It may also be 1031 exchanged, indefinitely deferring the payment of taxes.  

It was costly when I bought it (bought it at Costco.com for their indefinite return policy on certain items).

Getting a new car makes sense, but $15-20,000 seems high, especially if you want to become an investor.

There is a general rule of thumb in the investment world that a fairly safe annual withdrawal amount is 4% for indefinite retirement.

You don't have renters that are living in the car making the payments on the loan, you are. 

Zero down and make payments indefinitely doesn't appeal to me.

I then take my returned capital from year 1 and invest it again.After this, there's always my one or two properties from 5 years earlier going up for sale, and so my annual return will stay at $115k (22%) indefinitely, until I finally stop the ladder.When that happens, I will temporarily have an extra $100k each year for 5 years.On the surface, this seems like it beats pretty much all other truly passive investments for annual income generation.  

You don't have to have an indefinite outlook to work in engineering. 

Actually we could travel indefinitely now.

Do you think this is a good strategy for me to implement as well, since I am currently paying 3k/month in rent and essentially receiving no added benefit/equity/appreciation for this, or are you suggesting I continue renting indefinitely while I am in the Bay Area and begin my real estate portfolio through OOS investing in a market like Columbus?