- First Name
- Joe
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2021
- Threads
- 9
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- 35
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- 124
- Location
- Great Mills, MD
- Vehicle(s)
- Dodge Grand Caravan
- Thread starter
- #1
My experience today brought up something regarding military ownership that I thought I’d share. I saw my first Santa Cruz today. Well, it was actually two. The dealer in question had a fully loaded premium and a SEL. I’ll admit the inside looked nice on both trims and even felt like it had decent cabin room for a small “truck” (I’m 6’1”). For the exterior, I really liked how the bed cover came standard and actually seems sturdy.
The deal breakers for me were a few things. First, the whole thing just looks weird to me. I prefer the truck look of the Maverick. Above all, though, the biggest factors were something noted many times on here: mpg and cost. The mpg was not even as good as the EB Mav. Then the cost. The SEL was going for $34K and the Premium for $40K MSRP. But THEN the dealer had a $5.9K markup. Insane. The salesman asked me what price point I was looking at and I said I wanted a truck for at most $25K. He said the was no way I would find that. My first though was “watch me” as I thought of my Maverick Hybrid XLT order. The Lariat I have on order is mainly for giggles to see if, by ordering at a larger dealer, it may get in sooner. The XLT, however, actually has an MSRP below my $25K mark.
If there are any military on this thread, look into your state of residence for laws on military vehicle ownership. I’m military and a FL resident living outside of FL. For my situation, FL will exempt all military of sales tax if I don’t come back to the state in 6 months. FL will also exempt registration fees and make me just pay for a title and a plate transfer fee if I have one from another vehicle, given the tags are still current of course. So if everything goes well, I’ll pay under the $25K. I even asked my local dealer about this (I’m stationed in MD) and they said they were familiar with this law and that all I would have to do is present my LES (pay stub) with proof of my FL residence and then I’d be good to go.
For any military here, don’t let the dealer pull the wool over your eyes if your resident state has a similar law. Often times they just don’t know, so you need to do your research and hold them to it.
The deal breakers for me were a few things. First, the whole thing just looks weird to me. I prefer the truck look of the Maverick. Above all, though, the biggest factors were something noted many times on here: mpg and cost. The mpg was not even as good as the EB Mav. Then the cost. The SEL was going for $34K and the Premium for $40K MSRP. But THEN the dealer had a $5.9K markup. Insane. The salesman asked me what price point I was looking at and I said I wanted a truck for at most $25K. He said the was no way I would find that. My first though was “watch me” as I thought of my Maverick Hybrid XLT order. The Lariat I have on order is mainly for giggles to see if, by ordering at a larger dealer, it may get in sooner. The XLT, however, actually has an MSRP below my $25K mark.
If there are any military on this thread, look into your state of residence for laws on military vehicle ownership. I’m military and a FL resident living outside of FL. For my situation, FL will exempt all military of sales tax if I don’t come back to the state in 6 months. FL will also exempt registration fees and make me just pay for a title and a plate transfer fee if I have one from another vehicle, given the tags are still current of course. So if everything goes well, I’ll pay under the $25K. I even asked my local dealer about this (I’m stationed in MD) and they said they were familiar with this law and that all I would have to do is present my LES (pay stub) with proof of my FL residence and then I’d be good to go.
For any military here, don’t let the dealer pull the wool over your eyes if your resident state has a similar law. Often times they just don’t know, so you need to do your research and hold them to it.
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