Just did some research on where it's actually cheapest to buy a car and honestly the results surprised me. Turns out your state matters way more than I thought. I was looking at data from a few years back, but the patterns still hold up. Oregon, Montana, and New Hampshire basically have a huge advantage because they don't charge sales tax on car purchases at all. Like, that's a game changer. Oregon specifically had some of the lowest dealer fees in the country too, which stacks the advantage even more. The cheapest states to buy a car aren't always where you'd expect. Some states with higher car prices still rank well because their dealer fees are super low or they have no sales tax. Alaska's a weird one - cars cost way more there but the dealer fees are crazy low, so it balances out. Meanwhile places like North Carolina and New Mexico are affordable mainly because dealer fees stay reasonable even though sales tax is higher. So if you're actually shopping around for a new or used vehicle, location really does impact your total cost. I'm thinking about this more now because the difference between states can literally be thousands of dollars. Definitely worth considering if you're flexible on where to make the purchase.