Buy out of state

[DAS26miles]

We are looking at new motorhomes and searching the internet I find great savings out of state. We live in southern California with limited RV dealers in our immediate area.
What Are the pitfalls of buying out of state? I hear stories on the forum and dealer reviews about taking an RV in for waranty and service and being told to take it where you bought it. Plus what are the registration and licensing issues? I assume all vehicles now comply with Calif emissions standards??

[the_trippers]

First, Jayco dealerships may treat you badly even if you purchased from them. I have had the many months experience trying to get warranty repairs done. Took an attorney to get their attention and still didn't get done right.
Second, the CA DMV can lose anyone's paperwork, not just RV owners. Took almost 1-year and assistance from our State Assemblyman's secretary to get our Jeep registered in CA due to lost paperwork at the Westminster DMV.
And Third, Good Luck, and enjoy your new RV!

[OFDPOS]

How close are you to Temecula ? Nexusrv.com
Nexus has a showroom there and they have a 25P that they have for sale there.
PM me for some info if interested in it...

[DrewE]

I purchased my motorhome out of state, used, but the process would have been much the same for a new one (excepting I don't have any warranty service to "worry" about).

Bought in New Hampshire, took the bill of sale and signed-over title to the nearest NH DMV office and got a $20 transit permit. Drove it home to Vermont, went to the Vermont DMV, paid state use tax and registration fees, and obtained a registration. No governmental hassles beyond the usual expected waits and joys of doing anything at any DMV office.

I did, of course, need to get insurance coverage before driving back to Vermont; that's a separate set of paperwork.

Take note that I only paid tax in my home state, which as I understand it is the usual but perhaps not universal way things work. (You might also note I didn't mention getting a title in Vermont; that's because Vermont among a few other states neither issues nor requires titles on vehicles older than fifteen years old.)

[PghBob]

Based on some of the comments above, I think we have been lucky. We bought our Class C at the factory in SoCal. They arranged to have a CDL and ICC licensed driver take it and us to Las Vegas where we signed the final papers and had them notorized. We had a California Transport sticker on the windshield and no plates of any kind, and drove the rig home to Western PA with no difficulty. Arriving home, we went to the local AAA office, paid the sales tax to PA (cheaper than Cal.), paid for and received registration and a plate. Then, took the RV to a local truck service place and had it state inspected (required every year in PA). All done in two partial days.

[klutchdust]

Purchased pre owned in Minnesota and I live in S. Cal. Only problem I had is the year of the vehicle. My Itasca Cambria is on a 08 Ford chassis, the house was completed and

registered as an 09. California wanted and did change the vehicle from an 09 to an 08 regardless of the paperwork from Minnesota. I received a letter from the manufacturer

reminding the state of California that it is a FEDERAL law that the FINISHER of a partial build, a chassis then a coach, is who determines the year of the vehicle. Winnebago/itasca, like

many builders purchase large amounts of chassis, when they build them is up to them. Having AAA really helped as well. I stopped going to DMV years ago.It is again an 09.

I remember ,in my lifetime, that if you purchased a new car that other dealers wouldn't service it, even under warranty. Those days are long gone. Also I paid 8 dollars for a trip



permit good for 30 days to drive my coach home, I paid taxes in Ca based on value. I doubt any newer coach wouldn't meet California's smog requirements, even diesels.

So many stories out there about DMV rejecting a vehicle but never any proof. If the story starts with my brother-in-laws knows a guy....most likely the story isn't true.

Found mine on RVTrader. Me personally, I avoid camping world for anything.

[DAS26miles]

In our search so far, some of the RV dealers have said they will match price only if the other dealer is in southern California. We have seen slightly better prices up in northern California. But to save $1,500-2,000 and have the hassle of service makes it questionable.
We are going back to look at an Itasca Sunstar 26HE at he Camping World near us. I swore years ago that I would never buy from them. Since they aren't like a dealer that stock parts and sell a specific brand, I would expect everything has to be ordered and takes weeks. CW has the reputation of taking in RV's for long periods and call that everything is done. When you go and pick it up, only some items have been addressed. I have co-workers that have had many issues with them. They won't match any but local.

[guidry]

I bought my 5th wheel in Texas. Paid California taxes but no registration fees since I was coming back to Ca. Once home I had to take it to the DMV which are not known for their parking lots. I went at 6am (they open at 8am) and began cleaning the rig for a trip. DMV inspector arrived at 7am, saw me and inspected it so I wouldn't have to wait and take up parking spaces. He took about 10 minutes to view the VIN and complete paperwork. I was on my way home quickly! Best DMV trip ever.

