What car for a 6 month hiatus in the mountains? What to do with daily?

I've got three weeks to make a huge car decision for the next 6 months. I am moving from SE NC to the Tahoe area for the winter. My daily driver is a BMW M3ti that is my baby and won't be seeing snowy roads this winter for many reasons. 

My original plan was to drive my BMW to Tahoe, put it in a storage unit for the winter so I can at least keep tabs on it and keep it running, then buy a winter beater. My only big issue with this idea is that the car has started an expensive oil habit. She's burning somewhere around 2-3qts per 1000 miles. I have no issues filling it up frequently as I buy oil in 2.5 gallon jugs, but I don't want it to all of a sudden get worse while I'm halfway across the US. Also that would confuse me for registration, like, do I register it there or do I register it at my permanent address and have the tags mailed to me? Seems a bit odd.

The other though I've had is the leave my car here and buy a car to drive all winter. I've got a storage unit for my project cars and my stuff so I can leave my bimmer here. Then I can buy a winter vehicle, tag and register it here then drive it out west.

Which plan is less bad? Also, for a winter car my only real requirement is manual trans and room for snowboard stuff. I can/will buy/build a snowboard rack for the roof of something if necessary. I'll be staying only 10-15 miles from work so I'm less worried about fuel economy. 4wd would be fine, but I also have no qualms with snow tires or chains. I wouldn't mind ending up with something that I actually like, but if it's a car that I'll sell in a few months then that's fine too. Preliminary thoughts were a small pickup from the Big3 or maybe even a base engine full size(there's a sweet 4.9 5speed 4x4 F150 for sale here) . Also possibly an XJ if they exist on a low budget. Then there's always older Jap cars too but... so many options and what I end up doing with the Bimmer changes a lot too. Something small would be fine out there but difficult to fit my crap in if I drove out west. Wise knowledge from the GRMers would be well appreciated.

Will you be registering this new car in NV or CA?  I hear CA has some tough requirements.  I think NV is lax.  

You might be better off taking out something with NC plates.  Will you be leaving soon enough to be able to re-new the NC plates and avoid registration in the short term state?  

What is highly desirable in Tahoe that you might be able to by cheaply in NC and then sell before leaving Tahoe?   I have been to Tahoe a couple of times.  I'd love to have my 2001 Mitsubishi Montero out in Tahoe.  Poor mpg but great hyw ride and manners with even better offroad/snow manners.    

Sample Montero Limited.  Avoid the Montero Sport.  Though the name is the similar the Sport is a much less capable vehicle.  

As one of the few Tahoe area locals, allow me to chime in.

I would  strongly recommend getting something AWD. On the CA side they mean it when they say “chain controls” - you can breeze right through with AWD and snow tires, otherwise you’ll get stopped and they’ll at least make you put on chains, at worst they hold you even with chains. And get some real snow tires, not three season tires with an M+S symbol. Especially if you’re planning to live in the basin, you may not need them often but if you do, you *will* need them.

NV’s chain controls are more like “get a ticket for ending up in the ditch”, but keep in mind that certain roads (28 to Incline coms to mind) can be lethal in a snow storm. I remember on day when they pulled up a car that had gone off 28 only to discover a second car a bit further down - people had been looking for that car and its occupants for several weeks at that point ...

As to what to get for winter -  yeah, trucks are plentiful and rust free (mostly) out here. XJs will command a premium, but I do prefer an SUV to a pickup truck for winter. If you do get a pickup truck, stick a couple of hundred pounds of sand in the back.

John is right, if you plan to register a car in CA, it’s easier to get something here - the seller will have to provide you with a smog cert, if you BYO a car, you’ll have to get it smogged and that can be “fun”. NV does only do smog in Washoe county (ie, Reno and environs), but the cops on the NV side are very vigilant when it comes to out of state plates - I’ve had people who worked with get pulled over and told in no uncertain terms that if they were spotted again with an OOS  plate they’d be looking at a big fine.

My suggestion for a fun snow car? Get an Subaru. I personally don’t care much for them but there’s a reason they’re so popular here.

I’d also recommend living in an NV, car registration is a bit more expensive than CA but the lack of state income tax makes up for it. That said, if you do want to live in the basin it’s a bit easier to find accommodation on the CA side. Just keep in mind that rentals are getting harder to find as owners convert their places to AirBNB/VRBO at a furious pace and regular priced normal rentals are getting hard to find and there’s massive competition for them.

We mostly lived in the Carson Valley so far, but you have to keep in mind that a good snow storm can turn a45 minute commute into a 3h one.

