California Car dealership "forgot" to charge sales tax!

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stream41

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The car was purchased in California, but I live in Arkansas.

So, I bought a car a couple of days ago from a California car dealership and picked it up. During the negotiations on the phone, I said that I assume that I'll pay sales tax on the car when I get home to register it in Arkansas. The salesman told me that's correct. This is how it has worked with the other 10 to 12 cars I've bought out-of-state in the last few years, so I didn't think anything more of it.

Well, apparently he was very wrong. While I was on my second day of driving home, their finance manager called and said that an error had been made, and they hadn't collected sales tax on the sale. Of course I told her what the salesman had told me, but she quickly pointed out that he was wrong, and that I owed them $1900 in sales tax. I've researched it a little, and apparently they are correct - you do pay sales tax in California on ANY car sale from a dealer (unless it's being shipped out-of-state). Clearly if I had known this, I would have had it shipped.

My question is: can I basically tell them to shove it? I'm going to have to pay sales tax in Arkansas as well (they aren't "reciprocal"), so I obviously don't want to pay sales tax twice. We have a signed contract (the bill of sale) showing $0 in sales tax, and that the total price was $23,000. Are they allowed to come after me for something that was totally their mistake? How do you guys think I should proceed? Should I call their bluff?
 
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