Quote:
Originally Posted by RockCrusher
FWIW, bought a 2022 MINI Cooper S at an out of state MINI dealer. Then bought a 2023 MINI Cooper JCW at an out of state MINI dealer. Then bought a 2023 M2 at an out of state dealer.
No financing involved. All 3 purchases involved a trade in. Trade ins were fully paid for and I paid the balance owed via a personal check which promptly cleared.
No dealer balked at the sale any reason and this included the fact being I lived anywhere from 200 miles to nearly 900 miles distant I would not use the selling dealer for servicing. (For the M2 there is a local BMW dealer. For the MINIs the local BMW dealer is able to do some servicing but for the free 10K mile services I'll have to book the MINI at the nearest MINI dealer, which is in Merriam KS.)
In my search for an M2 I did encounter several dealers who had allocations but were saving these for local buyers.
Be aware at least based on what I was told BMW "requires" sales tax be collected if the vehicle is financed. While I was not financing any of these out of state purchases every dealer initially wanted to collect sales tax. A few claimed the collected tax would be forwarded to Arkansas.
I spoke with someone at the Arkansas Department of Finance. I was told if I pay the sales tax to an out of state dealer the odds are the dealer would *not* send this to Arkansas. When I showed up to register the car I'd be required to pay the Arkansas sales tax and then file for a refund to try to get the sales tax back that was collected. I would probably not be successful. I was told Arkansas had no agreement with any state regarding sales tax collection/forwarding.
So if you are considering buying a car out of state you need to research how sales tax is handled by the selling dealer and your state. Otherwise you could find yourself paying sales tax twice...
I went with a manual equipped M2. One reason is the car I ended up buying off the showroom floor was not spoken for and just happened to have a 6-speed installed. I would have accepted an automatic equipped M2 just as fast.
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Funny you should mention the sales tax. I flew to Boise, Idaho to pick up my Mustang PP1 with Magneride. $53k MSRP for $46k made the deal worth the trip. I’m stunned I just sold it with 46k well-loved miles on it for $38k.
They tried to pitch to me that they were collecting Retail Sales Tax rate of some absurd number like 8.5% or whatever it is in my home city. I almost lost it. I thought I had negotiated a really spectacular deal when they launched that on me. The vehicle sales tax rate is not the same as retail sales tax. It’s a fraction of it.
Needless to say they collected zero sales tax and boy they were sore about the deal. They tried to play that card on cars being taken out of the country being the reason they insist on collecting the fees, but I wasn't having it. It's not like paying them extra for tax is going to keep the car from going oversees anyway as far as I'm aware.
I sort of feel the same way about the manual. I might accept a manual equipped M2 if the right deal came up and the rest of the options were right.