Buying a car (Portland: sales, rental, car registration)

[vickilynn]

I am living in southern Maine, we are moving to VA this summer, and my husband is coming from the UK for a week the end of April before starting work in VA. He needs to buy a car here...is paying cash...registering/insuring it here in Maine as we won't have a VA address until I move this summer...anyway, long intro into a practical question:

Can I buy a car in NH if I live here in Maine? Will I save any money (tax-wise)...is there more of a selection? (I live near Portland). I think he wants a Honda Civic, 2007. Since we only have a few days, he wants to go and get one off the lot and have a chance to register it etc. before we drive down for a few days to look around VA. His company here does not provide a car so he needs one for work asap and I drive an old Dodge Caravan, so he can't rely on that!

Thanks

[forest beekeeper]

I would ask around for a one month lease.

Then at least you would not be dealing with Maine vs NH vs Va, each of their taxes, etc.

Once he is in VA, he can take his time, shop around and get what he wants.

If he thinks that he wants 'X', lease one and drive it for a few weeks to a month. After that he may have decided that he really would rather a 'Y' and not a 'X'.

have fun.

[vickilynn]

OK...that is good advice I hadn't thought of.

I was hoping if we bought in NH we wouldn't have to do anything with the state, just bring it here to register it. We can't register in VA until we have a permanent address there, and then we have 90 days to do so, so we really didn't mind registering it here in Maine and then down there.

[Coaster]

Vickilynn, FB has the right idea. Do NOT buy a car to register in Maine if you're going to be re-registering it in Virginia within a few months. Even if you buy it in NH, when you register it in Maine you will have to pay Maine sales tax on the purchase, plus Maine excise taxes for the registration. It could turn into a very expensive proposition for you by the time you get VA tags on it. I don't know what the sales/excise taxes and registration fees are in VA, but they have to be lower than up here.

A short-term lease or a rental -- Hertz, Avis, and the others often have off-season deals, or look up Rent-a-Wreck in the Yellow Pages -- is definitely the way to go in your situation. I can't recommend it strongly enough.

Regarding your lack of a VA address. If you know what city you'll be living in, you might think about renting a post office box there before you make the move so you'll have an address for car registration, mail forwarding, and that sort of thing.

[vickilynn]

Originally Posted by Coaster

Regarding your lack of a VA address. If you know what city you'll be living in, you might think about renting a post office box there before you make the move so you'll have an address for car registration, mail forwarding, and that sort of thing.

Another great idea we hadn't thought of...thanks! At this point we are still looking at what city we will be in. He has to be in and around DC (not an office job, so commuting isn't that much an issue) but, the housing prices are way up there and that is causing us problems deciding right away where to go.