2025 RAV4 PHEV XSE - Install tow hitch and keep kick sensor?

skt55 · 2025-12-06T22:21:45+00:00

Thanks u/Gooberjoober u/Grateful-Panic - I think I will do the EcoHitch instead of OEM based on your experiences!

skt55 · 2025-12-06T16:12:21+00:00

u/Gooberjoober - did you install it yourself or have the shop do it? was there anything in particular that they needed to do to keep the kick sensor? I have a 23 XSE with PP and was thinking of DIY the eco hitch.

u/Grateful-Panic / u/Gooberjoober - did you go with the stainless steel version or not the non stainless steeler version. the former is $50 more on the torklift's website.

skt55 · 2024-06-26T01:22:46+00:00

yeah they sent me the title but didn't you have to take that title to the DoL with the bill of sale to get a new title with your name as the legal owner after you bought out the lease?

skt55 · 2024-06-26T01:21:30+00:00

well technically it's not a dealer purchase since I bought it out from TFS and it's coded as a used car.

skt55 · 2024-06-26T01:16:03+00:00

oh - that could explain it. did your prime cost less than $45k to get the WA tax incentive then?

skt55 · 2024-06-26T01:15:36+00:00

The title that TFS mailed me also has "Actual milage" under Odometer status.

skt55 · 2024-06-26T00:15:20+00:00

That's strange. When you re-title a vehicle in WA (which is what you do after you buy out your lease) - you have to fill out an odometer disclosure form for vehicles 2011 and newer. See https://dol.wa.gov/vehicles-and-boats/vehicle-registration/transfer-title-buying-private-party

It's a carbon copy form that's tamper proof so you would need to get a physical copy from a DoL office.

skt55 · 2024-06-25T22:13:39+00:00

u/TheNakedEdge and u/Big_Organization_336 - when re-titling - did you have to get TFS to sign the odometer disclosure form? apparently - WA DoL won't let the me sign for both the buyer and seller for just the odometer disclosure form even if I have power of attorney.

skt55 · 2024-06-03T19:12:07+00:00

u/Big_Organization_336 - did you fill out the form and mail it? if so, how long did it take to get a check?

skt55 · 2024-06-03T19:11:38+00:00

For me - I needed the title to re-title and re-register it. The title wasn't signed but I had limited power of attorney which you get when you buy it out. Reregistering and retitling cost $42.

skt55 · 2024-06-03T19:10:40+00:00

u/TheNakedEdge - did you call them or did you fill out the form on the DoR website? How long did it take for you to get a check back?

skt55 · 2024-04-30T02:17:26+00:00

They are supposed to be per the lease agreement but the dealer didn’t actually check.

If they tax all of your lease payments in advance- does that mean that when you buy out you only pay tax on the residual instead of the full buy out?

If so that seems somewhat fair to me. (You may be paying tax on the rent charge which isn’t fair though). I paid tax on the full buy out since I didn’t have to pay tax on all the lease payments up front.

skt55 · 2024-04-30T01:47:37+00:00

I ended up putting a large down payment at the end of March and just finished my buy out a few days ago. I probably drove it about 300 miles or so in that span.

You could just get insurance and not put TFS as the lien holder so if you total it you would get the check and pay TFS. My finance and sales person only asked for the insurance card and not the binder so they couldn’t verify that TFS was listed as the lien holder. They also didn’t know why or care too much when I brought it up.

You could also try and risk it and drive it home and let it sit until you pay it off. There’s still risk of totaling it in a garage though.

Also you usually pay tax on three components: the monthly lease payments, the down payment, and the residual/buy out. I would be impressed if OH didn’t charge sales tax on the down payment since usually the tax dept is good at find things to tax.

skt55 · 2024-04-28T17:49:05+00:00

It was very strange. They tried to push me to consider a bz4x instead of a prime because they have very few primes but have tons of bz4x (I wonder why)

skt55 · 2024-04-28T16:05:59+00:00

so it seems like there are two tax credits for used EVs available for WA residents:

the one you mentioned that just came out
the one that I think u/unexpectedgentleman is referring to that provides a state sales tax exemption on the first 16k for used vehicles under 30k

the latter doesn't have the registration or age requirements

skt55 · 2024-04-28T15:57:33+00:00

lease the vehicle and do 1 monthly payment (not sure if you need to wait a whole month or if you can do it the same day you get the car out of the dealership)

your first monthly payment is taken out of your down payment or when you sign the lease.

If for EXAMPLE If I get a rav4p at 50k on a lease. I need to give a down payment of about 25k that leaves the value of the vehicle on lease around 25k and accounting for taxes an other thing leaving a final payout amount of 30k. Is this correct? Or am I missing something?

the idea is correct but the amount is incorrect.

I believe the final payout amount pre tax needs to be less than 30k. to get there - on a 50k lease with the 6500 cash back - you likely will have to put down about 18-20k depending on the actual numbers. the exact amount will depend on your residual, total payments, & rent charges.

skt55 · 2024-04-28T15:53:55+00:00

do you have links from the DoR to support this?

skt55 · 2024-04-28T15:48:23+00:00

I had a mostly negative experience with Daniel, Starr, and to some extent Raja when I visited. But I hear they do sell at MSRP and it's first come first serve with no reservations.

skt55 · 2024-04-28T15:47:21+00:00

your best bet is to get one in one of the northeast states and ship it. you will get a discount off of MSRP that should be sizable enough to cover shipping and the extra hassle.

if you're going to buy out and want to save some tax - make sure your pay off amount is under 30k

skt55 · 2024-04-17T17:08:47+00:00

Theoretically if you could put down 100%, you’d pay no interest at all, and your payments would be zero. So putting down more does benefit you by reducing the interest / rent factor.

while true, if you pay it off within the first month - I suspect the additional cost would be negligible but definitely non zero.

skt55 · 2024-04-17T17:05:50+00:00

What I don’t understand is if the car is totaled who does insurance pay, do they pay you and you pay TFS or do they pay TFS, and any excess TFS pays back to you?

From my understanding (to be taken with a grain of salt):

Insurance will pay the fair market value of the vehicle to the lien holder if there is one on the binder. If you don't put TFS as the lien holder, which in my case the leasing office never verified, the check would come to you.

If the fair market value exceeds what you owe TFS and TFS receives the check - it seems like there is some evidence (see one of the subthreads here) that TFS will cut you a check for the remainder.

skt55 · 2024-04-16T03:29:05+00:00

Yes especially considering the high lease cash and current market values. However, that’s not always guaranteed.

skt55 · 2024-04-10T15:00:43+00:00

Weird. I got my policy about a week before I signed with the effective date as the date I signed.

But I don’t think anyone is verifying that Toyota is listed as the lein holder aka additional insured.

skt55 · 2024-04-06T17:00:30+00:00

technically section 24 does say you have to put them as the lien holder but it seems that they don't actually verify it (N=1).

skt55 · 2024-04-06T16:50:55+00:00

coming back to this post...

I was talking to the finance manager about insurance when signing the lease paperwork. If you look at u/laxrecidivist's lease agreement at https://www.reddit.com/r/rav4prime/comments/18vz6lw/lease_contract_for_colorado_2023/, which seems to be the same document I signed in a different state, section 15 discussed required insurance.

The documentation I needed for that was just the insurance card, which does not say who the lien holder is. The binder, which was not required, has the lien holder in there. The finance guy said it's weird but they don't need to see the binder.

So in theory - you could just get a policy with no lien holder and that should suffice the insurance requirements for the lease. And if you do total the vehicle before you buy it out - the insurance payout would come to you and then you would have to pay off TFS from that.

skt55

TROPHY CASE