You watched the Domestic Automobiles decline for the next 10 years, but you closed your eyes to the fact that Detroit was 90% dependent on Auto.How could you say that it was unpredictable?!

It should have been fairly easy to know that Detroit was in trouble economically as the Domestic Automobile Industry was losing Market Share to Foreign competition.

And certainly neither your property nor your automobile insurance will cover you if you are found negligent in a serious accident (this is an external “threat” to your assets).Insurance companies don’t cover “gross negligence” or “fraud”, and when the claim is large they will find a way to deny it, if possible.

As you probably know by now, that automobile purchase was a huge mistake. 

From what I understand, the most common are related to automobile accidents (boy my neck hurts...).

We had no automobile payments at the time I bought that first income property, and essentially zero credit card debt. 

I often read here and hear from many other sources how automobiles are such a waste of money and a depreciating asset.

So you've got equity gained by retiring the debt with the tenant's payments plus the equity gained by the asset appreciation and it's like a double bonus.Debt that is not productive or is for depreciating assets, such as for old credit card debt or automobiles, is the type of debt to avoid.

In England, the bank holds the deed, much like an automobile transaction here in the US. 

This tenant is within his/her rights to use the dwelling for storing their personal effects and automobiles.