Bolts in WA

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cajunbolt

New member
Joined
Mar 19, 2017
Messages
4
Chuck Olson Chevrolet in Shoreline got a shipment of Bolts on Thurs and received another truckload today (Sat 3/18). I believe it was 33 units in all. I was told they had ordered them from a dealer in CA and that they were the first batch to show up in the area.

I wasn't expecting to buy today but ended up leaving with a Cajun Red Premier. I did have to do the "walk away" dance (and got a call from the sales manager 15 mins later) to get a deal I was happy with. Aside from that unnecessary BS, I had an overall pretty decent buying experience.

Can't wait for my solar panels to be installed (signed the contract yesterday). Then I'll truly have a "solar powered" car!
 
cajunbolt said:
Chuck Olson Chevrolet in Shoreline got a shipment of Bolts on Thurs and received another truckload today (Sat 3/18). I believe it was 33 units in all. I was told they had ordered them from a dealer in CA and that they were the first batch to show up in the area.

I wasn't expecting to buy today but ended up leaving with a Cajun Red Premier. I did have to do the "walk away" dance (and got a call from the sales manager 15 mins later) to get a deal I was happy with. Aside from that unnecessary BS, I had an overall pretty decent buying experience.

Can't wait for my solar panels to be installed (signed the contract yesterday). Then I'll truly have a "solar powered" car!

Congrats! Good job on being willing to 'walk away'! So what are your initial impressions?
 
I found Chuck a bit sleazy. They had the audacity to raise the price over the MSRP and then discounted the price to make it look you where getting a good deal on their web site.

I also see another sleazy dealer, Sunset chevy, is trying to sell the car at over MSRP too, but they are not showing a discount like Chuck's web site does.

Are there that many folks who don't check the web or use a car buying service?
 
Regarding my experience with Chuck Olson Chevrolet, one very annoying thing was that they put me in a car for the test drive with < 20 miles left in range, so the car was in a "limited power" mode (not sure if you can override that). Really? I mean it's not like I came in at the end of the day - we arrived at the dealer at 10 AM. Over the past year I've driven various plug-in hybrids and often had similar experiences - put in a driver that doesn't have enough power to run in electric only mode. Oh well, it's a growing pain for the industry.

I think Olson's is also misinformed about the WA sales tax exemption. My understanding is that the exemption cliff at $42,500 (see the law - it changed July 2016) is based on the "base model MSRP" and not the actual sales price of the vehicle including options. They told me that the *actual sales price all-up* had to be below $42,500. Given that the trim line (Premier) and options I included had an MSRP above that price, that slip on their end was definitely a negotiating point in my favor - the deal had to stay below that! But beware if you end up over that and they tell you that you cannot avail the exemption - it was worth about $3k in savings for me! The exemption is taken off by dealer at time of purchase, unlike the federal $7500 tax credit.

Does anyone know for sure if "base model MSRP" means the base trim line, or does it mean the MSRP of the trim line actually purchased without additional options? In other words, is the exemption supposed to apply to *all Bolts*?

My initial impressions of the car are very inline with some of the things I've read here. Interior materials seem a little on the cheap side and the seats are firm to say the least. But it drives really nice and it has capable electronics. There's a reason it was Motor Trend's COTY. Then again, on that point of electronics, my last new car was a 2005 with a 6-CD changer (I refrained going with the 8-track tape option), so I've not got the best baseline for comparison on that!

With all the tax credits, very cheap electric rates in Washington, and the extremely low maintenance requirements (and no emissions tests! Yay), it seems like a terrific value to me (assuming the $7500 credit doesn't get pulled retroactively by #45's admin).

I'll give updates once I've had a chance to drive it more.
 
This is straight from the WA.gov site (http://dor.wa.gov/docs/pubs/specialnotices/2016/sn_16_clean_alt_feul_hybrid.pdf:

Only those vehicles that, at the time of sale or lease, have a manufactured suggested retail price for the lowest base model of not more than $42,500 qualify for the exemptions.

