New Half-Cent Sales Tax Chafes O.C. Shoppers : Revenue: The new Orange County bite would add $107.65 to the $21,529 price of a Chrysler New Yorker on a Costa Mesa car lot.

At car dealerships and furniture stores, in college-area delis and outside discount membership department stores, a random survey Monday found Orange County shoppers and diners unanimous about their new sales tax hike: If they knew about it they disliked it, even if they voted for it, but many didn’t notice it at all.

Approved by voters last November, Measure M increased the Orange County sales tax from 6 cents to 6 1/2 cents on the dollar and is expected to raise more than $3 billion for transportation improvements over a 20-year period. It applies to most every retail sales item except food.

The tax went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday, the same time that a new Los Angeles County levy, also for transportation, was kicking in and stirring the same array of reactions.

“I don’t think it’s going to make that much difference,” said Nick Varzak, general manager of Atlas Chrysler-Plymouth in Costa Mesa. “Not right this minute anyway. We don’t like to see it happen because it means the customer has to pay more.”

Out on the lot of the Harbor Boulevard car dealership, a family sat in a new white Chrysler New Yorker. The sticker price, before licensing fees and sales tax: $21,529. The half-cent tax increase would add $107.65 to the price.

“We looked before, but I just didn’t find anything I liked,” said a customer, who gave her name only as Dorothy.

“We don’t like it,” Mark Pompeo, 25, said of the tax increase, “but you don’t have a choice. You need a car.”

Across the street at the Infiniti dealership, salespeople said their customers have not remarked on the tax increase, but “we haven’t sold a car since Saturday,” one salesman said.

On a sleek pine green Infiniti Q45, sticker price $40,350, the difference in price from Sunday to Monday would be $201.75

“Saturday was a very big day for us,” one salesman said, “so that might be because of the tax. But nobody’s said anything.”

Elaine Maguire of Newport Beach, waiting for her Honda Civic to be towel-dried at the Metro Car Wash in Costa Mesa, was resigned but disgruntled about the new tax, which she voted against.

“I just came from Washington, D.C., where the sales tax is 9%,” Maguire said. “I hope they do something to keep it from getting that high here. I’m sure it was 6 1/2% in Washington, D.C., at one time, too. They always say (the tax) is for this or that, but when we vote for (tax increases) they always seem to be a big disappointment.”

A few miles away, at the Fedco Membership department store, the sentiment was about the same: indifference, resignation, and some skepticism about whether government leaders would spend the money where it is supposed to go.

“I didn’t notice it, so really there’s no impact yet,” said a woman, her two young children in tow, pushing a full shopping cart to her car at Fedco. “But you wonder what the government is going to do with your money.”

Ed Beas, the 18-year-old cashier at Fedco’s outdoor nursery register, said customers had made no mention of the sales tax increase.

“Nobody has asked about it, but I notice a difference between the sales Friday and Saturday and today. The total is more.”

At R & B Furniture, where a $1,000 couch cost only $5 more in sales taxes as of Monday, saleswoman Kathy Bennett said not a single customer had mentioned the tax increase.

“On a personal level I think it’s terrible,” said Bennett, a native of Texas. “On a business level, I think it is way too early to tell the impact. I think Californians are so conditioned to being overpriced, overtaxed, I don’t think it’s going to make that much difference. You (pay) it or you don’t, and get out.”

When it came to smaller purchases, the effects were even less noticeable and the reaction more muted. At the Lil Pickle sandwich shop, down the street from Orange Coast College, not even a starving college student whined about the tax increase. The difference on a $3 sub was just a penny and a half.

“Nobody’s complained, nobody’s mumbled, nobody said anything,” co-owner Ted Metzger said. “I just hope they spend it right.”