Buy car in Washington or California
Im planning to move to bay area from seattle in next 3 months. Looking to lease a car. Is it cheaper in seattle or it doesnt matter?
California definitely has better deals than Seattle
Tax is probably the same, but Seattle has worse prices in my experience due to having comparatively fewer dealers. I know a number of people who buy out of state.
CA (car registration) cost is much much cheaper than WA. In WA you pay several hundred dollars in RTA (http://www.dmv-seattle.org/wa-washington/vehicle-registration/regional-transit-authority-rta-tax.html)
Can get partial rta tax refund after move
They’re moving TO Seattle. OP you’ll have to pay sales and RTA tax in Washington no matter where you buy it. California has better competition so you might get a better price on the car, but no matter what you’ll pay the sales tax and RTA as soon as you register in WA. So you’re not getting around that.
Find a friend in Oregon. No sales tax. Just need an Oregon address to register. Oregon don’t care what state license you have.
You’ll pay the sales tax to CA when you register your car within 20 days of establishing residency
Register in Oregon not in California. Just need a friend’s Oregon address to register so they can mail you the registration. I live in WA and my car is registered in OR. After the car depreciates many years then it become cheap to register in WA.
Some cars can’t be brought into California. Check with the DMV before buying.
If you buy the car in Washington it may be more expensive to register it in California as an out of state vehicle.
If you live in Seattle, your car tabs will be very high your first year. Talk to a dealer and have them draw up an out-the-door invoice so you get a sense of how much it would be.
Sales tax also applies to leases. Seattle is in King County where the total sales tax is 10%. You should compare that to your local tax rates. All this information is available online.