Buying a car in Phoenix (Mesa, Maricopa: sales, sales tax, moving to)

[oasiss]

Hello all,

I will be moving to AZ and am planning to buy a car there. Can someone tell me what's the sales tax if I buy one in Phoenix? If you can suggest some dealerships to visit (or avoid), that would be really great. I'm looking at VWs.

Many thanks!

Oasis

[Zippyman]

Craigslist, craigslist, craigslist.

Sales tax is nearly 10% if bought from a dealer, it's 0% if bought from a private owner.


Did I mention Craigslist?

FYI, our license plates have a fee based on how long a car has been in AZ attached. It's weird, and unexplainable, but the short side of it is - if you bring a car in from out of state, your plates will be really expensive.

We have smog testing - newer cars get a "Breathalyzer" every two years - you can see the last test for a vehicle at the DEQ website - BEFORE you buy it - just type in the vin to see if it has a history of failure.

Mod Cut: No links with less than 10 posts.

[ji603]

If you're buying new, the sales tax is about 8.5% ... there's a small difference between cities. Ie: if you buy in Phoenix you'd pay 8.5% - in Mesa, 8.0% - scottsdale 7.9%, etc....

My numbers aren't exact, but you get the idea.

On a 25000 car, expect the first year license plate to run about 450 bucks, going down a little each subsequent year. Cars 5 years old and older need to be hooked up to a smog test if you're gonna register it in or commute inside Maricopa County (phoenix) limits.

[oasiss]

Thanks Zippyman and ji603. That's a lot of taxes, both the plate and the sales tax... So they covered it all uh - can't even buy a car outside and move it to AZ to save on the tax...