Buying a truck outside of California

[Bldrinker]

Anyone buy a truck from Dennis Dillion in Idaho and bring it back to California? How did smog, registration and tax work out?

Mostly concerned with smog.
Only pay CA tax not both correct?

 

[Fitz-0518]

OP there are a number of threads on this subject that specifically address Dillon and his buddy competitor Smith in Idaho. I have read most of them. Decieded not to go out of State on my 2018 for a couple reasons. Ca DMV "looks down" on Ca residents buying from out of state dealers. They tend to make the DMV transfer process a hassle. Had a DMV agent tell me their job is to support Ca dealers not out dealers. This is a known problem and I believe Dillon is now using a 3rd party registered DMV agent to handle the Ca sales registrations. My wife's farrier bought his 2017 3500 Laramie from Dillon. Got 29% off MRSP. Had to fly to Utah from Central Ca. 14 hr drive back. Spent all day with paper work and getting the truck. 4 month DMV hassle in 2017. He said his after fact experience is, would not do it again. Says if he had the time to shop locally, he could have gotten 20-25% off MRSP by timing his purchase.

 

[Ratket]

Op -
This all depends on ur Local DMV-
As long as the emissions are not altered then smog should not be an issue.
What County do you live in or do you want to register it in? I know 5 people personally who have bought trucks from Dennis Dillion and Dave Smith, not all where dodges and 4 of the 5 where diesels and they where all from cali “ I lived in Cali up until a year and a half ago”

 

[mtofell]

OP, I'd call Dennis Dillon directly as ask them. I'm sure they've dealt with this and want to do what they can to keep their product moving to people in CA. Not surprised CA is difficult to deal with.

Apples and oranges but I recently bought a vehicle in Washington state and I live in Oregon. It was a bit of the PITA as the DMV but it got worked out without too much hassle. I realize CA has all of their requirements and emission stuff but I'm pretty sure all new vehicles come with "50 state emission" so should only be a clerical thing.

 

[reek]

I got my 2015 2500 from Dennis Dillon. the DMV portion was actually not bad for me. Did the DMV appointment for VIN verification. the Major hiccup was DD sent the paperwork to the wrong DMV office. from there, it sat in a black hole. But once the DMV office in my area finally got the paper work the registration was quick.

Pay CA taxes, Dillon figures this out at the dealer.

smog should be a no brainer now. for me, no one had heard of a 6.4 hemi 2500 so couldn't figure out the visual inspection and parameters. the smog guy I always use is a good guy but he had to call 3 dealers to get the specs.

Vehicle weight, was simple. I have a CAT scale up the road from me. go on an empty tank....

big unknown for me now is the new Cali paper plates the dealers are supposed to issue. not sure how that'd work.

all said and done, I buy from DD again. well worth the drive and time to save $$. My local "ram truck center" has probably a near similar volume of on lot trucks but all are Cummins or stripper 6.4 tradesmans. problem is they want MORE for the tradesman trucks as DD did for my well loaded Big Horn.

 

[KSH]

I bought my first truck from Colorado, 1500 ecodiesel. I had no problems with the dmw. Just had to smog it and have the weight, which the dealer should provide you. No big deal, made an appointment at the dmv. Very little time and effort.

What you may consider is *if* you ever have a problem and need to lemon the vehicle back the mfg *may* say it wasn't purchased in CA so CA lemon law doesn't apply.

They did try that with me, but ended up honoring CA law after a lawyer got involved.

 

[22hemi13]

Just move outta California

 

[Skrap]

OP, I bought my Mega Cab from DD in 2015 and it was a simple process. You have no smog to worry about as the trucks and i'd imagine all vehicles made these days meet what CA requires. Two things you need to be aware of. 1) Make an appointment asap with the DMV for registration of your new truck. BE SURE TO REGISTER YOUR TRUCK WITIN 20 DAYS OF PURCHASE. I thought I had read that you had 30 days to register but at the time it was 20 days. I was hit with a fine of about $400 or so and the ****** at the DMV would not budge. I also was told to go have my truck weighed at the scales but luckily they let me cut back into like when I came back form that. Most of the issues I had were because of my ignorance of the process, well, expect the fat ****** at the DMV. Don't let any of it deter you from buying from DD and bringing back to CA. I bet if you at least get a quote from DD no one in CA will be able to come close nor will they have the inventory to find a comparable truck. When all said and done I saved about $4500.

