Eh, I’m clearing about $10k per week still. But it’s not easy any more, that’s for sure.

A lot of dealers seem to get them as trade-ins.

Why shouldn’t he? Selfishly, because I enjoy making $10k a week doing virtually nothing.

All of my 10+ buyback cars have come from dealerships. Their lack of knowledge on a topic that they got multiple letters and emails about is not my fault.

This was a purposeful choice by VW. They have to get 85% of the cars off the road by the end of 2018 or face massive penalties ($100 million per 1%). If they only paid out to people who owned the car before the settlement date and still own the car, many cars would remain on the road and they would miss the target.

If it’s online, that car is long gone. At this point, the average shelf life of a just listed used TDI is less than 15 minutes. If you’re not the first caller, it’s already gone.

The laws are a grey area for this sort of thing in my state.

That’s not accurate. Any amount over your basis in a car constitutes capital gains. If you buy a car, it appreciates, and you sell it, you owe capital gains taxes on the amount it appreciated by.

Yes, but on a much smaller scale than the 10,000 people who have already read this article. I’ve managed to average about 2 cars a week since December, but it’s getting even more difficult because of the new money coming in.

People don’t know. Most consumers (and many dealers) have no clue about the settlement. They sell the car for KBB (which is usually thousands less than buyback value) and move on.

Really wish you would not post this article, since it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find them and this will just make it worse, but I guess it’s out there now.

There’s actually a government provided worksheet that assigns points for certain skills or qualifications (age, savings, occupation, etc). If you have above a certain number of points, you are allowed to immigrate. If you have a really high number of points (usually by working in an in-demand field), you get priority…

Depends on when you book and how good of a deal you get. I paid $899 + bid $300 each way to get Premium Economy upgrade on Air NZ (would highly recommend this if you are flying with Air NZ - the 2-2-2 premium economy is so incredibly superior to the 3-4-3 economy configured 777s they fly). So $1500 and the LAX-AKL and…

It wasn’t that expensive when we visited in late 2014 (exchange rate was pretty favorable). I’d imagine living there is another story entirely, especially real estate prices. I wouldn’t want to live in a large city (especially Auckland), but also wouldn’t want to be too far away either for employment purposes.

Yes, but if you’re young and have a skill that is in demand, the residency application is actually expedited. For people like me (engineer), it’s very quick and painless. It’s an incredible country, but just a little too far from home to seriously consider it.

Unfortunately, I don’t ever fly Delta on a full fledged Y fare. I would say I easily average 50+ segments a year.

That’s right - I haven’t flown Delta without status in a while, so was confusing the perks that Comfort+ gets. They get Sky Priority boarding, but not Sky Priority security lines or bag tags.

Ah, you’re right, I was thinking about the Sky Priority bag tag perk for GM+ members, which Comfort+ doesn’t get.

I’m not aware of any paid option for boarding earlier on Delta, unless you pay for an actual upgrade. I know other airlines have it, just have never looked when booking on Delta.com.

Yes, but the Skymiles Platinum Amex credit card doesn’t allow you to board with Sky Priority on Delta. Delta also doesn’t offer “pay for priority boarding”.