Ah yeah I was just being snarky because I'm a cheapskate with a bit of OCD who likes to DIY everything and try to promote that punker DIY ethos. I know the input costs and deferred/cancelled projects are starting to hurt tradesmen bad but I hadn't really considered the economic loss if everyone started doing the DIY thing tbh. Most people even the white collar upper middle class are too burned out with work, comuting, kids etc to have the time and energy for it anyway or simply lack the confidence to try.

That said, last summer my AC went out and the AC guy tried to tell me I needed a whole new system for $10k, after paying a $120 call out fee. I did some youtube research and tested the condenser capacitor which was bad (they have a 5 year service life apparantly). So I replaced that sucker at a cost of $17 and the system started right up. I also replaced the contactor, disconnect box, cleaned all the connections and deep cleaned the coils as PM.

I love mountain biking and this is reminding me I need to tune up the bike and start riding again. But I would never ride on the street in this country other than to get from truck to a trailhead. The street is more dangerous than black diamond singletrack IMO. We have sidewalks for most areas around here but nobody walks out of utility only to walk dogs or exercise. They love riding those cheesy golf carts and even can-ams around the hood if they have to go somewhere closeby for utility. It's weird. They also refuse to walk on the actual sidewalk... they prefer to walk 5 feet away in the street, with the flow of traffic while wearing headphones and dark clothes at 5am or 10pm. We need some kind of pedestrian awareness and education campaign in this country. There's no financial incentive for such things (yet). There are at least some efforts being made in terms of infrastructure and planning. Like connecting trails together so you can actually break the matrix and exit the subdivision. The newer neighboring subdivision has half ass bike lane markings which everyone ignores and walkable (golf-cartable lol) stores being built within the neighborhood.

yoooo wtf. this is why people hate calling "service companies" thats crazy. I've had good luck with using our installer to do service calls.

Seems like Price at the pump certainly does not affect people that are trying to buy a new 4Runner. Searched high and low got on multiple wait lists and all of the 4Runners that come on Allocation are already Pre Sold (at least at all of the dealerships that will sell them at MSRP without Markups)

I've been getting 17.6 for the past 4 months with my winter tires (255/75 DuraTrac's on OEM steelies) and just switched to my summer set (255/75 KO's on aftermarket alloys). I drove across the state and back yesterday and my average went up to 19.1. I was surprised to see how many big trucks and SUV's were driving 75-80. You can just bet that those are the people who complain most about gas prices, yet their habits don't change.

Well the cost to fill your tank is only a part of it. It's also the cost of everything that it affects which is taking a while to truly manifest combined with these sanctions. For example if you plan on building a house you'll find out how much plywood comes from Russia. How much it now costs truck drivers to bring it to the builder supply. How much ammonia, potash, urea farmers need comes from Russia. How much gas farmers use to grow food. How much gas truck drivers use to get a jug of milk to the supermarket. How many people's jobs are subsidized by frivolous consumer debt. All those will start eating in to vehicle purchase budgets.

Not many people buy new cars for cash or even bother to calculate the overall cost (purchase price, total interest, tax, registration, insurance, maintenance). They just look at the monthly payment. The fed started raising rates and I think they said they will increase at the next 6 meetings. To beat inflation they will have to raise to the equivalent of 7 or 8% real world inflation. That gets you a lot less vehicle for the same monthly payment. Lenders should start to tighten requirements too.

I dunno... my feeling is we've been due for a deflationary collapse for ages. The stuff you don't really need is going to be cheaper (if you have liquid cash, true leverage like owning productive assets, or your income paces inflation somehow). The stuff you need to survive will be more expensive.

TLDR; good for savers bad for borrowers.

Bad time to consider a new or used 4Runner right now