Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

Michaell

sda said:

corvette said:

@sda - JRGo recently reviewed a Jetta that was advertised by the local dealer at $19,999 and had positive remarks. It seems like there are few bad new cars anymore.

Also, I'm really digging Hoovie's TDI Touareg.

I viewed that too not knowing within a week I would be driving one. He bought the Sport which doesn’t have as many features but still nice. The SE that was a loaner vehicle had the black package, sunroof, self dimming mirror with compass and Home Link. It was a very easy car to like. About the only features it lacked that I would like is a better audio system and ac vents for the rear seat. Better audio is available in the SEL but like so many cars in this category, Civic, Integra, etc, ac vents for the rear seat are not available. The 4 speaker system was meh.

He didn't buy it - he's been on a kick borrowing and reviewing sub $20K cars - started with the Mitsubishi Mirage G4, then a Nissan Versa, then found the Jetta Sport being advertised at the $19,999 price point.

I really enjoyed the 2016 Jetta SE I leased - while it wasn't breath-takingly powerful (150HP, give or take), it felt like more with the turbo engine at altitude. Decently equipped, and it had a sticker price of around $22-23K - I was able to lease it for around $225/mo with only first payment due at signing.

stickguy

my kids both liked their Jettas. My daughter had 2. the currentish (2020 maybe?) generation, and in college a 2015. Both comfortable, reasonably fun to drive, roomy and got excellent MPG. great road trip cars too.

Michaell

stickguy said:

my kids both liked their Jettas. My daughter had 2. the currentish (2020 maybe?) generation, and in college a 2015. Both comfortable, reasonably fun to drive, roomy and got excellent MPG. great road trip cars too.

My oldest nephew has a 2015 Jetta with the 1.8T. I think it has around 110K on it.

He is finishing up his masters program at Eastern Washington, and is in the process of applying a bunch of universities for his doctorate program - mostly schools in the Western US. I think he'd like to be a bit closer to home in San Diego, but we'll see.

explorerx4

Yesterday I saw a Range Rover with the plate 'Ghosn' on it.

kyfdx

Pretty sure he is camped out in Lebanon..

mlevine

Mazda CX 30 so far very nice vehicle. I needed AWD for the mountains and this is all they had at that time. Must admit that for my height of 6' 3" it is a little tight but only need room for me.

sda

I have not seen this feature for Sirius XM on our other cars. On some selections it provides a LIVE setting which changes the sound stage. This is in the Arteon.

xwesx

oldfarmer50 said:

Nice of you to help. Are you in the rescue business or just a Good Samaritan? If it’s the latter that’s darn altruistic of you.

I just like to do it. I have all the needed recovery supplies (though a winch would be useful from time to time) and have a white/yellow light bar that I put on my primary car during the winter months for added safety. I think it is both enjoyable and satisfying.

abacomike

@sda said:
I have not seen this feature for Sirius XM on our other cars. On some selections it provides a LIVE setting which changes the sound stage. This is in the Arteon.

I’ve got that on my Bang and Olafson Audi system. It lets you replay the previous selection as many times as you like from Sirius XM and you can skip to live broadcasts at any time. Nice feature

graphicguy

I am knuckle deep in the Apple ecosystem. I have an iMac in my office. I have an iPhone. Even have Apple Tags in use in my brief case, my wallet and my luggage.

For years, I've had an Apple Laptop (MacBook) that I use when I'm in meetings at my volunteer groups, vacationing, etc. It's about 5 years old...not really in bad shape...a few scrapes and knicks here and there. Needs more HD space (but I use an external drive to offload most important information).

Unexpected, but my son came over to watch OSU game and surprised me with a brand spanking new laptop for Christmas. MacBook Air M3 with 16 GB memory and 512 GB storage. Way more than I need but dang, I feel like I just entered the Porsche 911 world of laptops and more excited than I should really be. Very generous gift. I think I'll put him back in the will!!!!!

snakeweasel

graphicguy said:

I am knuckle deep in the Apple ecosystem.

You do know that they have recovery programs for that.

nyccarguy

@graphicguy - you are definitely much more entrenched in the tech world than I am. In the small sample size that is my home, I am happy with some Apple products and unhappy with others.

