A week ago, Sabrina and I had our car break down. Something is wrong with the transmission. We're having a (hopefully) trustworthy mechanic look at it this week. Unfortunately, since we own one car, and we have one car in the shop, we have zero cars right now (it's the sort of math we'll be teaching Adie soon). Fortunately a kind in-law has lent us a car for a few days till we get ours back. It has led us to begin the search for a new vehicle. New meaning new to us, not 2009 model year.
We've wrestled with the questions of how soon do we actually want to have a larger vehicle? Do we really need a second car right now? Are we financially better off to wait? We know (or so Sabrina tells me) that we're going to want 2 cars when we move to Arizona.
We're considering purchasing a friend's vehicle as we trust that they've taken care of it (single owner) and it's still relatively new. We were looking at the cost to put it into our name and came across information that I was surprised by. The government gets to charge sales tax on the private sales of cars. They will do so when you register the vehicle (if you purchase from a private party). For some reason I'm really just fine with the government charging sales tax on new items I buy, but after sales tax has already been charged on an item, it seems like you shouldn't have to pay it again. Maybe I'm out of line, and I admittedly don't have a good argument why I shouldn't have to (other than someone already paid sales tax on it once), but why should the government get to charge sales tax on something lots and lots of times? Or should they?
On a related note, we will almost assuredly be purchasing a car in Utah and not in Arizona. For as much as I complain about the high prices around here, after running several vehicle models through a search on Cars.com, it appears that you can get a newer car, with less miles in Utah than you can in Tucson, and even Phoenix.
4 comments:
how about a smart car? they sell 'em in lindon. Only $13,0000.
You should investigate the possibility of taking advantage of the move to mitigate sales tax. In WA, at least, they don't verify sales tax on cars purchased out of state at the time of becoming a resident in certain circumstances. That being the case you might find a car in Oregon and save 10%. (Of course, you'd have to counter for differences in locale cost between Oregon and UT.)
buy a natural gas car... CNG
~$6 to fill up? seriously
Doug and I have had a recent debate lately. Since buying our home we have had several instances where we needed something bigger or that could tow a trailer. We have been borrowing families cars and it works. Both our cars are paid off and in decent shape, so for now they work. We are saving for an upgrade, but what do to borrow or buy? Good luck!
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