moving to hawaii, cost of vehicles

[bkgs]

Hello,

I am moving to hawaii and would like to know if used vehicles cost about the same as the mainland or are they more expensive?

Should I bring my vehicle with me or buy one there?

Thank you.

[cezanne]

Re: moving to hawaii, cost of vehicles

I guess you could check Craigslist Honolulu for starters I guess... just to give you an idea.

The cost to ship a vehicle from Long Beach CA to here is gonna cost you about $1000.

[Alarick]

Re: moving to hawaii, cost of vehicles

Chances are, you'll want to bring your own vehicle if it's still in decent shape or has low miles.
Also, you may want to keep a post office box back in your home state for when you buy a new car.

That little trick saved me $11k just recently.

[tutusue]

Re: moving to hawaii, cost of vehicles

[...]That little trick saved me $11k just recently.

How? Details, please!

[Alarick]

Re: moving to hawaii, cost of vehicles

How? Details, please!

It's pretty simple really, just get a box at a UPS store, and use that as your residence address on your financing application.
Switch some bills there, have them forwarded to your address in Hawaii from the UPS store, and the longer you can wait the better it will look on the app.

By using that to establish an out of state residency (as far as the financing company is concerned) you have more of an option to shop around.

And shopping around is really what saves you the cash.

Local salesmen will tell you that you have to pay double sales tax when you ship in a new vehicle, but that's just a scare tactic they use to try to get you to buy off of their lot.
There is only a $50 late fee if you do not register the vehicle in Hawaii within 30 days of it's arrival.

As far as shipping goes, you can get the vehicle shipped for about anywhere between $800-$1,500 depending on how far from California the dealership is.

The dealer i did business with was very nice, they had no issue with keeping the vehicle on their lot for a couple of weeks until the shipping company came and picked it up.

It did take about a month for the vehicle to get here, but i'm not one to complain with a savings like that :P

[Hobart]

Re: moving to hawaii, cost of vehicles

So about how much more expensive is buyin goff the lots in Hawaii. It must be at least $1,000 more if you guys are talking about shipping fromt he mainland to save money. The other guys said he saved $11K but I still don't know why. Are cars in Hawaii about $11K more than the mainland.

Does the over pricing vary by brand, or is there some kind of registration tax in Hawaii?

[Alarick]

Re: moving to hawaii, cost of vehicles

So about how much more expensive is buyin goff the lots in Hawaii. It must be at least $1,000 more if you guys are talking about shipping fromt he mainland to save money. The other guys said he saved $11K but I still don't know why. Are cars in Hawaii about $11K more than the mainland.

Does the over pricing vary by brand, or is there some kind of registration tax in Hawaii?

Most new car dealerships here have either a "Hawaii dealer markup" to the tune of $5k or won't budge at all from the sticker price.

The vehicle i saved $11k on is a 4X4, and anything with 4 wheel drive in Hawaii is going to be at a premium, so the dealer mark up on that was a bit higher than normal.

I actually had a car salesman at the only dealership that had the vehicle i wanted in the state say "Well our sticker is at $42k, but we can get it down to $37k for you" when the MSRP was just over $30k.

Another that had a vehicle close to how i wanted it equipped actually said "Oh, that price you see on the manufactures website is actually our wholesale cost" when referring to the MSRP.

At the time, none of the dealers in the state where participating in the NATION WIDE employee pricing incentive.
So by calling an out of state dealer i was able to get the vehicle for about $26.8 OTD after all the incentives and having them come off of the sticker price.
That's where the $11k came from.

On average though, the markup on new vehicles is about $5k, on first production year or specialty vehicles, it can be easily $10k, or more of you want that 06 Corvette Z06.

New car dealers here know they have a captive audience and they take advantage of it.


And there are no large fees for dealerships to bring new vehicles into Hawaii, that Destination charge you see on the sticker, that's how much it cost to bring the vehicle in.
It's the same fee for the Chevy dealership that's 2 blocks away from the GM plant in Arlington Texas as it is for a dealership here.



*NOTE*
I'm using GM as an example because i know more about that brand having been a Service Advisor at a GM store.

[Hobart]

Re: moving to hawaii, cost of vehicles

Those bastards!

