My best friend has a primary CA residence and a secondary in AZ. He purchased and registered his 08 VW Golf in AZ to save a few tax and registration dollars. He then used his Golf for primary transportation to and from his business in CA. One day he was not paying attention and got pulled over for speeding. The CHP officer looked at the AZ registration and CA DL and said, "I see you every day on this stretch of highway, so do not tell me you only brought it home for service/repairs. You have 7 days from today to have CA plates or I will pull you over and impound the vehicle". This was very considerate of the officer considering he could have written the very expensive registration ticket right then. The key in any state is to have a DL that matches the registration of the vehicle you are operating but since most states make you surrender your existing DL to obtain one of theirs this is difficult to accomplish. Then you must abide by the appropriate storage/use days your actual home state allows .
Do what ever you think is proper but do not complain if you find out you did not meet the legal requirements in all of the states involved and have to pay fines that go with this smart tax strategy.
