for a great time at the enchanted forest theme park. They had a blast.

Blaine