Best Of

Illegal, legal, or US citizen, when I had a no insurance charge with an accident involved I ordered the defendant to pay restitution- at a minimum the other driver's deductible but often the entire amount of damages. Restitution orders in criminal cases can't be discharged in bankruptcy, so the deadbeat always has the possibility of jail hanging over his/her head until he/she either pays or shuffles off this mortal coil.

That made me remember another episode of carnage at my house. A guy who lived with his parents down the street got stuck turning around in my driveway after a snow storm. To give himself traction he tore down a dwarf Japanese Maple that I had been growing for years. The police told him he better do the right thing so he showed up and said he would pay. I sent him an estimate for purchase of the tree only and I would do the planting work to save him money. He then proceeded to ghost me resulting in a default small claims judgement because he didn’t show for court. I chased him for a few weeks with his father covering for him and saying he didn’t know where he was. Turned out he fled to Florida to avoid seizure of his property.

BTW I got an estimate for the cleanup and replanting plus some reseeding of the lawn. $4900+😳

@Michaell said:

In the past, leasing was popular because you could get more bang for your buck - meaning, you could go up a step in brand (or trim) for a payment lower than traditional financing.

Lately, with interest rates being what they are, I thing leasing has lost its allure for a lot of people. Don't get me wrong, @kyfdx and I stay plenty busy answering questions in all the make and model forums, but the volume of questions have tailed off the last couple of years.

Lots and lots of questions about leasing EVs, however. Probably the best way to dip a toe into that technology without making a long term commitment, since the EV tech is evolving so quickly.

Best advice I give people on leasing right now is to chase the deals.

There are just some vehicles that will never lease well. Full-size SUVs for example.

Also - there are times where trim level means a lot. Take the Rams for instance. The Laramie had a near zero MF where other trims were much higher.

I’ve never understood why full sized SUV’s don’t lease well. Don’t need to in order to move them I guess?

Chasing the deal is the best advice now, has been for a while actually. Funny how they incentivize trims differently but all of them do! All about resale at the end I guess.

In case anyone wants to know, I ended up selling the S4 for $20,500 cash last November. 21 year old guy from up in LA area, man, I wish when I was 21 I had a car as nice as my S4 still was. They might be outnumbered, but there are still young people out there that like fine automobiles.

Sounds like a good deal for both of you. With the work you put into it, it was definitely worth that much, but the black mark on its vehicle history made it such that it wasn't your traditional sale (like a trade-in, etc.).

You should swing by more often! I mean, we're just hearing about this now, and it's already been gone for 6+ months?!

The last 6 months seem like a blur. Had a forced upon me job change in that period too. The S4 sale was a good deal for both parties. I got more than trade-ins would pay, and he got a wonderful automobile that $20.5 K can't come close to touching at the price point. All it needed was a DSG transmission oil, and motor oil change/service; everything else including battery & brakes were fresh (well, the tires were less than fresh, but not in need of immediate changing). I was motivated by not having to pay CA for another year of registration.