Comments by "Comm0ut" (@Comm0ut) on "Lucky Lopez " channel.

Any decent dealer has zero problem hooking employees up. The used car dealer I wrenched for used to swap trade-ins for all the parts we could fit in a truck bed (him and the salvage yard owner were bros) and after I pulled what he needed what I pulled for myself was zero charge. I got trucks at their cost too. That was a bargain for my boss because it got him motivated loyalty.
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Buying unwisely puts them in debt. I prefer to own my tools so I can have everything the way I want it, I've wrenched since the 1970s on a wide variety of vehicles and machines. I consider what I spend on tools a bargain and even have a decent home machine shop bought the same way a small business does, a piece at a time.
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That's why I tell everyone I meet who likes wrenching to do it for a hobby (saving many tens of thousands of dollars over a lifetime like it has for me) and join the Air Force for a CAREER. Following your passion off a cliff is questionable but once you vest a government retirement you can afford to explore other jobs (and if you played it wisely won't need to). Show me a line mechanic job that lets you retire at 47 (I enlisted late in my twenties) while your peers have to wreck their bodies and deal with horrible retail customers in the auto mechanic world. There are too many people who work cheap and undercut everyone else which has always depressed compensation. I've spun wrenches on industrial machinery, cars, trucks and more but never considered a career outside military aviation. If you work until 65 then you only have a few unhealthy years left before your dirt nap. Choose wisely!
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The solution to that is parts get paid for in advance with labor due on completion. We did that in the motorcycle business for many years. If your customers can't pay you have the wrong customers. Fixing commercial fleets and specialty work is the way to go.
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Flip tip dealer style: I worked for one who never technically "financed" but charged X price then took payments. That completely gets around finanicial regs because you are simply NOT financing (lending money at interest). If you set up a small dealership but with ample storage for auction buys and organ donors that does not come under "salvage" permitting rules because you never sell parts to the public (and I do mean never because Uncle Sugar loves taxes). Then after you've stripped out your donor vehicles and have the usual 100 car minimum you call in a portable crusher to get paid for the scrap at the time of your choosing. Call the cat buyer first because they pay cash off the books and do all the removals. Never store cats where outsiders know their location. The shop did their own repos but they didn't have to do many because the owner told buyers he knew life happens so if they returned a car they could not pay off he wouldn't dun them for the rest of the debt but would sell them another ride when they got on their feet. He had GENERATIONS of customers from the same families.
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That was PURE recovery operator error. It wouldn't be the first vehicle jacklegs who think they bought a brain with their truck ruined. Teslas do NOT have conventional frames. The AAA towing guide professionals know to use cover how to tow everything and of course Tesla publish instructions (I just checked). That car should have gone on a rollback which is what most modern tow operators run. Plenty of vehicles can go on the stinger or wheel lift but not that one.
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The smart play is get the best price buying financed then pay your new toy off in cash the next day. Business is war. Be devious because your opponents are.
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It will go faster over time and given the internet to study (but get the service manual anyway, they're a bargain) if you make wrenching your new hobby you can save enough money to buy any tool or piece of equipment you want. Ordinary humans work on every piece of civilization and I guarantee you're sharper than many of them.
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No, they don't because it backfires. The first time a salesperson tries that they'll lose the sale. (I did and did for an experiment and I'm quite diplomatic.) Stupid people tend to be aggressive. I sold used cars for a bit and the experience gave me greater respect for dealers and NONE for most customers who I concluded are basically insane. Customers tend to be "aspirational" buyers who crave vehicles they imagine impress other dolts. The coldly pragmatic smart customer are quite rare because we usually buy private party not via dealers.
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IGNORANCE. Most of the US reads (THEREFORE IS LIMITED TO THINKING) at about 8th grade level. They don't want to know how to do it right. Be glad you are smarter and wiser than that. I've bought and sold many vehicles (mostly classic motorbikes) and always get a clear hard copy title which I IMMEDIATELY transfer then get the new hard copy in my name on the spot at DMV (because computer systems are not perfect and having correct hard copy title saved me once with a BSA Rocket 3).
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@connor_flanigan Buying new is normally a poor financial choice so I'd consider that a bonus.
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The most profitable "hobby" for vehicle owners is doing your own maintenance then learning to do your own repairs. The tools are normally paid off at the first job. I've wrenched since the late 1970s professionally and personally so this is not speculation. Once purchased you have the tools for life and can use them at your convenience. BTW nitrogen tire fills on anything but aircraft are basically a waste of money but are sold to owners who don't know better. However owning a nit cylinder to pressure test AC systems is cheap (I buy industrial gas cylinders cheap used then have them filled at my welding supply) so if you want to it's very easy to fill your own tires. Most tires either dry rot on the outside or wear out so nitrogen makes no meaningful difference on the street.
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@LuckyLopez777 Even if they weren't crazy, buying new vs. paying down your mortgage before retiring changes your life a lot more than a (briefly) new car. The longer ya have to work the longer you are not free.
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@RustyZipper Which is not of course a problem. At this point I could buy a new car for cash because I would never be silly enough to buy a new car.
