Can you buy an eGolf out of state? Florida?

I'm in a state where the eGolf is not available. Does anyone have experience with purchasing/leasing an eGolf and shipping it to a state where it is not officially launched?

If so, what are your service options?

It's plausible that you could lease an eGolf in a launch state, then have to move for some reason and take the car with you. It seems like VW would have to have some was to deal with eGolfs in non-launch states.

I live in Washington State and purchased my e-Golf in Oregon. Leasing was not an option since I have
registered my car in a different state from the one where the car was sold. I have contacted one
dealership about servicing my car and they confirmed that they would be able to service it. I will
likely contact other dealers just to have a back up plan or two. By purchasing new technology and
living in a state where the car is not sold, I expect I'll be "on my own" more often than not. Fortunately,
the car has met or exceeded all expectations so far and the lack of ICE complexity makes me fairly
confident that there are fewer things that can go wrong. Time will tell, but I'm all in on being an
early adopter given the car's perfect fit for my needs.

I'm surprised an out of state dealer can service it. In the 10 CARB states, the dealers had to make a big investment in sending mechanics to school and in the specialized service tools required. VW hasn't indicated when they will offer the car outside the CARB states. Demand for bevs even in the CARB states hasn't been anything to write home about and encourage them to justify the outlay

Ron

Thanks for the replies.

I test drove the car in Boston and had a dealer willing to lease it to me, but when I contacted local Florida dealers they said that they can't service them because of the tool requirements. One dealership suggested that dealers that are equipped to service hybrid Touregs might have the knowledge/tools to work on an eGolf.

The only reason I didn't jump in and have a car leased from out of state is the car that I test drove was already suffering from a malfunction. The whole cargo are was torn apart because they had to replace a major component of the charging system. That issue made me stop to think about what would happen if I needed service on the car outside of the 10 launch states.

I had been looking forward to the eGolf for months leading up to the launch. It's taking all of my willpower to not throw caution to the wind and just get one from out of state and have it shipped down. I have a terrible feeling that something will happen and I'll have to pay $750 each way to get the thing back to a dealer that can work on it.

I live in Washington (which doesn't carry the eGolf), and am considering buying this car from Oregon. Washington has a law (http://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=458-20-279) that waives sales taxes for the purchase of any electric vehicles. Does anyone know if this law would apply to vehicles purchased from out of state? Normally when cars are purchased from Oregon, sales taxes would be collected in Washington at the time of registration. However given that the eGolf is all-electric, I'm wondering if WAC 458-20-279 would apply when registering a car in Washington which was purchased in Oregon. Does anyone have any experience with this or a similar situation?

I think your bigger problem is that no dealer is trained or has the equipment to service the car. I'd wait for VW to start selling in the non CARB states

Ron

I'm willing to take the gamble on maintenance addressing issues out of state. In an absolute worse-case scenario, the car would have to be towed a few hours away to Portland, which is something that it seems like hardly ever needs to happen (if at all) with this car. For normal maintenance or service, I don't mind driving down to Portland for a day.

The bigger question by far is tax related. Here in Seattle the sales tax rate is 9.5%, so waiving that would be a huge deal for us. Also I'm beginning to find out it may be harder to claim the federal $7,500 rebate, but given that is a federal program I'm sure there is some way to do it, even if i have to wait until filing my 2015 income taxes.

I live in Washington and purchased my e-Golf in Oregon.
When I registered my car, I was obligated to pay sales tax at the rate for my county of residence.

zinzen said:

I live in Washington and purchased my e-Golf in Oregon.
When I registered my car, I was obligated to pay sales tax at the rate for my county of residence.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry to hear that. Did you try to object to paying the sales taxes on grounds of WAC 458-20-279?

Also were you able to reclaim the $7,500 federal tax credit?

araman0 said:

Also were you able to reclaim the $7,500 federal tax credit?

Click to expand...

The Federal Tax Credit has nothing to do with your state of residence. You apply for this credit with your Federal Tax Return in April on the year after you buy the car. Every owner gets this credit (up to their tax liability) if they apply. If you lease you do NOT get it.

araman0 said:

zinzen said:

I live in Washington and purchased my e-Golf in Oregon.
When I registered my car, I was obligated to pay sales tax at the rate for my county of residence.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry to hear that. Did you try to object to paying the sales taxes on grounds of WAC 458-20-279?