AirPods - I love the sound quality. My daughter has a pair of AirPods Max that are incredible. However, with the regular AirPods I’ve noticed either the case stops charging or one AirPod stops working. They set the price of a replacement part just high enough so you say to yourself; “this is stupid. For an extra $X, I can get a brand new pair.”

iPhones - everyone in my family has one. They work phenomenally well when you 1st get them. Over time and with each update, it gets slower. The battery doesn’t last as long. You are almost forced to buy AppleCare because the screen is going to crack. So either pay now (buy AppleCare) or pay later ($200 for a new screen).

iPads - junk. You buy the iPad. You buy the AppleCare. Screen cracks and they just give you a new one. They don’t even fix it.

MacBook - I think these are durable and very well made. We bought one for my 18 year old son who just finished his 1st semester in college and it’s great. My 15 1/2 year old son bought one with some of his bar mitzvah money over 2 years ago and it’s wonderful.

corvette

@graphicguy - nice! I have the last version of the MacBook Air that was made with an Intel chip that I use for watching YouTube, message boards, putzing around while watching TV, etc... It's still supported, but I feel like Apple is kind of "phoning in" its efforts to support Intel models at this point. Really like the stencil or case you have on yours!

explorerx4

I guess I'm included in that Vanguard class action suit related to some of their mutual funds which distributed big capital gains back in 2021.
I don't know if i'll have to pay taxes on any payout due to the settlement of the suit.
Both the funds I own included in the suit are still technically underwater.

graphicguy

@nyccarguy said:
@graphicguy - you are definitely much more entrenched in the tech world than I am. In the small sample size that is my home, I am happy with some Apple products and unhappy with others.

AirPods - I love the sound quality. My daughter has a pair of AirPods Max that are incredible. However, with the regular AirPods I’ve noticed either the case stops charging or one AirPod stops working. They set the price of a replacement part just high enough so you say to yourself; “this is stupid. For an extra $X, I can get a brand new pair.”

iPhones - everyone in my family has one. They work phenomenally well when you 1st get them. Over time and with each update, it gets slower. The battery doesn’t last as long. You are almost forced to buy AppleCare because the screen is going to crack. So either pay now (buy AppleCare) or pay later ($200 for a new screen).

iPads - junk. You buy the iPad. You buy the AppleCare. Screen cracks and they just give you a new one. They don’t even fix it.

MacBook - I think these are durable and very well made. We bought one for my 18 year old son who just finished his 1st semester in college and it’s great. My 15 1/2 year old son bought one with some of his bar mitzvah money over 2 years ago and it’s wonderful.

Agree about the iPad. If you’re going to get one of those and ad a keyboard to it, you may as well get a MacBook!

Have had a pair of AirPod Pros (1st gen). I use them a lot, walls, on planes, hands free calls, etc! I’ve heard the Max headphones are incredible. Never experienced them.

iPhones..after 4 years or so, battery begins to noticeably degrade, but still useable. Use mine as a GPS, car entertainment (music, audible books, pod casts).

iMac is redundant. But, all my records, docs, scanned images are kept on it!

I’ll use my old MacBook as a music server on my stereo! They have way better build, useability and durability than any windows machine I’ve used!

stickguy

Bradd, you must have a rough house. We have never cracked a screen on any apple product. Or paid for apple care.

Iphone, works great. eventually slows down so we upgrade for the heck of it. generally about 3 years or so. And new is nice! I still have my iPad. at one point I used it all the time, but started just using my phone instead. Would not buy another one. Apple watch we like. My laptop is a cheap Acer. Because I am cheap and have no real need for a Mac.

I do need a laptop for a lot of things. I could not even conceive of trying to do something like my taxes on the phone. Or anything that requires lots data entry type stuff.

stickguy

got an early Xmas present yesterday (early Christmas with the kids since they will both be at the inlaws Tuesday/Wednesday). A new Dewalt drill. Nice and compact and light. Should be a lot more comfortable to use than my current B&D one that is pretty bulky. Not ideal for putting up window blinds! But the biggest problem was the chuck just won't stay tight, and the bit keeps getting stuck in the trim and pulls out of the drill, and I have to get it out with vise grips. Not fun. This one has some sort of locking chuck to prevent that. We shall see, I have 2 more blinds to put up this afternoon. Projects on a new house, also never seem to end. Money runs out of course.

ab348

I have become increasingly allergic to tech. Embarrassing to admit since for much of my career I was a tech guy, but that was in the mini/mainframe dark ages. When I got my first iPhone about 12 years ago, it was a revelation coming over from a Blackberry which I hated from day one. The iPhone was intuitive and I took to it immediately. But with each new iteration of iOS it became more complicated and cluttered with stuff I had no reason nor desire to use. The current iteration of the iOS Photos app is the poster child for that, just awful. But it’s far from alone in that. It now is even harder to play a voice mail on my iPhone because for some strange reason I have two voicemail instances on my phone, the native one and a carrier one, so good luck with that. I use the iPad a lot for browsing this site and others and aside from not being a big fan of Safari it works OK for that, but seems to run out of steam pretty quickly with some sites.