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After selling used cars I learned consumers are utterly mindless, poorly informed and buy vehicles they do not need for more than they should spend. They chose their fate. Financial literacy is rare. Do not buy new cars. Do not buy expensive vehicles. Buy for nothing but reliability and low TCO, then do as I do and keep what you buy for decades AND use that time to carefully score your replacement before you need it.
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Humans are made for pursuit hunting not heavy lifting. Nearly everyone WILL have a bad back eventually no matter what their job but I make a game of building ways to lift and move basically anything from shipping containers (my home shop incorporates five 40' High Cubes) on down. The smart play is move upward and don't BE a 20-year mechanic. By then you should have moved up and or laterally.
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I don't want a new vehicle unless it's free and then I'd sell it immediately. Your Silverado is now a classic and parts will be affordable until the sun burns out, same as my various Chevy and Ford trucks. I could buy a new truck for cash today because I would never be silly enough to do that in the first place. Your Silverado is simple, easy to wrench and easy to upgrade so even if the engine shucked a rod tomorrow you'd be wise to replace it and drive on.
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@roman9762 I've got the money. No EV truck exists that's worth a dam as a real truck. I wrench and I'll have an EV on my terms when I feel like it, but my classic motorcycle collection is where the toy money goes.
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@jerrylundegaard2592 Cherrypicking used items like a mattress and couch is a false choice fallacy. Buying big ticket items used saves so much money that the little stuff becomes affordable. I don't buy bedbug vectors like couches or mattresses used because that's foolishly unhygenic. I do buy other vintage and antique furniture because the quality crushes modern pressboard junk and even bad new furniture is more expensive. My home is mostly furnished in Danish Modern which was far from cheap new but I didn't buy it new. The economic way to buy electronics is knowing your hardware. I buy new displays because tech moves so fast and the performance/resolution/size is worth my while, but used computers are no big deal since they're so easy to maintain and work on (I favor business class notebooks but build my own desktops so I can continuously upgrade). I buy used trucks opportunistically and keep them at least twenty years. No truck note, no mortgage note and no other loans mean I don't have to work ever again.
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@outkast40 Electrification means many complex repairs but I wouldn't drop 60K on training for them since that stuff is not difficult to learn.. Electronics and computers filter the ignorant so the techs who do learn them will make bank if they're smart.
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@victordobin5918 Lifelong mechanic here and surprisingly that's not critical. I've been wrenching since the points and carburetor era. Do keep fluids topped off though. Engines are not terribly critical about oil but they DO require there be enough of it.
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Sleeping through math in school is expensive later in life. How many of those suckas still owe on their homes and credit cards? They're the same incompetents who took adjustable rate mortgages before the 2008 recession and often lost their homes because they bought more than they could effortlessly repay. I require vehicles other mechanics who maintain fleets like because they are by far the best informed about what they work on. I buy those used, preferably with a few dings etc to lower the price (which doesn't matter because my trucks are tools not butt jewelry). If you are not rich, learn to wrench even if you don't want to. Labor costs keep rising (but the mechanic doesn't get that money, their bosses do which is why many leave the industry) but parts are mostly not bad. The money you save buys any tools you might want (not joking, they pay themselves off quickly even in home use) and no one will care about your ride more than you do.
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So buy a used truck with a manual. I do and my 2000 F150 is good for another three decades and easy to work on. What's the financial point of buying a new truck or car? That money is better used elsewhere. Why do people who should know better even care about buying new? Let the chumps eat the depreciation, sales tax, annual property taxes etc on a depreciating asset then buy one several years old and keep it for life (unless you live in the Rust Belt in which case driving south to buy pays off as time is cheap).
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Drive good cars like those Hondas long enough and they become classics. BTW buying a nice spare/future ride now before prices go crazy is a fine idea if you have room to store it.
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Easily solved by letting the chumps buy new and becoming an INFORMED customer for used rides. If you are not wealthy you don't need a new car or truck, you need to save and invest instead to one day be free from working for a living. Dealers only fleece volunteers.
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Deletes can get him busted by the EPA and it's happening as other videos demonstrate. Everything that does not affect emissions is safe though.
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Denying people loans is doing them a favor. Buying expensive toys is the road to poverty unless you have already paid off your home and land in full. There is no reason to buy a Mercedes or any other overpriced bauble because modern German vehicles are money pits better leased so you're not stuck with them, and of course best not bought at all.
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Until an EV that is FUNCTIONALLY SUPERIOR in all ways to gassers is offered there is little reason to own one. Buying a new car is for people with money to waste or who don't know any better and confuse credit with wealth. I'm glad the tree huggers have their toys but I buy what serves my needs.
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@abel4776 Toolboxes are high markup items unlike many tools. Judged by money (the whole point of working!) the best deal is buy cheap new (Harbor Freight have some good boxes) or buy used when the tool truck repos a box Bubba should not have wanted. I've outfitted USAF tool rooms and dealt with every brand on the high end that matters. I even got the Lista and Snap-on reps to cooperated getting laser cut foam for the Listas because grownups like to make salea. My personal boxes are used Lista, Mac and Kennedy (I have small home machine shop) but also select Harbor Freight which work just fine. For an individual mechanic the best place to save money is on the tool box while focusing on key hand tools. I never buy power tools or welders off anyone's truck. That's just silly because they're overpriced in a highly competitive market.