The exemptions only apply to up to $32,000 of a vehicle’s selling price or the total lease payments made plus the selling price of the leased vehicle if the original lessee purchases the leased vehicle before the exemption expires.
 
The way I read it, the sales tax exemption would apply to all Chevy Bolt sales, and you should be paying the local sales tax and state sales tax on the difference between the selling price and $32,000.

I suggest we call the department of licensing and ask for some clarification.
 
marshallinwa said:
The way I read it, the sales tax exemption would apply to all Chevy Bolt sales, and you should be paying the local sales tax and state sales tax on the difference between the selling price and $32,000.

I suggest we call the department of licensing and ask for some clarification.

No reason to call. What you stated is correct and exactly what I paid for the Bolt (bought in Portland, live in WA). It amounted to about $1000 tax for a fully loaded Premier
 
cajunbolt said:
Regarding my experience with Chuck Olson Chevrolet, one very annoying thing was that they put me in a car for the test drive with < 20 miles left in range, so the car was in a "limited power" mode (not sure if you can override that). Really? I mean it's not like I came in at the end of the day - we arrived at the dealer at 10 AM. Over the past year I've driven various plug-in hybrids and often had similar experiences - put in a driver that doesn't have enough power to run in electric only mode. Oh well, it's a growing pain for the industry.

I think Olson's is also misinformed about the WA sales tax exemption. My understanding is that the exemption cliff at $42,500 (see the law - it changed July 2016) is based on the "base model MSRP" and not the actual sales price of the vehicle including options. They told me that the *actual sales price all-up* had to be below $42,500. Given that the trim line (Premier) and options I included had an MSRP above that price, that slip on their end was definitely a negotiating point in my favor - the deal had to stay below that! But beware if you end up over that and they tell you that you cannot avail the exemption - it was worth about $3k in savings for me! The exemption is taken off by dealer at time of purchase, unlike the federal $7500 tax credit.

Does anyone know for sure if "base model MSRP" means the base trim line, or does it mean the MSRP of the trim line actually purchased without additional options? In other words, is the exemption supposed to apply to *all Bolts*?

My initial impressions of the car are very inline with some of the things I've read here. Interior materials seem a little on the cheap side and the seats are firm to say the least. But it drives really nice and it has capable electronics. There's a reason it was Motor Trend's COTY. Then again, on that point of electronics, my last new car was a 2005 with a 6-CD changer (I refrained going with the 8-track tape option), so I've not got the best baseline for comparison on that!

With all the tax credits, very cheap electric rates in Washington, and the extremely low maintenance requirements (and no emissions tests! Yay), it seems like a terrific value to me (assuming the $7500 credit doesn't get pulled retroactively by #45's admin).

I'll give updates once I've had a chance to drive it more.

Chuck definitely screwed up. Your tax exemption should have been on the first $32,000 and applied to the state sales tax and the multi-modal tax only. So 6.8% times $32,000 is $2176.
 
I paid about $1k in sales tax, similar to Patronus, so I think they applied it correctly in my case, but they were misinformed about the specifics of the $42,500 threshold.
 
cajunbolt said:
I paid about $1k in sales tax, similar to Patronus, so I think they applied it correctly in my case, but they were misinformed about the specifics of the $42,500 threshold.

One hundred thousand, looks correct to me. I would agree that they are mistaken about the threshold. I would interpret the base model to be the LT with no options.
 
Speedway Chevrolet in Monroe, WA, has Bolts, too. I live about 3 blocks away and noticed the Bolts a week ago when I was walking home from the local Mini-Mart.

Dealer told me that the Bolts (3 to 5 of them) were trucked up from a dealer in California. The California dealer's name is on the stickers on the car windows. Right now Speedway is not offering an leases on these Bolts.

By the way, in person, the Bolt is a very nice looking little car.
 
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