The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: socaso on September 04, 2020, 10:31:00 AM
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We have known for a while that one of our cars is going to give out soon so we've been socking money away for the replacement. Since we like to drive our cars for 10 or more years we'd like to get a plug in hybrid for our next car to cut down on gas and emissions.
I've been looking around at available tax credits and I noticed that in CO you can get $4k but next year it goes down to $2500. Between this year's state credit and the Federal credit we'd get almost $10k off whichever car we decide to get. Our tax liability is large enough that we would get the full amount of the Federal credit and the CO credit is refundable.
I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this and whether you ran into any snags or weren't able to get the full credit you were expecting for any reason? I've done a bunch of reading about it and it seems straightforward enough but I thought I'd ask the MMM community since this group is so good at squeezing every bit of value out of a deal!
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Do you have a specific model/manufacturer in mind already? You've probably already done this, but make sure that the specific model/manufacturer you're considering is still eligible for the full credits as the credits are allotted to each manufacturer and phased out as sales from that manufacturer increase.
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Do you have a specific model/manufacturer in mind already? You've probably already done this, but make sure that the specific model/manufacturer you're considering is still eligible for the full credits as the credits are allotted to each manufacturer and phased out as sales from that manufacturer increase.
Yes, thank you for that, I have checked that. There are 4 contenders and all are still eligible. On the federal site they are very clear about what is no longer eligible.
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I bought my 2018 Prius prime and I had no issues with the federal tax credit. It was a great deal all in all, no regrets. I'm in North Carolina but I actually bought my car in New Jersey since the regional deals were literally thousands of dollars better there. I flew up, the salesman drove me to the dealership from the airport, and I drove my new car back down.
I got the tax credit the following year when I filed my taxes. I don't remember what I had to do but there was an extra for him and it was very simple.
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I bought my 2018 Prius prime and I had no issues with the federal tax credit. It was a great deal all in all, no regrets. I'm in North Carolina but I actually bought my car in New Jersey since the regional deals were literally thousands of dollars better there. I flew up, the salesman drove me to the dealership from the airport, and I drove my new car back down.
I got the tax credit the following year when I filed my taxes. I don't remember what I had to do but there was an extra for him and it was very simple.
Thank you for the input! I feel lucky to live in CO because apparently we have some of the best credits in the country.
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I'm in North Carolina but I actually bought my car in New Jersey since the regional deals were literally thousands of dollars better there. I flew up, the salesman drove me to the dealership from the airport, and I drove my new car back down.
That is badass!
I bet that was an more enjoyable and satisfying drive than normal (tolls, traffic) back down 95.
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I'm in North Carolina but I actually bought my car in New Jersey since the regional deals were literally thousands of dollars better there. I flew up, the salesman drove me to the dealership from the airport, and I drove my new car back down.
That is badass!
I bet that was an more enjoyable and satisfying drive than normal (tolls, traffic) back down 95.
Yeah, actually, I guess it's a badass move that I didn't even consider badass at the time (I considered it a requirement to get the car, since I originally wasn't even in the market for a brand new one and felt like it was a huge purchase).
Honestly it was a GREAT ride, since I had been driving an '02 grand prix on its last legs and it felt like I was navigating a spaceship. I could pause the freaking radio. The AC worked. I got to play the "get the best mileage you can" game while being able to see it in real time. I really milked that purchase for maximum pleasure... at least, for the first year! Now it's just a car again and doesn't feel nearly as special.
OP, one of the VERY BEST and underrated things about getting a hybrid electric or full-electric vehicle is fewer trips to the gas station! This ended up being the most surprising awesome thing about my new car. I didn't realize how much it would improve my life to not stop to buy gas every 1-2 weeks.