Just don’t get me started on Windows. Such an awful mess. I hate it with the heat of 1000 suns…

jmonroe1

graphicguy said:

I am knuckle deep in the Apple ecosystem. I have an iMac in my office. I have an iPhone. Even have Apple Tags in use in my brief case, my wallet and my luggage.

For years, I've had an Apple Laptop (MacBook) that I use when I'm in meetings at my volunteer groups, vacationing, etc. It's about 5 years old...not really in bad shape...a few scrapes and knicks here and there. Needs more HD space (but I use an external drive to offload most important information).

Unexpected, but my son came over to watch OSU game and surprised me with a brand spanking new laptop for Christmas. MacBook Air M3 with 16 GB memory and 512 GB storage. Way more than I need but dang, I feel like I just entered the Porsche 911 world of laptops and more excited than I should really be. Very generous gift. I think I'll put him back in the will!!!!!

————————————————
Nice looking rig. It otta be a while till you overload that thing.

As for the will… does that mean I have been removed?

jmonroe

suydam

We have an old MacBook which I never use. Love my iPad and use it for everything I used to do on the laptop. It’s older. The battery was slowing down so they gave me a new one (same old version, I guess they keep some at every store to swap out when the battery goes). I keep my iPhone for about 4 years, current one is a 13, still working well with great battery life. Spouse uses the laptop and has a an old SE phone. Not a tech person.

benjaminh

On my flights over to Seattle and back to visit my elderly Mom and other family members, I watched season 2 of Tex Mex motors from Netflix, which I'd downloaded almost at random onto my Kindle. With headphones Tex Mex Motors kept me distracted for all 8 episodes. Hadn't seen season 1, but it's an easy show to pick up on at almost any place. My favorite person on the show was "Rabbit," aka Rob Pitts, who would go over with his Spanish-speaking friend Marcos "Scooter" Carrera to Mexico to find old cars cheap, and then restomod or restore them in Texas with the crew there. Rabbit liked to make deals, and said once "We have a saying where I grew up. Sometimes oatmeal is better than no meal"—although actually on that deal there was a nice profit. Has anyone else here watched this show? Rabbit slowly got thinner as the season went on. Glad Rabbit successfully made that last deal, as he passed away from the big C not long after the show wrapped. A two-minute trailer for season 2 is below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiyKZvqVCck

jmonroe1

stickguy said:

got an early Xmas present yesterday (early Christmas with the kids since they will both be at the inlaws Tuesday/Wednesday). A new Dewalt drill. Nice and compact and light. Should be a lot more comfortable to use than my current B&D one that is pretty bulky. Not ideal for putting up window blinds! But the biggest problem was the chuck just won't stay tight, and the bit keeps getting stuck in the trim and pulls out of the drill, and I have to get it out with vise grips. Not fun. This one has some sort of locking chuck to prevent that. We shall see, I have 2 more blinds to put up this afternoon. Projects on a new house, also never seem to end. Money runs out of course.

————————————————
There is no excuse for a drill to have a bad chuck but if any drill has one it doesn’t surprise me that it’s a Black and Decker. Black and Decker used to make very good tools but they have been junk for at least 25 years now. I have a few cordless 1/2 inch drills (DeWalt, Ridgid, Porter Cable, Makita, an 18 year old Craftsman that is great but it’s also a beast. It gives me a real workout when I use it but it’s always been reliable).

I have a 3/8 inch corded Black and Decker drill that is over 50 years old and is still as good today as when I got it. Being corded, I just haven’t used it very much the last few years. Unless things change I’ll never buy another Black and Decker tool.

jmonroe

kyfdx

I have a friend with a drill.

jmonroe1

kyfdx said:

I have a friend with a drill.

