why are California and Colorado not selling to outside states ? !

It's because Toyota is so broken & backwards that they benefit more from a failed car supply chain then they benefit from selling as many cars as possible. The Toyota Stealerships are already trying to handle prospective hybrid and EV buyers in their own state that they can't find cars for, so it makes sense that people from other states are going to be eliminated as a matter of triage.

Suspect in a few years when Toyota finally reaps what it has sown that we'll better understand all the factors that caused them to fail so hard so quickly, but for now, there's nearly no way to buy a new Toyota Hybrid or EV and they're using the one car that each dealer has as a bait car to try to pull the switch on you and try to sell you a non-hybrid gas guzzler that no one wants to buy anymore.

 

Should I assume that your question is why are California and Colorado not selling any make and model car to out of state buyers? Or is it just not selling Toyota and / or Prius - Prime cars to out of state drivers?

Isn't Toyota selling a handful of other hybrid models besides the Prius? Prime?
Guess Toyota is now the beast of burden for many here just because the US doesn't get the cream of the lineup in numbers that brings the price points way below the competition, at least at this point in history.

 

They are CARB and ZEV states. Toyota likely likely has orders to dealers in those states to not sell to states not part of the club, because such sales won't count for ZEV credits. 2018 was the second year for the gen4 Prime, and Toyota was making plenty to meet demand nationwide. Right now, production is lower for the new Prime.

 

I believe this is why Oregon shops were not selling new RAV4 Primes to Washington State buyers more than 50 miles away, for a long time. WA buyers close to the border within the Portland metro area were being served, but not those of us 150+ miles north. If it wasn't about Toyota getting credits from the state, then it was about dealerships getting re-stocking credits from Toyota.

This restriction seems to have ended sometime in May, after Oregon's in-state incentives closed, shrinking demand. Rising interest rates and terminated federal tax credits probably contributed too, . New RAV4 Primes started arriving at WA dealerships about June this year, for the first time.

The WA legislature didn't change state law to join the real CARB/ZEV club until spring 2020, long after Toyota had its initial marketing plans in place.

 

So Washington changed its CARB/ZEV laws in Spring 2020 and it took 3 years for Toyota to adjust its marketing plans? I am interested in a 2023 Prius Prime. Is there any reason they should not be available at my local dealer sometime this year? Or do they generate less profit than the ICE cars and therefore Toyota is not interested in producing enough to meet demand? Personally, I think that is the main reason they are in short supply.

 

Before the WA legislature acted, Toyota already knew they had seriously underestimated demand for this new PHEV model. And then Pandemic supply chain disruptions struck. Without any ability to quickly increase battery production for an extended period, any allocation to Washington necessarily meant reducing allocations to other states, where waiting lines were already very long.

Probably just the same reason they are in short supply elsewhere too.

 

toyota has never committed to plug ins outside of carb states, and has obviously never made money on the ones they've sold.
they treated plugins the way they are currently treating bevs, red headed step children

 

Probably the reason in Colorado is political. When we buy vehicles here, they charge an INSANE "owners tax" to all vehicles when you register to get the plates.
So you buy a $50,000 vehicle and pay state and count\y sales taxes and get temp tags. About 6-weeks after, you have to go get plates and shocked to see you owe $1,050 just to get your plates for ONE YEAR! (It's an illegal 2.1% of the taxable "value" of the car which is 85% of the MSRP.) Talk about your double-taxation, huh? The state cracked down on folks buying RV's years ago because they would buy one then go to a neighboring state, get a PO Box, and register there for plates. An RV you paid $200,000 costs roughly $4,200 for license plates the first year.) The 2nd year, our illegal tax is dropped down to 1.5%, and 1.2% for 3rd year and continues to 5-9 year when it's .45% (Still paying $225 a year after owning the car for 9 years.)
So I don't know if Colorado forces out of stata's to register vehicles here or not but would assume so in order for them to get their money in order to not fix our crappy roads..

 

The laws changed then, but they go into effect for 2025MY cars. Though the ZEV rules may already be in effect.
WAC 173-423-400 - Washington State Department of Ecology

Virtually every high efficiency, low emission car released in the US gets shipped to California first, followed by the other CARB states, and then the rest of the nation. Depending on production levels and local demand, it can take a year before the car reaches those other states. Toyota only started shipping the new Prime a few months ago. Perhaps they planned their shipping schedule before Washington adopted CARB rules, but the production is also way down. First quarter 2023 sales were less than a quarter of the 2018's sales for the year. We know they aren't piling up on dealer lots.

Several states tax charge property tax on cars. Unlike a flat registration fee, it can be deducted from your federal income tax.

This doesn't answer the question of why a Colorado dealer won't sell a car to a Utah resident.

 

i'm thinking there are so few cars, it isn't worth the hassle for the dealer

 

yep... especially because all the paperwork and taxes and requirements for completing the purchase are designed for people who live in that state. For example I had to pay state sales tax when I bought my used Prius in California from a Hyundai Stealership and then when it was time to register it in the sate I lived in they wanted to also charge sales tax on the purchase. Was a huge hassle to get around that one.

 

California is known to be unfriendly to out-of-state buyers. E.g. to avoid paying CA sales taxes on new cars, one must truck it across the state line before actual delivery. It can't drive out on its own wheels.

I'm not aware of any other state in the Western region that is similarly unfriendly to out-of-state buyers.