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Community college is awesome. I took welding and machining classes for fun when I retired then volunteered and later worked for the school. The four day week at most is insanely nice so many gearhead retirees do it for toy money and the pleasure of teaching adults who mostly want to be there.
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@vanceforrest4085 If you would own the tools anyway for yourself (DIY over a lifetime buys nice gear as needed so no up front high costs) that part isn't bad at all.
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Good! Not my problem (vehicles are transportation not an investment, index funds are investments). If the right ones get cheap enough I'll score one to use for V2H power storage and throw some solar panels on a freestanding trailer so I don't have to pull a permit. Humans are a tool using species so get good.
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The dealer I worked for retired very rich because he was brilliant. He did not "finance". He did sell on time payments! There is a major difference because there was no change in price for early payoff and because if you do not lend money you do not have to deal with all the paperwork required and the much more expensive accounting. Another wise move was telling customers that if they could not make payments but were nice enough to return the vehicle so it would not have to be repo'ed, he did not legally consider it a repo and would sell them a different vehicle in the future with no fuss. He sold to multiple generations of the same family.
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I've done basically that since my first vehicle (Honda MT 250) in 1978 and the end game is glorious. I paid off my property early and retired early because I chose discipline and learned to spin my own wrenches. After working in the used car biz I would never buy new and if I were given one it would get sold instantly like the Harley I won in a raffle.
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Working auto mechanics for retail customers always licked pouch because mechanics undercut each other so businesses must too. If you're young and can qualify I suggest joining the Air or Space Force for a lot more fun and a kller benefit package. (Mighty few car wrenches fully retire before age 50 while military can retire after a quick 20 years or hang out a few more for the pay bumps.) Fun fact is jet fighters, bombers and airlifters are usually much nicer to work on than cars but not enough people mention that. Other good gigs for mechanics are industrial maintenance (something new every day and the factory depends on you to keep running) millwright and controls technician. No one should STAY a mechanic. Move up or eject to a better deal. My bros variously run used car lots, a general + race engine machine shop or fix heavy equipment. Trucks will always require technicians even if drivers get somewhat automated out of jobs. Being a mechanic is fun BUT you need to hustle upward not stagnate.
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Rich people non-problems are hilarious. Cars are cost centers not investments. New cars are a TOY purchase. Read that as many times as it takes to sink in. Never spend more on a TOY than you can literally afford to set on fire. (Not that you would want to, but "afford" and "want" mean different things.)
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Construction is much worse on the body. Mechatronics and aviation are the easiest and the higher the technology you work on the more competitors are filtered by it.
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@laser31415 I solve that by not caring what "they" want. If you hold what the typical person does and believes in contempt that is a path to wisdom.
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@904eb If someone GAVE me one I'd sell it fast enough to make a sonic boom. Are your land, home and retirement accounts already maxed out so you can quit working any day while maintaining your lifestyle? IF so, bravo but modern German autos are miserable to work on with horrific parts and labor rates so even if you never touch a screwdriver you pay for that too. I miss classic German engineering but that went away many years ago.
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Why would anyone with that much money CARE about resale? If you legit have Cybertruck money (which means you bought it outright with pocket change) you can afford to have your servants saw the roof off and make it into a planter. TOYS ARE FINE. This is America after all. Buying one doesn't have to make sense, but if you have to worry about resale you're not as prosperous as you imagine.
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Buying a new vehicle before your land and home are paid off in full and your retirement is FULLY funded is financially silly, but someone else will always do it and keep used rides flowing.
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Buying new is almost always financially silly so I don't and paid off my house (after choosing an affordable area far away from large cities so I could and did affordably retire young) instead. Americans buy silly items they do not need to impress other people who don't care in the first place. Because I would never buy a new car I can now easily afford one for cash but have zero reason to care. Outside the Rust Belt it's easy to get twenty more years out of a used truck so I do. My latest trucks are 2000s the most recent bought in 2004. They're good for another two decades. I bought my '76 F100 used in 1988 and it's good for another few decades. (Trucks are a breeze to keep long term which saves so much money fuel costs don't matter much.) All the other viewers mourning the end of simple vehicles need to remember they did not SELL for the reason most buyers are not mechanics and don't care about ease of maintenance. If you want one, buy used then sort it out and keep it for life. You'll save heaps of money and what one man can do another can do.
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GOOD. Industry problems are not a CONSUMER problem. Sit back and laugh then pounce when prices drop and buy private party unless you actually work in the used car industry. (Buying new is silly for anyone not very, very rich and even they often buy used.)
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Great advice but the people who most need it won't listen! Dummies gonna dummy and someone dumb enough to be greedy and foolish is not curable. I sold used cars for a while and as anyone in that business knows, buyers of used luxury vehicles are "aspirational" buyers who spend money on vehicles they don't need but think give them clout. They're not reachable so best to just laugh at them. I find going in debt for a TOY silly and pathetic but that describes far more car buyers than outsiders imagine.
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