Also were you able to reclaim the $7,500 federal tax credit?

Click to expand...

araman0,

Thanks for the info about the sales/use tax exemption. I think the reason that I was required to pay was
due to the outdated list of eligible vehicles used by the Department of Licensing. Apparently, it dates from
May, 2014.

Someone at the Department of Revenue helped me by providing the link to the refund form. I may have
to wait, but I should get the full amount back from the State (less the $100 annual electric vehicle registration fee.)

I live in Washington state and attempted to purchase an egolf in Oregon but they would not sell me one. They stated VW would not allow them to sell an egolf to anyone outside of the state of Oregon. I see posts from individuals who live in Washington State that have successfully purchased an egolf in Oregon and registered it in Washington State. How did you do it and did you experience any difficulty?

I haven't actually bought one yet, but the Oregon dealerships I called were all willing to sell them to me. I suggest going to a different Oregon dealership, and calling them I advance to verify everything. Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

zinzen said:

I live in Washington State and purchased my e-Golf in Oregon. ... I have contacted one
dealership about servicing my car and they confirmed that they would be able to service it.

Click to expand...

I am considering doing the same thing - which dealer did you find would service it? I called around and everyone said "no" when I asked (I live near Seattle).

A MN dealer purchased two from CA, and is trying to sell one at an 'elevated' price as the 'first in the state'. Since it is used and would be 2nd owner, it cannot be leased. I test drove it, and like it. I'm not the only one passing on it though, as it is priced significantly higher than MSRP-$7.5k, and has over 1100 miles on it, and isn't eligible for the $7.5k.

I'm more interested in leasing one for 2-3 years until the higher range models replace these. As others have mentioned, I imagine these <100mi range vehicles will get harder to sell as the >100 mile vehicles get closer. ~2017 model in 2016, is just a year and a half away.

zinzen said:

I live in Washington and purchased my e-Golf in Oregon.
When I registered my car, I was obligated to pay sales tax at the rate for my county of residence.

Click to expand...

Just to confirm... You had to pay sales tax at the dealership as part of the sale because you could not prove you were a resident of Oregon before you could drive off with the car right?

That is interesting... It's sales tax which a state thing .. Oregon did not benefit from it monetarily from a sale happening it's state or from a resident not polluting in it's state .. so why does Washington get sales tax dollars from the transaction?

Anybody work around this?

If a higher mileage egolf were to be offered in 2017, most of it would come from a bigger battery which would be an option at extra cost, similar to what Leaf is doing. The basic mileage model would still be offered as many people like me don't need or would want to pay for the extra capacity which means extra weight. It's not clear therefore that the resale value would take an abnormal hit

Ron

CyberPine said:

zinzen said:

I live in Washington and purchased my e-Golf in Oregon.
When I registered my car, I was obligated to pay sales tax at the rate for my county of residence.

Click to expand...

Just to confirm... You had to pay sales tax at the dealership as part of the sale because you could not prove you were a resident of Oregon before you could drive off with the car right?

That is interesting... It's sales tax which a state thing .. Oregon did not benefit from it monetarily from a sale happening it's state or from a resident not polluting in it's state .. so why does Washington get sales tax dollars from the transaction?

Anybody work around this?

Click to expand...

It's required as per http://dor.wa.gov/content/getaformorpublication/publicationbysubject/taxtopics/outofstatevehicles.aspx in order to get WA registration for the car.

The only legal workaround is for zinzen to become a legal resident of Oregon, in which case he or she would be subject to state income taxes (which WA does not collect). zinzen could perhaps ask the dealer to put Oregon plates, but as a WA resident, zinzen is risking a ticket from the Washington State Patrol for not registering his/her car in Washington. I suspect the Oregon dealer may be risking civil if not criminal penalties from its own state for doing the same.

VW probably need compliance carbon credits to offset sales of regular ICE cars in the same states they are offered, as pollution mitigation. Hence not selling them in certain states. It's all about the politics.