 

[Ratket]

I was all set to go to DD to buy my 14 Mega 6.4 2500, but a week prior I found one in Huntington Beach for the same price and that drive saved me bout 8 hours of travel so I bought mine in SoCal. One thing I will mention is find a “ Low Volume” dmv to deal with. Three in Cali that I have dealt with personally that you can basically walk right in and only have a 5 minute”s wait are

Bishop Ca
Ridgecrest Ca
Needles Ca -

To make it as painless as possible look for a small town that has a dmv along the path you would take back home, swing in and get it done on ur way home, depending on ur route you should be able to find a “ Pilot truck stop” or some type of certified scales near the Idaho Border or the Nevada border and 11 dollars later you will have your certified weight slip as well ” just do it with the truck empty”. You could likely even find a “ Smog shop” that does diesel certs for CA.

Now different counties require different things such as how many times you smog or get inspections annually/ Bi annually/ only upon purchase or sell off- do you mind telling us what county you plan to register in? Or and what city or area you reside in? LA/San juaquen valley/ Bay Area/Emerald Triangle?..

 

[MegaRam18]

Check pricing at HB Ram in Huntington Beach. I got the truck I wanted for a price comparable to DD. HB wants to be the California volume dealer.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[dputnam01]

I did a factory order from Dennis Dillon in Aug 2018. Got a 2018 3500 Tradesman 4X4 Diesel Crew Cab w/ 6-speed manual trans and transfer case. Had a great experience. Used their recommended service for transfer and registration. A breeze. Flew in, picked it up, and drove down to San Diego. I'd do it again

 

[Ratket]

^ Noce thing was you prolly had two days by your self to get to know the truck and break it in all on the way home. I imagine they even picked you up at the airport?

 

[Bldrinker]

Thanks guys. I’m looking at a 6.4 long bed tradesman for $36,000.

 

[Skrap]

Ratket and MegaRam, our Hub branch in Orange County is in Huntington Beach and literally 1.5 miles from that dealership. At the time, the vast majority of our company sale, manager and rental trucks were Rams. All service for sales and management trucks was done at HB Chrysler/Ram as well as service on our HD trucks too. I had been in there many times for service on my company sales truck. I requested quotes three times from them asking if they could meet or come close to the DD price. Never heard back from them.

And Ratket, I really wish I would have thought about the three town you mentioned. Driving home from DD the quickest route was through Bishop and down 395. I even stayed the night in Bishop for my stop over. That would have been fantastic. I probably won't be living in CA when I get my next Ram HD so it may not matter in the future.

 

[Ratket]

I hear ya. I had to go into the one in needles recently for work and was pleasantly supprised. I also had to get a certified scale weight and did that at the pilot on 95 & 40. Since I’m in havasu it’s all realativly close now. We haven’t been back home since we moved. Still have family in Bishop and Mammoth but my wife just hates the snow. I’ll tell you what’s a **** show is the DMV in Vegas.. Jesus fckn christ... I stood in line for over an hour just for them to tell me “ you get ur vin checked across the parking lot” I tried to ask once inside but the anwser where all the same “ Get in line sir”. Ya HB tried to pull a fast one on me, when I was in route they informed me the truck had 200 miles on it and was an unwind... so I played hard ball on price and 4 hours later they gave me the price I wanted. I’m telling you Arizona sure is nice. When we moved here I registered the mega cab for 5 years. And it came out to be 100$ cheaper than just what 3 years in Cali would of cost me.

Ratket and MegaRam, our Hub branch in Orange County is in Huntington Beach and literally 1.5 miles from that dealership. At the time, the vast majority of our company sale, manager and rental trucks were Rams. All service for sales and management trucks was done at HB Chrysler/Ram as well as service on our HD trucks too. I had been in there many times for service on my company sales truck. I requested quotes three times from them asking if they could meet or come close to the DD price. Never heard back from them.

And Ratket, I really wish I would have thought about the three town you mentioned. Driving home from DD the quickest route was through Bishop and down 395. I even stayed the night in Bishop for my stop over. That would have been fantastic. I probably won't be living in CA when I get my next Ram HD so it may not matter in the future.