Hey Alarick, Thanks for that post! Quite enlightening! I had no idea it was that bad. Good going for you to save that money buying elsewhere, if more people did that, they will be forced to bring their price down. Any downside to buying on the mainland? What about warranty service, regular maintenance. Do they cop an attitude when you bring a mainland purchased car to a local dealer, or are tey over charging for the maintenance too, so they are more than happy to do that for you?

[Plummy]

Re: moving to hawaii, cost of vehicles

Warranty and maintenance shouldn't matter no matter where you purchase your vehicle. People buy new cars out of state all the time on the mainland just because someone a few states away is will to knock the price down a few grand from the local dealer. I haven't encountered anyone snobbing about it. I mean, what happens if you move? It's just like the same thing. They don't know that you went and specifically purchased the vehicle out of state to avoid markup fees unless you tell them. Sales and service are not connected in how you get treated. Salesmen don't see any income from Service if you service your vehicle at the same dealership you bought it at, and Service doesn't see any money from when you purchased the vehicle unless they sucker you into some of that "deal" stuff like undercoating and what-not.

Anyway, that's just my $.02 - I shipped my car over with me and don't plan on taking it to a dealer for anymore servicing. I really only trusted my dealership back home, but once the car hit 5 years in age, the maintenance people didn't seem to have a clue how to work on it anymore when I'd tell them "blah" is wrong/broken/needs replacing and they'd just look at me like "huh? An oil change? Okay." Argh.

[Bard]

Re: moving to hawaii, cost of vehicles

I've heard that a lot of people will buy a new car while they're on vacation in Portland and have it shipped back. No sales tax then either!! And the Oregon registration is cheap, so you don't waste a lot of money there. Only real drawback is that most of the shipping companies want it in Seattle, so you have to get it up there somehow. For the kind of savings Alarick suggested though, it might be worth it to fly in/out of Seattle if you were going to buy a new car on your trip.

[Hobart]

Re: moving to hawaii, cost of vehicles

Anyone ever consider European delivery? They claim you even save much more off the mainland price. Will they ship all the way to Hawaii, or is that something that you must arrange from the local dealer and then you don't really get any savings like in this article below?

Seems like it might be a good way to go if they ship to Hawaii and the savings are the same for Hawaiian residents. I suppose the worst case scenario is that you can arrange this through a Seattle dealer.

http://www.smartmoney.com/diversion/...story=20060818

[Plummy]

Re: moving to hawaii, cost of vehicles

Wow, that's an awesome article, thanks for the link!! I might have to do that in the future.

What it looks like is that the car has to be shipped to a dealer, no matter where that dealership is located at (since they have to ship/deliver cars there anyway).

[Alarick]

Re: moving to hawaii, cost of vehicles

The only case of a dealership refusing service to a vehicle bought out of state that i know of, was Island Chevrolet here in Kona.

The owner instructed us service advisors to refuse to service any
Corvette Z06 or Escalade that was bought from out of state.
And we did as we where told, but we also suggested that the customers call Chevrolet customer service and tell them why they where refused service.

Two days later he changed his tune.
Dealerships are by contract not allowed to refuse any vehicle based on what dealership it was purchased at while that vehicle is still under warranty.


But the only real downside of buying a vehicle out of state is waiting for it to get here, at least for me

[alohakat]

Re: moving to hawaii, cost of vehicles

What about buying a vehicle through Costco? On the mainland, the mark-up through Costco is fixed and very low, negotiated ahead of time, and there is a designated salesperson at the partnered-car lots that handles these sales. They are required to show the invoicing they paid, etc.

Does Costco have this arrangement in the Islands too?

When I move there, I'd definately rather keep the business local, as long as the price is reasonable to the location (ie., 1-2000 more than California, for example). And I don't mind paying local sales tax, as it supports the infrastructure.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: moving to hawaii, cost of vehicles

What about buying a vehicle through Costco? On the mainland, the mark-up through Costco is fixed and very low, negotiated ahead of time, and there is a designated salesperson at the partnered-car lots that handles these sales. They are required to show the invoicing they paid, etc.

Does Costco have this arrangement in the Islands too?

When I move there, I'd definately rather keep the business local, as long as the price is reasonable to the location (ie., 1-2000 more than California, for example). And I don't mind paying local sales tax, as it supports the infrastructure.

Yes and from my friends who've already done it it does save them a lot of money rather than buying from a local dealer.