Moving to California, hybrid cars question

Unfortunately, no. All the federal / state incentives for hybrid ownership have been long gone. The only rebates and tax credits I know of are only available for plug-in electric cars now (LEAF, Volt, etc.).

 

Ardentity's basically right.

See Fuel Efficient Vehicle Tax Incentives Information Center and Eligible Vehicles - Single Occupant Carpool Lane Use Stickers (need qualifying PHEV, EV, CNG or FCV to get carpool lane stickers).

Re: tolls, not sure what area OP is moving to, but FasTrak® - Keeping the Bay Area Moving for clean air vehicles discusses benefits for green or white stickers (see above), NOT the expired yellow stickers for regular hybrids.

For Leaf, PiP, PHEVs, EVs, etc.: CVRP Eligible Vehicles has the CA rebate. Earlier URLs have the HOV benefit and Federal tax credit.

If the Leaf's range won't work for you and you want a BEV, strongly consider the CA compliance car Rav4 EV after the $10K of So Cal Toyota incentives WITH 0% financing. Go to
Toyota Dealerships - New & Used Car Deals & Special Offers | BuyAToyota.com

and put in So Cal zip code like 90024. You can can then also get the $2500 CVRP and $7500 Federal tax credit.

 

One advantage is that you are exempt from the bi-annual smog check.

And welcome to California!

 

Well you might wanna check local incentives that may still be in effect. I know the city of Riverside was giving a rebate for hybrid vehicles. I'm sure its expired by now, but this was as recent as last year.

 

Did not know that. Does this have any mileage limitations to it? Or is it good for the life of the vehicle?

 

Unless they've changed the law, as far as I can tell, it's for the life of the vehicle. I have an '05 Prius that I've had since November 2004 and my CA DMV registration has never asked for a smog certificate. There used to be issues where you had to go to an out-of-the-way "referee" station, but I think that's been long stopped.

 

if there were benefits.. with SO many of them here, it wouldn't be a gain! lol..

 

I agree with Larry. It's likely to be for the life of the car. The wording seems to give the DMV the option to change the rule at any time; but it's unlikely to happen. I think they decided there wasn't enough of a benefit to upgrading all the equipment to be able to test prii effectively.

 

spoke with a smog tech recently and think that even if they were to require it, it would only be to read codes and not a tail pipe sniff as they do on ICE.

 

Why would you have to pay sales tax on a car you already own?

 

I'm no expert on this but
How To Register A Vehicle from Out-of-State (Nonresident Vehicle)
says:

Side note: When I moved to WA state from CA and had to register a car that my parents gave to me (register under my name, instead of theirs), WA state wanted me to prove that we'd paid CA sales tax on the car, otherwise they were going to charge me WA use tax/sales tax on the value of the car.

Fortunately, the CA dealer still had records from 6 years before and were able to get the proof over to my parents and over to me.

 

Hugh?? ... CA Incentive money may be less then it was years ago ... but incentive allocations are granted on a yearly basis in some instances . And that doesn't count things like various counties that provide toll road & bridge freebies - free public parking - county/city incintives etc, which turn on what area you end up living in.

 

Technically, it's use tax, not sales tax. But the basic idea is to have a rule that prevents somebody from buying a car from a neighboring state with lower (or no) sales and use taxes, and importing it, thus depriving the state of their revenue. Most people do this sort of thing pretty regularly. (Ever made a purchase online that didn't collect tax? Well I hope you reported it on your state income taxes, and paid the appropriate sales or use tax!) With cars, because their registration is tracked very carefully, this is much easier to enforce.

For the OP: There are probably some ways you could avoid paying the tax; for example, storing the vehicle out of state until it is a year old. Of course, you'd have to be able to deal with not having the car.

Also, you should be able to count the tax you already paid on it towards what you owe in California; so if you paid 6.35% tax in CT, and you move to somewhere in California with 8.5% tax, then you should only owe the 2.15% difference in tax to California, not the whole amount.

 

The state charges sales tax on new/newer cars that have less than 7500 miles on them... The premise here is that it prevents people from purchasing cars in places like Oregon (which has no sales tax) and going back to their homes in CA to circumvent the state's own sales taxes.

Hippy-dippy types speak fondly of CA, but the fact of the matter is that the state does just about everything in its power to increase cost of living and tax levies that it can.

 

If the OP bought the car while a resident of another state, before he moved to California, there will be no use tax due when he registers the car in California. The use tax is there to prevent California residents from dodging taxes by buying new cars out of state.

 

Be very careful about this. A friend of mine was a CA resident, moved to DC for work, bought a car there (paying DC taxes), got transferred back to CA... and paid CA tax on the car. With all the hassles involved in moving, he ended up paying taxes on the car twice, and never could convince either place that he had already paid.

 

I hope the above is true and CA gives the OP the above leniency. I do understand the motives that you and others have stated, but it would definitely suck for the OP if they don't let him just pay the difference...