Buying a vehicle > NYC vs Tampa (Brandon: sales, leasing)

[sandor_clegane]

Greetings everyone,

I will be relocating to the Tampa area next summer, and will be in the market to either purchase or lease a new vehicle within the next few months. Anyone have experience with both markets? Will purchasing / leasing a vehicle be cheaper in Tampa? Like everyone else in the country, I'm looking at crossover vehicles (haha), namely either a lexus/toyota, or a ford/lincoln. Thanks in advance!

[lavender]

No experience of leasing, we have purchased both privately and sold privately and purchased via dealers too, even got one car at Tampa Auctions. Purchased new and used. No bad experiences, stuck to larger dealers and of course they all make money but Walker Ford and Brandon Ford for used models and new were good experiences, but I am sure others wont have had the same feeling. Autoway is OK but service is pretty dreadful. Some of the bigger small dealers here with multi car offerings dont impress me much. Lexus and Toyota are pretty popular here as are the other models, because so many of our older generation love their Lincolns. I had a friend (now sadly died) who had a license to buy at auctions here - we had a successful purchase that way for our daughters first car - purchased in 07 and still running! Wish you well with relo

[paradiselost]

a lot of red lights here and stop and go traffic, So the same low gas milage as urban new york to be honest, i would suggest something good on gas. Tyrone Mazda is a good dealership in Saint Petersburg.

[Spring Hillian]

On the other hand there are also a lot of green lights

[ApolloBeachRetiree]

Originally Posted by sandor_clegane

Greetings everyone,

I will be relocating to the Tampa area next summer, and will be in the market to either purchase or lease a new vehicle within the next few months. Anyone have experience with both markets? Will purchasing / leasing a vehicle be cheaper in Tampa? Like everyone else in the country, I'm looking at crossover vehicles (haha), namely either a lexus/toyota, or a ford/lincoln. Thanks in advance!

Write to dealers in NY and FL and request an out the door quote for the car you want (I'd pick Ford over Toyota, but that's me). My wife drives a CMax and loves it.

Compare and then make your choice. Watch out for registration fees here in Florida! They are steep when you "import" a new car. I think that the car has to be more than 6 months old to be exempt from Florida sales tax. You can find all this at the FL DMV site.

[engineman]

Don't overlook the tax/tag/title costs, they can be quite different.

[NYmikef]

For crossovers that come in both AWD and FWD variants, and if you have a preference you may find it harder for find the FWD version in NY. For me, I don't think I would want to pay the extra exprense for AWD for a car to drive in Florida.

[MortonR]

If you're going to have residency when you buy here, I would wait and buy the vehicle here. I can't imagine the costs will be significantly different, however, the title and tags will probably be far cheaper here. Sales tax will be on the order of 6.5% or thereabouts. If you bring a car in from out of state and title it in Florida you will be charged $225 for an administrative fee on top of the title and registration costs.

RM

[retiredcop111]

Originally Posted by sandor_clegane

Greetings everyone,

I will be relocating to the Tampa area next summer, and will be in the market to either purchase or lease a new vehicle within the next few months. Anyone have experience with both markets? Will purchasing / leasing a vehicle be cheaper in Tampa? Like everyone else in the country, I'm looking at crossover vehicles (haha), namely either a lexus/toyota, or a ford/lincoln. Thanks in advance!

Do not buy a car in NYC before moving down. If you register the car down here less than 6 months after you buy it up north they charge you sales tax here as well.

[FLHfan]

You only owe tax on the difference. If the tax rate is higher where you're coming from, you're good.
I bought a car up north three months before moving here and paid 7.25%. It's 7% here so I didn't owe any more.

From the DMV.ORG website:
Vehicle owned less than 6 months:
Owner is responsible for 6% Florida sales or use tax and any local discretionary taxes your new city or county might require.
Florida sales tax will be pro-rated based upon any taxes you paid in another state.
Example: You already paid 3% tax in previous state so you subtract that from the 6% tax owed to Florida. This means you owe 3% sales or use tax.