————————————————
Don’t we all.

jmonroe

stickguy

project is finished. I finally have every blind up that was needed. I think it ended up being 15. Unless I decide to put some up in the 2 garage windows, just for aesthetics since they are on the front facade of the house (garage door is side entry). Good news is, I can put them up without glancing at the instructions, and don't really even have to measure for the brackets (I do double check though after I mark the holes to pre-drill, no need to tempt fate). If anyone has questions about Levelor 2 or 2.5" faux wood blinds, just contact that hotline.

New drill worked great. Plenty of juice, and way more compact so easier to use in tight spaces (and lighter). And no issues with bits pulling out. Glad I picked it out! will keep the old one in the garage in case I need something quick out there. Not used to having 2 workbenches, so the only logic thing is to have 2 complete sets of tools!

imidazol97

jmonroe1 said:

stickguy said:

got an early Xmas present yesterday (early Christmas with the kids since they will both be at the inlaws Tuesday/Wednesday). A new Dewalt drill. Nice and compact and light. Should be a lot more comfortable to use than my current B&D one that is pretty bulky. Not ideal for putting up window blinds! But the biggest problem was the chuck just won't stay tight, and the bit keeps getting stuck in the trim and pulls out of the drill, and I have to get it out with vise grips. Not fun. This one has some sort of locking chuck to prevent that. We shall see, I have 2 more blinds to put up this afternoon. Projects on a new house, also never seem to end. Money runs out of course.

————————————————
There is no excuse for a drill to have a bad chuck but if any drill has one it doesn’t surprise me that it’s a Black and Decker. Black and Decker used to make very good tools but they have been junk for at least 25 years now. I have a few cordless 1/2 inch drills (DeWalt, Ridgid, Porter Cable, Makita, an 18 year old Craftsman that is great but it’s also a beast. It gives me a real workout when I use it but it’s always been reliable).

I have a 3/8 inch corded Black and Decker drill that is over 50 years old and is still as good today as when I got it. Being corded, I just haven’t used it very much the last few years. Unless things change I’ll never buy another Black and Decker tool.

jmonroe

Black and Decker was bought up by Stanley years ago. I believe that's when it became the Harbor Freight Chicago name level of lack of quality. Dewalt is owned by Stanley as well.

I have a battery-powered Dewalt.

snakeweasel

kyfdx said:

I have a friend with a drill.

Is it your dentist?

kyfdx

snakeweasel said:

kyfdx said:

I have a friend with a drill.

Is it your dentist?

No, but when I call him to borrow it, he usually comes along, and then I have someone to help me.

corvette

@benjaminh - never heard of it, but I added it to my Netflix queue.

ETA: Annoyingly, it defaulted me to Season 2, as well. Weird.

ronsteve

sda said:

I have not seen this feature for Sirius XM on our other cars. On some selections it provides a LIVE setting which changes the sound stage. This is in the Arteon.

Our Tiguan doesn't have it, but I notice that once you're in the car for a couple of minutes and you change the channel on XM, it'll pick up the new channel from the beginning of the song. I did see your pictured feature on the XM in an Infiniti Q50 that we had as a rental at the end of 2021.

Sandman6472

Bought my MacBook Air back in June of 2019 and like it better then the MacBook Pro I had before it. Still working pretty well so decided to wait another year or two for a new one. Probably will wait till 2026 to replace the current one. Did have the iPhone 12 until last month when my oldest gifted me her iPhone 15 Pro Max and got the new iPhone 16 Pro Max. She had gifted her sister her iPhone 14 Pro Max last year when she got the 15 which I currently use. Never have had a screen break with any of my phones but I always have them in a case and a screen protector from day 1. My battery life is really good so glad about that. Like my iPad I got last year and like it's portability plus how light it is. Lastly, hardly ever wear my SE watch as I just don't like it. And lately, it will no longer turn on. Not sure what I'm doing wrong but no matter what I do, it will no longer boot up! Glad I did't pay too much for it.

tjc78

Hey everyone! Checking in tonight as the next few days will be crazy.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and Hanukkah! I’m taking my family and sister in law’s family to dinner for Xmas Eve in Philly tomorrow night and then a quiet dinner on Christmas with just my family.

Despite some craziness with my career we are going to still have the best time we can over the next few days and are thankful for all we have.

If anyone is traveling be safe!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Festivus for the rest of us and anything else I missed.

