you are wrong on this....

if they ship it, you don't pay sales tax there but you will when you register the car in your state (well except OR.).

if you drive the car home, you have to pay sales tax but you should get credited that tax when you register the car. if you get doubled taxed, someone screwed up...

 

Interesting, because when I called them earlier they told me I had to pay the CA Tax. I don't know how they could just avoid the sales tax, how much are they charging for shipping?

 

I wouldn't call it avoiding the sales tax. Since the car technically isn't even getting a temporary license to drive in California, I don't think it can be taxed in California. Getting it shipped to you is no different than paying no tax on an item bought from eBay IMO.

I briefly toyed with getting it shipped, but shipping via open truck was $800 to their facility in Lakewood, WA with an ETA of 3.5 weeks. I am too impatient, so I opted the quick route and now I'm flying down on Friday morning.

 

no one is purposely avoiding sales tax. you still have to pay it in your state. regardless if you have it shipped and save paying tax down there, you'll have to pay it when you register the car.

it's a little cheaper to go fly down and drive it back vs having it shipped if you don't mind the extra miles on the car.

even if you were to get a dealer here to sell you one at invoice, you'll still save over 1k if you bought it at SC and drove it back... just depends how much your time is worth.

 

That's cool that your going down to get your car friday, I'm sure I'll see you sometime on I-5 since I commute to UW daily from Tacoma. The deal your getting down in Cali is a killer. Welcome to the IX family. =)