I have a friend, who, with the help of his lawyer managed to keep a leased car (a Range Rover no less) for more than three years after the lease expired. He insured it using someone else as primary and listing himself as secondary and showed no lien holder on the insurance docs.

The state he lived in allowed him to pay for his plates 2 years at a time. Which he did. And then promptly reported his "ORIGINAL 2 YEAR PLATE" stolen or missing. And he got a new one. Then he took the new one and put it in the trunk and ran with the "old/missing/stolen" plate on the car. A repo company coming across the car could not match the plate. He had the VIN changed by an artist friend who did a small bit of painting on a piece of cardboard to make it look like the VIN viewed thru the windshield.

Anyway, he drove the car for three full years AFTER his lease expired. (Oh, and he didn't pay the last six months worth of the lease, either.)

Because the company gave him the car and never sent him a formal request ASKING/DEMANDING the car back, he was in the clear from a criminal standpoint. (The leasing company was too busy trying their usual repo services to be bothered asking him to surrender the car. Their mistake, not his.)

Two years later he filed a bankruptcy and the entire deficiency amount was listed and discharged.

There are LOTS of ways to obscure cars and given the deals, interest rates, and fuck-you financing deals, they sort of get what they have coming now and then. Just keep it insured and don't admit there is a lien holder to your insurance company lest they send a notice of insured interest to the very company you're trying to "avoid".