Open Today Sales: 9 AM-6 PM
Hours:
Open Today Sales: 9 AM-6 PMOpen Today Service: 8 AM-5 PMOpen Today Parts: 9 AM-6 PM
Location
This page answers the questions we hear most often from people buying their first Land Rover South Shore vehicle in Crown Point, Merrillville, Schererville, Munster, and the rest of Northwest Indiana. That means what Indiana charges in sales tax and registration fees, how a trade-in changes that math, what the factory warranty does and does not cover, and what happens on the day you take delivery. Three facts do most of the work. Indiana charges a flat 7% state sales tax on a vehicle purchase with no county or city rate added on top, and it is calculated on the price after your trade-in allowance comes off, so a trade is worth more to you than its appraisal figure alone suggests. Indiana also requires a retailer to include its documentation preparation fee in the advertised sale price, which means the number on our listing already carries it. And every new vehicle leaves here with a 4-year, 50,000-mile New Vehicle Limited Warranty, so the running costs to plan for in those first years are mostly fuel, tires, and scheduled maintenance.
Bring a valid driver license, proof of insurance that will cover the vehicle you are buying, and whatever form of payment you plan to use for money due at signing. For a trade, bring the title if you own it outright, or the lender name and account number if there is a loan on it, along with both key fobs, the owner manual, and any service records you have kept. Anyone else named on the trade title has to sign as well, so plan to bring them with you. Financing through us adds two items: proof of income and proof of residence. Everything else — the Indiana title application, the temporary plate, the sales tax forms — is prepared here.
Four steps can be done from home. You can value your trade through our online appraisal, apply for financing through the secure credit application, build a payment estimate with the payment calculator, and set a time to drive the vehicle you are interested in. Do all four in advance and the appointment usually turns into a walkthrough and signatures rather than a half day. The steps that have to happen in person are the ones that need a signature or a physical handover: signing the Indiana title application, signing the retail installment or lease contract, and turning over the keys and title to a trade.
There are three routes and they take different amounts of time. A vehicle already built and in transit to us can often be assigned to you before it arrives, which is the quickest of the three. A vehicle sitting at another Land Rover retailer can sometimes be traded for, depending on what each store holds. A factory order lets you specify model, powertrain, exterior and interior finish, and option packs exactly, and it takes the longest because the vehicle is built to your specification. Tell a product specialist which model and configuration you want, and we’ll tell you which of the three fits your timing. One thing worth knowing before you decide: an in-transit vehicle is already through the build queue, so the wait is measured in weeks rather than months, and our allocation of in-transit vehicles is where most of our new vehicle deliveries come from.
Indiana charges a 7% state gross retail tax on vehicle purchases. No county or city sales tax is added on top, so the rate is the same wherever in Indiana you register the vehicle. The tax is calculated on the sale price after your trade-in allowance has been deducted, and the retailer collects it at the time of purchase and documents it. If you live outside Indiana, tax generally follows the state where the vehicle will be registered rather than the state where you bought it. Buyers who will title the vehicle in another state within 30 days are processed using a method that records the rate applied and the amount collected. Indiana does not treat every state the same way here, because a few states give no credit for tax paid elsewhere. Say so early if you are registering outside Indiana, and the business office will work the numbers for your state rather than ours.
Yes. Indiana deducts the trade-in allowance from the purchase price before the 7% tax is applied, so you are taxed on the difference rather than on the full price. On a $20,000 trade allowance that is $1,400 of tax that never enters the calculation. The deduction applies when the vehicle is traded to a retailer as part of the same transaction. Selling your vehicle privately and bringing the cash instead doesn’t produce the same result, so the two options are worth running side by side rather than comparing the appraisal to the private-sale figure on its own. Your trade appraisal and the price of the vehicle you are buying are evaluated separately, and we’ll show you both numbers.
A documentation preparation fee covers the work of preparing and processing the paperwork on a vehicle sale: the title application, the tax forms, submitting the registration, and keeping the sale records. Indiana handles it differently from most states in two ways that are worth knowing before you compare offers. State law sets a maximum, adjusted each year against the Consumer Price Index, and charging above that ceiling is an unfair practice under the Indiana dealer statute. Indiana also requires the fee to be included in the advertised sale price of the vehicle and itemized as a separate line on the buyer order, so it isn’t a charge that appears for the first time at signing. Our current documentation preparation fee of 261.00 appears on every buyer order, and a product specialist will tell you the figure before you come in if you ask.
Not the way applying for several unrelated loans would. When a retailer submits one application to several lenders to find the best available terms, the credit bureaus treat those inquiries as rate shopping for a single purchase and count them as one inquiry for scoring purposes, as long as they fall inside a short window. That window runs roughly 14 to 45 days depending on which scoring model a lender uses. The practical effect is that you don’t need to choose a lender in advance to protect your score. Send one application through our finance center and we’ll shop it.
The money factor is how the finance charge on a lease is expressed, and it looks nothing like an interest rate. It is a small decimal such as 0.00125. Multiply it by 2,400, and you get the equivalent annual rate, so 0.00125 works out to about 3%. Two other numbers set the payment. The capitalized cost is the agreed price of the vehicle, and the residual value is what the vehicle is projected to be worth at the end of the term. Your monthly payment is driven mainly by the gap between those two, with the finance charge applied on top. Ask to see all three on the lease worksheet, and we’ll walk through them with you.
Every new Land Rover South Shore vehicle carries a New Vehicle Limited Warranty of 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first, covering manufacturing defects across the vehicle. Alongside it are a 6-year, unlimited-mileage corrosion perforation warranty and the emissions warranties. Land Rover Roadside Assistance runs for the same period as the new vehicle warranty and covers flat tires, fuel delivery, a battery jump, keys locked in the vehicle, and emergency towing to a Land Rover retailer, with trip-interruption reimbursement if a warranty-related breakdown happens more than 50 miles from home. Plug-in hybrid models carry separate coverage on the traction battery of 8 years or 100,000 miles. All of that coverage depends on the vehicle being serviced to the Land Rover schedule, so keep your service records.
Routine scheduled maintenance is not part of the New Vehicle Limited Warranty, which covers manufacturing defects rather than service intervals and wear items. That is worth budgeting for up front rather than meeting it for the first time at a service visit. Land Rover prepaid maintenance plans cover scheduled services at a price fixed when you buy the plan rather than the price in effect years later, and they transfer with the vehicle if you sell it. Our prepaid maintenance page lists what is available. Paying per visit works too. The service department posts current specials and can quote a service before you book it.
Delivery is a handover rather than a paperwork session. If you completed the credit application beforehand, signing is the short part of it. Most of the appointment goes to the vehicle: pairing your phone, setting up the Pivi Pro profile and the Land Rover app, going through the driver assistance settings, showing you Terrain Response and the drive modes for the model you bought, and setting seat and mirror memory. Before you leave, we cover the first service interval and how to book it. If a question comes up a week later that the owner manual doesn’t answer, call the product specialist who delivered the vehicle rather than starting again on the main line.
Two things shorten every visit: valuing your trade online and sending in a credit application before you come in. Both take the guesswork out of the numbers. Land Rover South Shore is at 5781 E US Highway 30 in Crown Point, and we work with drivers across Merrillville, Schererville, Munster, Valparaiso, St. John, Dyer, Highland, and Hobart.
Anything this page does not cover is the kind of question worth putting to a person. Call the store or send a note and we’ll get you a straight answer.
Reviewed by Chris George, Center Manager, Land Rover South Shore. Last reviewed August 8, 2026.