Like... where’s the karate?

Agreed for the most part.
The car lot scenes were not shot for the first movie it was shot for the second. It was the original planned ending though for the first.
As for Ali, the actress took a break from movies to continue her studies at Harvard, so other than recast the part not sure what else they could have done besides write her out of it.

When spirit of drum is true in heart, no can defense.

To be fair, it's not 'Combat Kid', it's not 'Fight Movie', it's not 'Sparring Show'.

It's Karate Kid.

Karate is not 'fighting', it's a skill, mentality, philosophy and a form of Martial Arts wisdom. As they say, Karate is 'here', never 'here or here'.

You expect it to be where it never should be. There's a difference between fighting, sparring, movement and actual Karate.

It's not about showing off Karate MOVES, it's not about confronting or fighting with other people USING Karate - it's about the Karate that exists inside the Kid.

Hence, 'Karate Kid'. Whatever actually HAPPENS has nothing to do with it - what EXISTS inside the 'kid' is what these movies are all about. Whether the Karate moves are actually performed, is irrelevant.

The title refers to the Karate that exists within the Kid, regardless if he shows Karate moves or not, regardless if he uses Karate forms or not, regardless if he fights other people using Karate or not.

Why are these movie board commenters so external and superficial, fight-oriented apes instead of understanding that these movies are all about the INTERNAL, not about the external? If anything, they're SYMBOLIC, not realistic. If anything, they show what karate IS, not what karate moves LOOK like.

But people still don't understand.. sigh.

...although the unceremonious ditching of Ali by re-writing her as a fickle ho left a bad tase.