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Fram TG on my Mazda - it has over 200k miles now on it and it has seen almost Fram TG exclusively. If cars run on the Fram Orange cans for 300k miles I’m not too worried. The GM gets AC Delco.

I wrote my post before finishing my coffee this morning and I forgot to adjust the average house cost. It should be: Adjusted for inflation: Starting salary in ‘69: $81,145 5 yr college in ‘69: $42,278 Average cost of house in ‘72: $206,228 Apologies for the confusion! Still a 2.5x starting...

Adjusted for inflation: Starting salary in ‘69: $81,145 5 yr college in ‘69: $42,278 Average cost of house in ‘72: $27,600 Not sure what you paid for the house (I just googled average house cost in 1972), but having an annual salary greater than the cost of a house is mind boggling to me.

Feels like these past few years were like the “roaring 20’s”. We all know what happened after that…. Commercial real estate collapse? Nearly 25% of homes bought by YOLO investors buying multiple homes and leveraged to the gills? $800/month car payments? Credit card debt at all time highs...

Americas population is aging and retiring. Current generations are smaller. Workers are supporting an ever larger population of retirees with money to spend. I think people were talking about this happening 30+ years ago. Even in engineering we struggle to hire people. Companies are...

Elevators

How much storage space is on your existing PC and how much storage does it have? You definitely want an SSD, but 512GB is fairly small these days and you seem to keep your PCs for a while. May want to look into 1TB SSD to “future proof” it.

I’ve heard/seen too many horror stories. Watched my Dad had to go through evicting an alcoholic who trashed the entire home requiring a complete renovation. If I did RE investing I’d only do it purchasing in cash. I think many TikTok landlords are in over their heads. The renters don’t...

It seems like every Hyundai either has its engine grenade at 90k miles with meticulous maintenance, or goes 300k miles on 20k mile bulk oil changes.

We had a V6 Tacoma company truck. It was a pig. Drank gas like a V8 with the power of an I4. I towed with it in the mountains in a long trip and I think I got mpg in the very low teens.

I recently cross shopped a new Odyssey and Sienna. Toyota wanted $5,000 over sticker. I told the sales guy “no thanks” and walked out. They called me a couple months later asking if I was still in the market for a Sienna. I politely told them I’m not considering their dealership anymore due...

As can be seen on the cover letter it was reviewed by another engineer as is standard practice. I’m an engineer and not so good at spelling either. It’s common for engineers to be bad spellers. It’s like doctors and bad handwriting. Saying a typo means the analysis and conclusions are wrong...

If the home inspector said “code violation, lack of AFCI protection on breakers” would the perspective buyer be demanding you pay $1,500 to have an electrician update the breakers to AFCIs? The combination neutral and ground bars are a violation now too. But this home wasn’t built in 2020...

The comments in this thread are all over the map (many incorrect). Your house was built to an older code and everything I see in the panel is typical from a house this age. Your home inspector isn’t an electrician or code official. I’ve expressed my opinions on most home inspectors in other...

What I meant was if it’s coming direct from the manufacturer/supplier versus middle men. I.e bottled oil on a store shelf versus oil delivered in trucks and pumped into bulk tanks at quick lubes. The more hands the oil passes through the more likelihood in my mind of foul play. I think what...

Buying name brand oil in 5qt jugs seems like an even better idea after reading this. The profit motive for blenders or distributors to cheat on bulk oil is quite an eye opener. I guess this really shouldn’t be so surprising, but for some reason it is.

Thanks these are great replies. I did replace the positive and negative connections with the generic part store connectors a year ago because the old ones corroded away. The shop retested and said the bad alternator wouldn’t cause the issues I had. They said loose connection problem, but the...

My 2011 Mazda 6 has lately been a bit sluggish to start. Yesterday it nearly left me stranded in a parking lot. The keyfob didn't work and the car did nothing when I put the key into the ignition. The car was completely dead and none of the electronics worked. It was almost like the car had...

My Dad has a 2011 Rogue with around 180K on original CVT still going. I think he changed the fluid once around 100K.

It’s not just that vehicle prices are too high. We have had record inflation and supply chain shortages, however, even so, adjusted for inflation they are relatively comparable to 20/30 years ago. The problem is most incomes have been stagnated for a long time now and it’s really starting to...