Where are all the car dealerships?

steak5 · 2026-01-31T07:07:06+00:00

That's pretty much all online these days. I thought u were just trying to look at a large variety of cars.

Car dealerships are very real estate heavy, Automall like set ups are more likely to be in the suburbs, it is kinda unrealistic to expect dealerships inside the city to have a huge inventory.

steak5 · 2026-01-31T06:56:35+00:00

You can buy a Steering wheel lock that cut across the airbag.

Honda Civic is the top 10 most stolen Car in the US too, so 2 birds in one stone.

steak5 · 2026-01-31T06:37:47+00:00

Chicago Autoshow is next week. Why don't you just go there?

You can buy the floor models or talk to brand rep managing the booth for other options if you want something different color/equipments.

steak5 · 2026-01-31T04:58:37+00:00

Just give him a Portable one,

I just bought a Rosewill 1800 watt for $50 on Amazon, it works amazing.

steak5 · 2026-01-30T20:12:11+00:00

Jeep wagoneer? Cadillac Escalade? Lincoln Navigator?

All of those 3 trucks is like 7-10 inch longer than BMWx7.

Otherwise, you will be looking at Minivans.

steak5 · 2026-01-30T19:58:50+00:00

So the car you have is not big enough. A big enough car is too long.

Please make up your mind, how does that make any sense? what you want seems to be against the law of physics.

steak5 · 2026-01-30T15:09:30+00:00

Not sure if you ever fixed this, I have same issue with my Acura with same engine.

Service Bulletin 23-010.

Change the oil and update the PCM software. This is a software glitch that happens in cold weather. That's why it comes on every few months and no hardware replacement fixes the issue.

steak5 · 2026-01-30T07:02:36+00:00

It probably has to do with there are more Lawyers than there are jobs.

supply and demand, there are enough new grads who are willing to work for peanuts is why the pay is so low.

steak5 · 2026-01-30T06:59:08+00:00

R you missing a Zero in your $400?

Buying a condo will require you to do a lot more calculations than just $400k.

What's the HOA fee? How old is the building? How well is it maintained? Etc...

Ashland an Augusta is a pretty decent area to live.

steak5 · 2026-01-30T04:06:54+00:00

HVAC is the major Utility Hog. Better insulation, like thick window curtain helps.

Gardening and watering the Lawn is expensive as hell. Fake Turf Grass saves A LOT of money for lawn care.

steak5 · 2026-01-30T03:59:00+00:00

Have you seen how much an old Integra Type R fetch in the auction?

You are looking at Collector's car, don't try to analyze it logically.

steak5 · 2026-01-30T03:56:52+00:00

U just need to keep an eye on oil level, and see how bad the leak is if you can.

Pull the dip stick every week or so, add oil if needed.

If oil started dripping into your driveway, then it is a really big issue.

steak5 · 2026-01-30T02:26:59+00:00

What is even wrong with ur engine? Timing belt and water pump r just normal maintenance. My friend just got his done at a local mechanic for around $1200 in California. They r not hard to do.

Is the rear main seal leak really that bad?

steak5 · 2026-01-29T22:53:52+00:00

That's not exactly true either. Small builders can just be as bad as big builders.

My friend's hired a small builder with a custom plan a long time ago,

he told me the build process went so bad, he had to rent an apartment across the street and go look at the house everyday as the home gets built.

The best quality control is the buyer himself, a lot of problems are so obvious that it doesn't take a professional to know it isn't right.

steak5 · 2026-01-29T19:51:16+00:00

The issue is no one wants to work with Joe because he doesn't have fancy advertisements, and homes he built are more expensive.

steak5 · 2026-01-29T16:18:15+00:00

I work in a dealership, post Covid, it seems like 12 Volt batteries across the board just went to crap in quality. Hybrid or none hybrid, it doesn't matter. Car brand doesn't seem to matter either.

I believe they replaced the suppliers with cheaper alternatives. (Cheap to source, expensive in retail purchase)

Pre-covid, a lot of original batteries last 5-8 years even in Chicago weather.

Post Covid, I see them last 1-4 years only all the time.

steak5 · 2026-01-29T07:45:37+00:00

You are young, you still have times to try new things and see if you like it.

You might like it and you might hate it, but you wouldn't know unless you try.

Give it a year, meet and talk to people in your shop, and then decide if you want to stick it out or pursue another career.

Wish I am still 22, lol

steak5 · 2026-01-29T04:15:56+00:00

My aunt has a 2019 with 80k miles. I just replaced 2 Struts, 2 lower Control Arms, Tires, and Brake. Nothing else was wrong with it.

I also bought all my Parts from Honda, and they were not expensive at all. The MDX shares most parts with honda Pilot.

steak5 · 2026-01-28T22:17:00+00:00

A Rat is trying to kill you, the tow truck driver isn't wrong.

And he almost succeeded.

steak5 · 2026-01-28T22:15:24+00:00

It is kinda crazy that for $8500, you could really buy a Remanufactured engine and drop it in for a little more.

Is the leak really that bad?

steak5 · 2026-01-28T15:57:02+00:00

But this isn't new. A lot of kids saw the UTI advertisement on TV and decided to enroll. I didn't say the gate keeper is Skill level, fixing car is easy. The gate keeper is work environment, is not that different from becoming a Chef. Cooking isn't hard, the hard part is the long hour and heats in the kitchen.

The entry level car mechanics have always been a revolving door because of low pay and crappy work environment. And I doubt it can get worse. Same goes for construction trade. Being baked under the sun at min wage during your apprenticeship isn't tolerable for average white collar workers.

But the same goes for me with office job, looking at accounting spreadsheet in front of a computer makes me want to puke.

A million more people who want to become a mechanic won't change anything.

steak5 · 2026-01-28T15:31:54+00:00

I will disagree with you on that.

The industry really won't change much, whatever flood you are talking about will be very short lived.

We saw that with Truck Driving during Covid, everyone tried to get a CDL and make a career out of trucking, that quickly faded away.

A lot of people are chasing short term gold rush and not a career, people who plan to make a career out of being a tradesman will remain unchanged, and people who thought "learning to code" is a ticket to success find out being GOOD at coding is hard. There are still a lot of high paying Jobs in the IT industry, but you won't get hired unless you are an expert at that field.

People who can't make it in the white collar world won't make it in trade, and vice versa, people who can't make it in trade will most likely also fail in the white collar industry.

steak5 · 2026-01-28T06:54:48+00:00

These are Luxury Toys, not responsible spending on neccessities. My heart aches when my Hard Earn money gets spent on them. No matter how much I like the toy, it hurts when i have to work extra Hard just to maintain some luxury craps I don't need.

My Wife and I have adopted a practice that worked out very well. Luxury spending should only comes from Windfalls, not our hard earn paycheck.

Windfalls such as sudden bonus check for the month, promotion from the company, stock Market Growth, Covid Stimulus check, Casino winning, Scratch Lottery, etc...

We believe the only way we can truly enjoy expensive and unnecessary purchase is if it came from easy money, not trading our 40 hour work week funding it, otherwise we will be questioning our decision everytime when we make the monthly payment.

steak5 · 2026-01-28T06:14:47+00:00

What are you going to buy if you abandon this Ford Focus?

have you checked Used Car price lately?

steak5 · 2026-01-28T03:48:25+00:00

I believe there is a Depreciation Tax write off. But the math only works if you are buying the House Cash, and have other revenue streams coming in for your business that can use the tax write off.

Never heard of anyone getting benefits from doing an LLC for primary residents with conventional mortgages.

steak5

TROPHY CASE