[Duck]

Some manufactures will allow other then one of their dealers to do warranty work. You would have to get approval and pay the repair place first and get reimbursed by the manufacturer. This has worked on my prior trailer and not sure about class c manufacturer. A good question to ask when buying a class c.
Don

[lanerd]

We purchased both of our motor homes out of state and in both cases, it was a real ordeal and I probably wouldn't do it again. Dealing with California DMV (and probably many other states) is always an act of frustration. Many agents have no idea what it takes to register a motor home, especially a diesel one. You can talk to one agent and get one story and then another agent in the same office will have a different story. Our first coach was purchased in Arizona and the dealer told us that if we paid the Arizona sales tax, that when we got back to California to register and if the California taxes were less (which we knew they were) we would be reimbursed the difference. Turned out that was a total lie and we lost about $1000 on that deal. The agents at our local DMV had no clue on what smog laws our DP motor home had to conform to. It literally took months to straighten out that fubar. We had to have the motor home inspected by several different people and we received two different sets of license plates. Unbelievable.

On our second (and current) coach, we did all of our paperwork in Oregon, paid CA sales tax and registration fees and then the dealer sent all the paper to the Sacramento DMV office and they promptly lost them. When we got back to CA, we didn't received any new license plates and contacted the local DMV. They insisted we start from scratch, pay the sales taxes and registration fees again (we're talking many thousands of dollars here folks). We contacted our dealer in Oregon and they in turn contacted the Sacramento DMV. Between the two of them, they were able to find the original paper work and informed us that our duplicate taxes and registration fees would be refunded to us. Several months later and many more calls to Sacramento DMV, they finally did reimburse us.

On top of all this, the local DMV insisted that they physically inspect the motor home to insure it complied with current smog laws. The tag on the engine that proves this is located down on the front of the engine and since I have a rear radiator, I had to remove the hatch in the bathroom floor to gain access to the engine. It was quite a site seeing that, shall we say overweight, lady agent laying on the bathroom floor with her head and shoulders down in the engine compartment. At least that gave me a little payback.

It took us almost six months to get everything straightened out with our first motor home and four months for the second one.

Ron

[mgirardo]

We purchased our Class C MH while in NJ. We live in GA. We did no pre-planning as we did not expect to buy the Motorhome while in NJ. We had been looking for a long time, but we went to NJ for a wedding and ended up buying a new MH while we were there.

We financed the Motorhome. The dealer collected sales tax and then gave us a check made out to our County's tax collector to give them when we registered it. (in our county, the Tax Commissioner does both Property Tax collection and Vehicle Registration) He told us if we had paid cash, they wouldn't have charged us sales tax and that we would just settle up with GA when we went to register it. In NJ, they do not tax document and licensing fees, however in GA, they do so we had to pay another $18 or so when we registered the MH in GA.

The nearest Jayco Dealer to us is about 2 hours away in St. Augustine, FL. When we contacted them about warranty work, the service rep did not say they wouldn't do it, but he did say they were really busy and it would be a few weeks before they could look at it. I took that to mean they didn't want to do it. We contacted the next local dealership about 3.5 hours away in North Charleston, SC. They were great and handle our warranty service promptly. It stunk having to drive that far, but Charleston is a great city so we made a day of it when we dropped it off and picked it up.

I have heard plenty of folks say they have had issues with their local dealer not wanting to do warranty work on a RV bought elsewhere. That was not the case for us fortunately. The FL dealership didn't flat our refuse.

If you know what manufacturer you want to buy from, it might be worth taking the quote you get out of state to your local dealer and see if they will match it or come close. If the difference isn't much more than gas money/travel costs to pick up out of state, it would probably be worth it to buy locally. If they can't, at least find out if they would honor warranty work on it.

-Michael

[midnightsadie]

I,ve bought three MH out of state and have had no problems with service. it is a good sales pitch for dealers to tell you ,they won,t service it, but most do .money is money.

[guidry]

Find a local RV place that will honor warranty work prior to buying the unit. If you get their assurance then you shouldn't have a problem. And yes, you might have smog issues buying out of state. Taxes are calculated for California so that shouldn't be an issue. You might find a local dealer willing to match price or come close.

[Tiger4x4RV]

The DMV website has complete and correct info on buying an out-of-state vehicle. DMV site I cannot get the link to the correct page to work here. Go to Vehicle Registration, then "Buying and Selling," then "Buying an Out-of-State Vehicle."


Pay special attention to registration issues and to sales tax issues.

I just copied this off that linked DMV site:

"If you are a California resident and acquire a new car, truck, or motorcycle from another state, it must be certified to meet California smog laws to be registered in California. This includes certain diesel-powered vehicles. DMV cannot accept an application to register a vehicle in California that does not qualify for registration (California Health and Safety Code §§43150 - 43156).
What Is Considered a New Vehicle?

California considers any vehicle with less than 7,500 miles on the odometer at the time of purchase or trade by a California resident or business, to be a new vehicle. This is true whether or not the vehicle has been registered in another state.
Aren't All Vehicles California Certified?

Not all new vehicles are manufactured to be sold in California. Many manufacturers make vehicles to be sold only in the other 49 states. These vehicles (49-state) are made with smog equipment that meets federal emission standards, but not California standards. California-certified (50-state) vehicles are made to be sold in California."