This of course was even ridiculous and many times didn't bother. You should have seen all the names and companies listed. From personal buying experience, we bought a used van at a dealer a few years ago. Paid cash/check and they pulled the credit application, patriot act trick. I said "no", they said I had to. I said "no" again. I explained to them that what they were doing was bogus and not required and they only wanted it to see if they could finance the car for me.

He went to see his manager. Now keep in mind, one person there knew me from the car business years earlier. He came back and said I had to fill it out. I said "hogwash, I'm leaving!" They said "alright, forget the application, here's the keys." The website listed below has some more info about this. And I agree, cars like guns should be bought from a private party.

Submitted Link #1: http://www.carbuyingtips.com/scams.htm...

... Excellent Web site, Chris. Thanks!

For advice on how to buy an excellent used car in the $5000 range, see my "Least-Worst" e-report.

I talked to several different offices of my dmv and several banks.

The hard part is making sure the seller gives me the car and the bank gives me the title, after I pay of his loan, but before I get it registered. The only way to protect myself is to be sure the bank will give me the title immediately after I pay the loan off, and I keep the seller with me from first contact to registration at the dmv. This all takes planning, and requires everyone be open for business along the way.

The process is not set up to protect me. It's set up to protect the bank from the seller who has the loan.

I learned the logistics of buying a vehicle this way are just as important as the vehicle. That means if working with a particular seller make the process too tricky and risky, it's best to pass on that vehicle.

After reading your response, I've decided to follow your advice and go with a seller who has clear title. Much easier, more interesting and more fun. Thanks for the help.

I think the confusion about car dealers comes from the fact that most people don't know what they really are. Car dealers sell cars, but that is just the disguise.

Dealers are a satellite DMV and a data collector that happens to sell cars too. What is the biggest industry in the US? Mortgage? Investment? Travel? Auto? No. Data. The data industry feeds all of these sectors, and others, your information. It helps them find customers, and process them through the sale faster. We still live in a borrower run economy. Dealers want to finance quickly, so nothing slows the sale.

Think the credit bureaus are there to give you a Fico score? That's just the excuse to collect all your info. Ever wonder how they make money by giving you a free copy per year and $8-$12 per report beyond that? Or $10 a month "monitoring" your information. They don't. They make their money by selling your info to others. The other services are just there to help them pretend they have a real purpose beyond selling your data.

Dealers are their own DMV for registering the vehicles they sell you. They must follow the same rules for registration their local DMV follows. DMV regs are state law.

Let's put this fact into perspective. Most of us have to give our date of birth and ss# to the DMV to get a license to drive. When is the last time anyone gave that information to a DMV just to get a registration? Car dealers issue registrations, not driver license.

I will be buying a used vehicle in the next few months. I just learned how to pay off a private owner loan to get the title, just in case the vehicle I like has a loan on it. The process is tedious. This will not be my first time buying used. It will be my first time paying off the seller's loan - if there is one.

After learning the process, I have to wonder. Who made the process this difficult?

My guess is the dealers have a lot of influence with the DMV. Make buying from a private party hard if you have to pay off their loan, and the buyer will give up on the private process and come to our dealership? I have to wonder.

I agree with Mr. Luna. The best defense against car dealers is to stay away. They are a great place to learn about the car you want, though. The trick is to not drive anything while you're there. That way you don't have to show them anything.

A few years back a salesman pressured me to take a test drive. I eventually gave in - with a twist. When he asked me for my license, I told him it he would not need it, because he was going to do the driving.

Did that really get me anything worth having? Not really, other than a little more privacy with him to ask a few more "process" questions. It was great to see the look on his face, and the conversation was better than it would have been standing in the lot. I wanted nothing from him other than information, so it was low stress - for me at least.

The lesson here is to pay cash and cash only. And yes, walk away if they won't agree to your terms.

So, a person could track your communications to the coffee shop, and yes, in theory, if they know you're logged on, they can RDF their way to your WiFi card.

However, there's a more important bit of information that ALSO gets transmitted, and that's your computer's MAC address. This has nothing to do with Macintosh computers, it means "Machine Address Code" and it consists of six alpha-numeric pairs separated by colons. Each internet device like an airport card or network card has a unique MAC address, and the MAC address is what websites use to identify your specific computer for creating cookies and otherwise tracking your computer when it's online. It's hardware code within the device that identifies that specific device, as distinct from every other device on the planet. It's like a machine fingerprint.

Therefore, it is possible for someone to identify your personal computer by its MAC address, even from behind a firewall, with the right programs.

There are MAC address spoofing programs out there that claim to obfuscate your actual MAC address while online, but I've never used one.

So, someone technically proficient with the right equipment can track your usage of the coffee shop internet connection, and it's highly likely that the coffee shop itself keeps a log of users MAC addresses for its own protection. And yes, they can theoretically RDF their way to your computer, particularly if you remain online constantly or you frequently use the same IP address connection. They will know you use the coffee shop's modem, and they will know that you have to be within a couple of hundred feet of that antenna simply because of the physics of WiFi.

There are ways of extending the range of a WiFi signal. You can use high-gain directional antennas of various designs, such as the Hawking Technologies flat-panel 10db gain antennas, to increase signal strength and increase range up to a couple of miles in some cases. You can also create "repeater" links using some types of wireless access points in a point-to-point mode. I use a pair of Netgear WG 102 ProSafe 802.11G Wireless Access Points in point-to-point mode to link wirelessly between my home and my sister's home, about 600 feet away, and that system could go five miles or more using high-gain antennas on each end with clear line-of-sight conditions.

Newer, higher speed wireless protocols are also available, but the G protocol provides adequate bandwidth for email and basic surfing.

Using such long-distance links, if you can, will give you some added security at the expense of speed and the potential for interception and deencryption of traffic by a "man in the middle" attack. But in reality, someone RDFing the signal will discover the link and track it to the other end just as easily.

It all depends on what level of security you're trying to achieve. If the three-letter agencies want to find you, they will.

But, if the coffee shop offers free WiFi access to all, and doesn't have any login procedures, then there's no legal impediment to using their bandwidth, although if you hog it they might choose to cut you off, which they can do by your MAC address. The log they keep will show your MAC address as being on line when they are closed, and it will be obvious that you're leeching on their service. They may not care, but if they do, they'll just program their access point to reject your MAC address and you'll be done.

So, if your need is for infrequent, quick connections to check for and send email, you're not likely to raise their ire. But if you log on every day and download videos, they'll probably cut you off eventually.

Then I visted my insurance agent at a local AAA office. He was very hesitant about issuing a new policy with the LLC address but not the address on my driver's licence. He promised to call around and ask questions, and get back to me soon (probably tomorrow).

Since I keep my Oregon driver's license, registration, and insurance card hidden in my car (NOT in the glove compartment with the owner's manual), and only intend to show the insurance card when required to do so by law, is there any reason not to have the address on my driver's license also on my insurance card?

(As I understand it, I am required by law to show the DL, insurance card, etc., when stopped by a police officer for a traffic violation OR after an accident, to the driver of the other car. The registration would show the LLC's address in Alaska, but the DL and insurance card would show my former address in Oregon.)