For Sale: 2004 BMW 330i ZHP, $13,850, Silver over Black, 86K Miles, 6 speed, Houston, Texas, Dealer

[e34slt]

Hi all,
Cruising the ads and saw this car for sale on Cars.com...
Here's the actual dealer's link in Houston:

http://www.nxcessmotorcars.com/web/1...20AUDIO%20IPOD!!!

[webster]

Eww to the woodgrain trim mod. Why would someone remove the cube? I can take a look if anyone's interested tho...

[Alphatek45]

Agreed on the wood

[ecrabb]

Son of a mother... Exactly the car I want. Color, miles, and price are all in my sweet spot. How much for a silver cube trim kit to restore the interior to not-so-specialness? Any market at all for the wood trim to offset?

Judas priest, a vinyl carbon fiber wrap would be better than the wood grain.

SC

[Marcus-SanDiego]

This could be a deal for someone who wants to swap black or silver in.

Doesn't look like dealer knows this is performance package. They call it M package.

[BimmerRules!]

Hey ecrabb, can you let me know if you are planning to act on it?

Thanks!

[ecrabb]

You go for it, BimmerRules. I'm in no rush, and it'll take me a week or so to get money together, which I've been procrastinating on (it's so much more fun looking for cars!). Let me know if you pass, though.

SC

[BimmerRules!]

Thanks for the heads-up man, I will contact the dealer to check the status and update the board on the maintenance, ownership etc.

ha-hah! I hear you, it is so fun looking!

After my purchase for a fantastic silver 04 zhp fell thru (no offense to the seller, car was so good to ride with just 32k miles and I had no problems with him rethinking the sale), I took a step back and decided not to rush it. And now I realize that the track season is about to end and I am probably better off getting one next spring.

That said, I thought of pulling the trigger for the right color combo and low price (don't want to pay high NY sales tax!!).

Will keep the board posted. thanks again,

[ecrabb]

Are you telling me the state of NY lets you avoid sales tax by buying in another state? How the hell does a dealer in NY ever sell a car? Isn't it like a two-hour drive to a thousand dealers out of state?

In Iowa, we pay our sales tax when we register the vehicle, so I pay the 6% state sales tax regardless of where I buy it... It's neat, too because it doesn't matter whether it's a new car or a used car. $50,000 new 335? Buyer pays $3,000. Sells it a couple years later for $35,000? Buyer pays $2100. That guy sells it a several years later for $22,000? Buyer pays $1320... And so on. So, if the car changes hands half a dozen times in its lifetime, a nice car could easily generate 10, 15, even 20% of its original sales price in terms of sales tax revenue for the state.

I think most states are like Florida and Texas, though and exempt buyers from their own sales tax if the car is sold to a non-resident, and only driven in the state to move it to its new destination, and is immediately registered in another state. In your case, there may be no tax advantage for you at all - I'd be surprised if NY would let you avoid their taxes by buying out of state.

That's all on top of the annual use tax, which is based on vehicle price, weight, and number of axles. So, the annual use tax and tags will cost me about $300-350/year on something like the Houston ZHP. A new $30,000 car is probably more like $500.

I should start a thread on this... It might be fun to see what everybody's cars cost them in terms of tax and registration in various locales.

SC

[e34slt]

Are you telling me the state of NY lets you avoid sales tax by buying in another state? How the hell does a dealer in NY ever sell a car? Isn't it like a two-hour drive to a thousand dealers out of state?

In Iowa, we pay our sales tax when we register the vehicle, so I pay the 6% state sales tax regardless of where I buy it... It's neat, too because it doesn't matter whether it's a new car or a used car. $50,000 new 335? Buyer pays $3,000. Sells it a couple years later for $35,000? Buyer pays $2100. That guy sells it a several years later for $22,000? Buyer pays $1320... And so on. So, if the car changes hands half a dozen times in its lifetime, a nice car could easily generate 10, 15, even 20% of its original sales price in terms of sales tax revenue for the state.

I think most states are like Florida and Texas, though and exempt buyers from their own sales tax if the car is sold to a non-resident, and only driven in the state to move it to its new destination, and is immediately registered in another state. In your case, there may be no tax advantage for you at all - I'd be surprised if NY would let you avoid their taxes by buying out of state.

That's all on top of the annual use tax, which is based on vehicle price, weight, and number of axles. So, the annual use tax and tags will cost me about $300-350/year on something like the Houston ZHP. A new $30,000 car is probably more like $500.

I should start a thread on this... It might be fun to see what everybody's cars cost them in terms of tax and registration in various locales.

SC

Please DO start a thread on this topic ecrabb, that would be good info to know. I am returning to the states soon, and will hopefully have a 2004 E46 ZHP lined up to buy. I will have a fair amount of flexibility on where I register it, at least during the first year of ownership...and it would be nice to know which state has the lowest fees. I would assume that it would be a state that has no state sales tax...but that may not be the case. My annual renewal registration in Utah for a 1990 525 was around $70 +/-.
Part of Utah's annual registration fee formula is based on the cars perceived age/value.
Two questions I would like to see answered:
1) Which state(s) have the lowest initial title-transfer, sales tax, + registration fee?
2) Which state(s) have the lowest annual registration fees thereafter?
* Maybe using a hypothetical 2004 330i ZHP with a value of $15,000 as a reference point.
TIA