Tom

roadburner

I posted the following on another forum; I thought that a few of you might find it interesting:

I’ve now had the C43 for two years, and I still love it. Mechanically it has been flawless. I only put around 10,000 miles per year on it so it only sees the dealer every 12 months. This year the only maintenance called for was an oil change and a brake fluid change. However, the front tires were on the wear bars. The OEM ContiSportContact 5 SSR tires aren’t particularly long lived and the AMG suspension runs a lot of negative camber so front tire life is around 20,000 miles at best.
Just recently the car received a free OTA map update for my local region. No problems with that. I decided to go ahead and manually update the surrounding regions (also free). The download to a USB took about 90 minutes. I plugged it into the car and the entire update downloaded in about 40 minutes.
However -and of critical importance- the C43 is still a very entertaining drive; today I took an on ramp that featured an off-camber right followed by a left hand sweeper and the car just tracked through it at a multiple of the advisory speed- with no drama whatsoever. My wife never even looked up from her Kindle.
Yeah, I’m good for at least another year.

roadburner

@tjc78 said:
Hey everyone! Checking in tonight as the next few days will be crazy.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and Hanukkah! I’m taking my family and sister in law’s family to dinner for Xmas Eve in Philly tomorrow night and then a quiet dinner on Christmas with just my family.

Despite some craziness with my career we are going to still have the best time we can over the next few days and are thankful for all we have.

If anyone is traveling be safe!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Festivus for the rest of us and anything else I missed.

Tom

You can’t leave before the airing of the grievances!

nyccarguy

This popped up on marketplace. Looks to be in great shape. For sale by an actual owner, not a flipper. Lived its life in (I think) a nice neighborhood. Miles are on the high side for the asking price. The asking price seems high too.

kyfdx

It's a HONDA!!

Seriously, it will probably be sold if you call.

benjaminh

That has the 2.4 engine, which with good maintenance can often run for well over 200,000 miles.

qbrozen

@roadburner 2 years already?! That strikes me as crazy. You bought that before my son was driving and the Opel was on the road? Huh.

stickguy

Looks nice Bradd. Sadly that is probably what they sell for now. Definitely sounds like the story you want to hear (like buying from me, just with an extra 100k on it!).

And if you go to hillsborough I know a really good pizza place. We stopped there all the time when traveling from philly to Albany since we took 206 right through town there.

abacomike

I took my Genesis into service to have them replace the "GENESIS" lettering on the trunk of the car because the middle "E" fell off somewhere. They gave me a loaner and when I went to pick up the car, I noticed that the "S" at the end of the word "GENESIS" was missing. I looked at the service adviser with a not so friendly face and asked him how it was possible for the service department to replace all the letters on the trunk and then try to deliver me my car with a different letter missing. He said he had no idea how that happened. So they found another "S" and stuck it on the trunk.

How long the letters will remain on the trunk is anybody's guess, but I would put the odds at 80% chance of one or more letters falling off the trunk within the next week or so. The adhesive they are using on the letters "double-sided tape I would imagine" is obviously not very effective in adhering to a car's painted surface. According to the service tech, it hasn't happened to other G90's, but I would think that was a lie because letters keep falling off my car. Well, it's a lease, and so long as they keep covering the replacement of those letters on the warranty, it's no sweat off my back.

I just prefer driving a car that says "GENESIS" on the trunk rather than "GENSIS" or "GENESI"!

tjc78

Most manufacturers use a 3M trim tape on their emblems and they are on there pretty good. I’m stunned one fell off - maybe a bad batch of tape or poor application.

nyccarguy

File this one under, play stupid games & win stupid prizes:

A relative of a friend of mine is in some deep doo-doo. They leased their 16 year old a Korean Electric vehicle. The 16 year old was distracted, not paying attention, & rear ended an SUV. There is damage to the SUV, but the low slung Korean electric EV has a lot of damage. No air bag deployment, but both headlights, the hood, front 1/4 panels, bumper cover, bumper support... need to be replaced. Here's where the deep doo-doo part comes in. They didn't tell the insurance company that they had a 16 year old licensed driver in the house because they knew their rates were going to skyrocket. Now the insurance company is denying the collision claim to fix the Korean Car because the driver was not on the policy. I believe they are fixing the guy's SUV under liability. Any advice?

imidazol97

Is Genesi the plural of Genesis in the old Latin that I learned in high school? (Yeah, long ago.)

stickguy

Debadge it. Problem solved. Or buy a Bentley badge and stick that on.

