Best Of

@tjc78 did they figure out the paperwork situation for your truck?

Yes... finally. Yesterday I was able to get Stellantis on the phone to obtain my account #, login, and sign up for auto debit.

However, they have still not paid off the trade. They already sold it, so not only will they have me to deal with but also whatever bank it was financed with as well!

Truly a cluster

How can they sell your trade without having ownership? I’ve heard about dealers doing that but how’d they convince the buyer to go along? I know I’m naive but that seems like the law would be coming after them at some point.

They give the buyer a 60 day temporary tag. It happens every day, everywhere..

Apparently, Nissan will extend leases a maximum of three months unless you have a new Nissan on order, so I could theoretically keep the Ariya until mid-March, 2026 instead of returning it this December. I'm assuming that I'd also get dinged for property tax in 2026 (if you "own" the vehicle at the beginning of the year, you owe tax for the full year), so that cancels out the benefit of getting three more months on a cheap lease.

Here's the thing, though. Assuming you always have the same number of cars, you'll always "own" one on January 1st. So, it's a wash. If it's an extra car you aren't replacing, that's another story.

Once, I turned in a leased Accord on December 30th, and we didn't pickup the new lease (also an Accord) until January 3rd. Skated on the personal property tax for a whole year.