Q: My neighbor, who is an elderly widow, bought a new car for her 50-year old daughter who was trying to reorganize her life.

Now the daughter has split and left my neighbor with a new car with 1,000 miles on it. My neighbor was initially too embarrassed to ask for help but now is desperate to get rid of the car. Do you have any suggestions for her?

A: Your neighbor should take the car to Car Max. They’ll give her just about as good a price for the car as she’s likely to get — except if she tried to sell it by owner.

I sure hope her name is on the title, and not in her daughter’s name, otherwise selling will be extremely difficult.

That takes care of the car issue. But I know you realize that your widow neighbor has bigger problems than this car. She is trying to make things right with her daughter–but buying her things like a car or even a house, or giving her cold hard cash isn’t going to do that.

She didn’t ask me what to do, but if she did, I’d tell her to sell the car, pocket the cash, and revise her will to exclude this daughter and give her share of the estate to a worthy charity.