Buying a hummer out of state

[sheag]

It really REALLY seems to vary. I am here in Washington State primarily to buy my Hummer and ship it back to my resident state of Hawai'i. This is a common practice since cars in Hawai'i are marked up beyond what it actually costs to ship them and inventory at dealerships is very limited. There are no Hummers on my island, I would have had to fly to Oahu to buy one, and at way above MSRP. Anyway, I contacted several Hummer dealerships around the area and got a different answer from nearly every one. Some simply wouldn't sell to me for the reasons others have listed, they don't sell outside their appointed "area". The dealer I am going with has absolutely no problem selling to me and giving me a trip permit so I can play around with the Hummer for a couple of weeks before I ship it off and go back to Hawai'i myself. Also different states have different laws. Some dealerships in some states are required to charge you sales tax from the state in which you're a resident and remit it to that state directly, depending on both where you buy and where you live. As I understand it, my state, Hawai'i, is entitled to hit me with a tax bill for the Hummer and charge me HI state sales tax on it if they get wind of it. Makes no sense to me, but it apparently happens. I bought my Dodge here and shipped it to HI, no problem, didn't pay sales tax either place. Even if I do get a tax bill, I'd much rather pay the sales tax in HI which is half that of Washington's. When you're paying cash for a 60K vehicle, those few % points matter quite a bit more than if you're financing a smaller purchase I suppose.

Shea