[747fulloftapes]

No, because while the leasing company may own the vehicle (known as the title holder) the vehicle will be registered in the lesser's name (known as the registered owner.)

In the case of a car purchased with financing like a loan, I believe the purchaser will be both the title and registered owner, but the lender will have a lien on the vehicle until the debt is paid off.

[antonvs]

Ah thanks.

Permanent rental it is then. :)

[kotaKat]

Pay a thousand bucks to a Montana agent to register you an pseudoanonymous LLC and put an old 90s Corolla into an LLC with a permanent registration plate (since anything 15+ years old can have a 'perm' plate on it.

Then never think about it again.

[747fulloftapes]

That, or, establish a trust to own the vehicle and grant yourself permission to use it. It's not exactly trivial to do and costs some money, but it's doable.

You can do similar with an LLC, but that gets more complicated with the rules regarding using a "company" vehicle for personal purposes. IANAL

Similar things are done for things like cellphone plans, firearm ownership, homes, etc.

The only thing I am aware of that you can only do in your own name is register to vote. Almost all of the Michigan voter database can be FOIA'd. It's called the QVF - qualified voter file. Only a few fields in the database (ie, day and month of birth) as well as all voter records for victoms domestic battery are protected by statute.