buying car from Oregon and driving back to CA
 

Hi I am new here but I figure some people have perhaps purchased a car in NV, AZ, or OR...
I located a new car at a dealership in Portland Oregon.

I am not trying to save tax because I know when registering in CA I will pay the tax anyway. But it is the right car and package that I wanted.

Anyway I wanted to know if this is correct

1) buy car and the dealer should be able to come up with a temporary operating permit for 3-5 days.
2) drive back to CA, bring to smog, data is sent to CA system.
3) go to CA DMV and pay registration fee and done.


Car is 50 state legal!


The car purchase price should be agreed price + permit fee , dealer doc fee ($50 max in Oregon?) and no tax?

Will it affect my resale later that the car was obtained in oregon?

new or used?

you can find the info on registering in ca at dmv site

if it's a new car, i would ask your local dealer to trade the car with the dealer in OR. it'll be less hassle.

if it's a used car, make sure it has over 7.5k mi. i think dmv has additional stipulation if the car is under 7.5k mi.

and no, it won't hurt resale. i doubt you need a smog either

It is for a new car.

Can you tell me how the dealer trading works? I have heard of it before. What kind of extra expenses?

My dealer mentioned something about looking for the car I want at the local Port.

Thanks.


Also, I am in SF area and I found a similar car in SoCal also, but they are being a real A-hole when I called and would not let me know exactly what options is on the car, but it looks like it is right

So maybe my NorCal dealer can do a trade with this dealer? I image same state trade is easier than trading with Oregon?

Dealer trades are simple. You tell the dealer what you are looking for. They find in transit (on vessel) once it gets to the port it then goes to your dealer. Keep in mind this works only if the dealers have a trading relationship. As for cost there isnt any additional cost if car is in transit.

I don't mind the drive back to NorCal...

back on topic.. someone has bought a car from out of state dealer before and drove back, please share your experience.

What dealership is it at in Oregon?

A lot of the Portland luxury brand dealers (BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, Audi) have reputations for being hard headed and arrogant. They tend to be the only game in town and treat their customers as if they can do whatever they want because there isn't really anywhere else for them to go.

Oregon dealers should give you a trip permit, which in Oregon are good for 3 weeks. I don't see a big issue with registering the car in California. We have some areas that do smog stuff up here and as far as I know the vast majority of cars are 50 state legal from the factory anyways.

You are correct, the deal went sour when they wanted me to sign a purchase order with a deposit before I fly out. It wasn't even a hot selling car, just I wanted that options and color. I ended up purchasing on the other end of CA in San Diego, fun drive back too.....

Strangely enough the guy hung up on me because I refused to sign anything, but next month near the end of the month kept e-mailing me ask me if I ended up purchasing a car yet!

Agreed! Whether it's a new or used car you should really stay away from the Portland area, they really don't put the customer first. In fact, most new dealerships don't no matter where you go. You can get just as great quality of BMW, Audi, etc. from a used car dealership, especially outside of Portland, such as Salem, Oregon. That's where I got my BMW from and it's still in great condition and I didn't get the run-around while I was purchasing it. Those are my 2 cents.