qbrozen

@nyccarguy said:
File this one under, play stupid games & win stupid prizes:

A relative of a friend of mine is in some deep doo-doo. They leased their 16 year old a Korean Electric vehicle. The 16 year old was distracted, not paying attention, & rear ended an SUV. There is damage to the SUV, but the low slung Korean electric EV has a lot of damage. No air bag deployment, but both headlights, the hood, front 1/4 panels, bumper cover, bumper support... need to be replaced. Here's where the deep doo-doo part comes in. They didn't tell the insurance company that they had a 16 year old licensed driver in the house because they knew their rates were going to skyrocket. Now the insurance company is denying the collision claim to fix the Korean Car because the driver was not on the policy. I believe they are fixing the guy's SUV under liability. Any advice?

Oof. I’m not sure, to be honest. On one hand, you can lend your car to someone and it is still covered (check policy under permissive use). So saying he isn’t on the policy is not a legit argument, I don’t think. On the other hand, they didn’t tell their insurance about a licensed driver in the household. The insurance probably has a leg to stand on to drop them completely.

Michaell

qbrozen said:

@nyccarguy said:

File this one under, play stupid games & win stupid prizes:

A relative of a friend of mine is in some deep doo-doo. They leased their 16 year old a Korean Electric vehicle. The 16 year old was distracted, not paying attention, & rear ended an SUV. There is damage to the SUV, but the low slung Korean electric EV has a lot of damage. No air bag deployment, but both headlights, the hood, front 1/4 panels, bumper cover, bumper support... need to be replaced. Here's where the deep doo-doo part comes in. They didn't tell the insurance company that they had a 16 year old licensed driver in the house because they knew their rates were going to skyrocket. Now the insurance company is denying the collision claim to fix the Korean Car because the driver was not on the policy. I believe they are fixing the guy's SUV under liability. Any advice?

Oof. I’m not sure, to be honest. On one hand, you can lend your car to someone and it is still covered (check policy under permissive use). So saying he isn’t on the policy is not a legit argument, I don’t think. On the other hand, they didn’t tell their insurance about a licensed driver in the household. The insurance probably has a leg to stand on to drop them completely.

I'm sure they can retain legal counsel to fight the insurance company, to cover at least part of the repair costs. But, will that be less or more expensive than paying for 100% of the repairs?

And, at the end, the insurance company would likely drop them from the policy, per @qbrozen. Will another company then cover them?

Michaell

Painting update!

Primary bedroom is getting painted today. Some of you have asked for before pictures to see the original wall color.

I’ve included them here. Not sure how well the color comes through.

suydam

The main thing about repainting is everything just looks cleaner and brighter. I don’t do it myself anymore though.

[Deleted User]

Our youngest had a pretty cool experience over the past few weeks. He bought a roof rack from a local company a couple of months ago and they reached out to him to see if they could use his Sequoia to spec out new window racks. After a few visits, one to laser measure and another to test fit, they made a few tweaks and set him up with a free pair for his time and travel. They also took pictures for their website to display the new racks. The installer joked about him having the only 1st gen Sequoia in the world with a set of Sherpa window racks

roadburner

@nyccarguy said:
File this one under, play stupid games & win stupid prizes:

A relative of a friend of mine is in some deep doo-doo. They leased their 16 year old a Korean Electric vehicle. The 16 year old was distracted, not paying attention, & rear ended an SUV. There is damage to the SUV, but the low slung Korean electric EV has a lot of damage. No air bag deployment, but both headlights, the hood, front 1/4 panels, bumper cover, bumper support... need to be replaced. Here's where the deep doo-doo part comes in. They didn't tell the insurance company that they had a 16 year old licensed driver in the house because they knew their rates were going to skyrocket. Now the insurance company is denying the collision claim to fix the Korean Car because the driver was not on the policy. I believe they are fixing the guy's SUV under liability. Any advice?

In the early ‘80s I clerked for one of the biggest insurance defense firms in Kentucky. Later on I owned part of an independent insurance agency. All this by way of telling you that I’m virtually certain that your friend’s relative is screwed. The case law is clear that an insured’s failure to report a change in circumstances that increases the risk of loss gives the insurer the right to deny coverage. On top of that, the insurance company will almost certainly refuse to renew the policy- or even cancel it outright. At that point, good luck finding coverage at anything close to a reasonable cost.