One more thing - if you register a car in CA, you’ll have to pay sales tax. If you register something in NV that you bought privately, no sales tax.

And another thing - buy something trackable. Winter is cheap(er) track day season at Laguna Seca, Sonoma and Thunderhill. 

Re the snow - they don’t chuck salt on the roads here like they’re trying to turn them into salt fish. You can actually drive a nice car here in winter without fear of losing the lower 4”, and people occasionally get their nice cars and sometimes bikes out in winter.

Forgot to ask - where is work? That might influence/change some of the answers. 

Interesting to hear them hitting people for out of state plates. My permanent address will be here in NC so I was thinking that'd be a fine option.

I'll be living in Truckee, working at Squaw which google maps was saying is about a 10 mile drive.

My vote is store (or sell) the ti and get something much cooler and awd:  

I'm not sure why the manual only requirement when talking about trucks, truck manuals are in no way engaging to drive.

I'd pick up a Gen 3 montero, cheap as chips, nice interiors, already depreciated, plenty of room for snowboarding equipment, and really good awd/4x4 etc

Edit: I see John beat me to it :P those things are unsung gems that no one in the US knows about

Stick stock wrx?  Mine on uhp tires is better by leaps and bounds than my 4x4 truck on all seasons in the snow.  And 4 wheel snow drifts are fun

On the question of buying in CA or keeping your out of state registration keep this in mind.  CA law; you have 10 days to register any out of state vehicle once you become a CA resident. After the 10 days the fines start. It also means that you'll have to pass smog etc.

It still annoys me when someone will post about keeping their out of state plate on their not smog legal car; so they can drive it in CA.  Boyd Coddington tried that with the cars he sold and was busted. (rant over).

In reply to BarryNorman :

Key to me is "CA Resident." If you're staying in a place for a few months then going back to where you came from, are you really a resident of the new place? A compelling argument could be made that you are not. I'm most familiar with Ohio law, but it defines your home a few ways. One is the nebulous, "a place where when you leave you intend to return" or something to that effect. Another definition is a place you live for "at least six consecutive months." It seems like he would meet the definition of "not a resident" under both of those, especially if he leaves after 5 months and 29 days. But again that's Ohio law.

Staying in an area even for a slightly extended period of time is not the same as being a resident of that place.

In reply to dculberson :

There's also a fun law in CA that states that cars that are kept in CA for some time (can't remember the exact period, but I'm pretty sure it's fairly short, like a couple of months) have to be registered in CA even if the owner is not a resident of CA. So resident or no resident doesn't end up mattering that much.

NV is usually hotter on out of state registrations as the registration cost is higher here than in CA. As a result "clever" people try to keep out of state registrations to avoid the higher cost.

What CA *really* doesn't like is "foreign" plates from states that potentially circumvent the higher taxes the owner would have to pay in CA. Like people registering their cars to a Montana LLC to save on the sales tax and registration in CA.

buzzboy said:

Interesting to hear them hitting people for out of state plates. My permanent address will be here in NC so I was thinking that'd be a fine option.

As mentioned above, the state of CA has other ideas. Let's hope that they don't also want you to get a CA DL...

I'll be living in Truckee, working at Squaw which google maps was saying is about a 10 mile drive.

That's a pretty easy drive, too. Probably the easiest you could've picked as you don't have to go over any passes. But if you want to get to any of the other ski areas, you'll be dealing with pretty high passes. It also nixes the suggestion to live in NV, that's a little too far for my taste if I wasn't already an NV resident (it's about a 1.5h-2h drive from here).

I don't want to "move" to California for 5 months. I'm just going on a very long vacation.

For legal reasons it almost sounds like the best idea is to buy something out there and register it there? The only worry then would be CA not wanting to register a car to an out of state person.

I wish I had a better/cheaper place to keep the Bimmer(not selling it) for the winter. I already have my Mialvo project in my storage unit and my team's Lemons car in our storage unit's parking space.  Then it would be easier to buy something here and drive out. That would also make registering it easier because my tags/registration/etc would come to my permanent address. Also, if I get something bigger I won't have to worry about fitting all my stuff in the Compact or installing a trailer hitch on said compact.

Radarada nothing is simple

An out of state license is less an issue than out of state registration. I went years in California still on my Washington license with California registered cars. Also your drivers license doesn't get seen/checked unless you are already pulled over while the registration/license plate can be a reason to pull you over

Looking at the CA motor vehicle website if you're only there for 5 months out of a 12 month period then neither you or your vehicle are residents. https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/?1dmy&urile=wcm:path:/dmv_content_en/dmv/pubs/brochures/howto/htvr33