This is all good stuff. But, you aren't required to report income from a garage sale unless you made a profit on the things that you sold. I guess that some people make a profit (and I'm willing to bet that, somehow, you do) but most don't.

I didn’t get it either, until I bought a Harley cruiser. I own a Panigale: thrilling, exhilarating, terrifying fun. For an hour. After that, being an old fart, my body hurts. The Harley is indeed 900+ pounds, 80hp on a good day, but still holds it own on the street. It handles better than you’d expect. For a 6-hour…

I test drove a P85D in Insane mode just last month. I’m used to fast cars, and own a 3-second 0-60 car and a 3.8 second 0-60 car. And a superbike, with God knows what 0-60 time. The Tesla delivers the power in a very different way, i.e. all the torque all the time. It’s much more like riding a superbike than driving a…

My girlfriend got the same mailer. I don’t drive a Prius, you understand. No, really. I don’t. Much.

Actually, the configurator is just the start. You go to the factory and meet with the “atelier”, who asks you what other customizations you want. They’ll do pretty much anything, and it all shows up as a line on your sticker called “Special Campaniaro”. The carbon winglets are specced that way. Special colors, trim,…

Pah. I would have been perfectly fine. Really. Although the seat cushion would have to be surgically removed from me after I disembarked at the end of the flight.

Nice article! Let’s talk about the conversion TO a US license. I moved to the US (SF Bay Area) from the UK in 1991. You have 10 days to convert your UK to a US license. I read the CA handbook and booked the test. The written test was not challenging. The questions were multiple choice, and a lot of the answers were of…

Especially a heartwarming story like this just begging to be made into a Hallmark channel movie.

As always, a very good article, Steve. One question comes to mind, though: when you drop your car off at the dealership to be serviced or repaired, and that procedure requires them to test drive the car before or after the work, does vicarious liability still apply?

1970. My school had a free timesharing account with a London (UK) service bureau. Two 110 baud connections to two ASR33 teletypes, plus a spare offline teletype to prepare punched tape programs. I was 12 years old and my math teacher let me write a simple BASIC program and run it. The computer was a Xerox Data Systems…

I lived in the UK until 1991. I remember this ad very well. It was airing around the time that I started riding 'bikes. You can't get much more straightforward than this PSA.

Generally good experiences, but one stood out. Around 1981, I got into a cab near the south end of Avenue of the the Americas (6th) in Manhattan. This was when New York was not at its best. I knew within 5 seconds of getting into the cab that it was going to go badly, because the driver informed me that he was having…

I was thinking about your "windfalls can be the worst" remark last night when I happened to watch American Greed — always a source of useful hints and tips :-). This tragic episode was about Abraham Shakespeare. He won $30M in a lottery, received $17M (because he chose the lump sum, not the 25 or 30-year annuity) and…

Yes, absolutely. A tax attorney is required to opine on this. A reasonable person would argue, I think, that many unsolicited gifts from many people are, indeed, gifts. But the IRS may disagree. As I said, it could be worse: at the very least, he has a car and $150k or so. I hope that it's closer to $300k and a car.…

IANAL, and IANA CPA. So this is just me idly pontificating and nobody can rely on what I've written below for anything. But, the recipient of a genuine gift is not liable for any taxes. It sure as heck sounds as if a lot of people gave him a no-strings-attached gift. If any one person donated more than $14,000, then…

Yep. You generally can't get an allocation for a new one until you've bought one or two used.

Ferrari made a LOT of 458s — in the thousands. So, like almost every Ferrari, the 458 will continue to depreciate. Some owners of Speciales are hoping that it will appreciate, and I guess that's possible.

Hmm. 8000rpm versus 9000rpm redline in the current car. So the new car probably doesn't scream, or at least not as much. It's SO hard to tell from the Ferrari video, but the sound seems more California T than 458, which isn't a total surprise.

There is a seemingly endless thread about this on the 458 forum at FerrariChat. It's a controversial subject, to put it mildly. A part of this is what happens whenever a new model is on its way: a few owners of the current model try to convince themselves, and others, that the new model is no good. Lordy, the…

People buy diamond-encrusted 'phones, and Vertu has a wide range of, um, enhanced designs for people who want a fashion accessory 'phone. So there IS a market for expensive but ephemeral technology. I've no idea if Apple intends their high-end watches to be mass market products. If so, I'm interested to see how they…