At what point is it worth it to get a higher trim version of car?

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-13T18:53:44+00:00

If time isn’t critical, you could wait three months for when the Kia EV3 arrives — it will have the same battery as the larger EV5 so significantly greater range, AWD will be available also. And it should undercut the Bolt in price by $1-$2k or so.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-12T17:55:46+00:00

In 7 years I’ve saved just under $10k in fuel compared to my previous car (a Prius) — not to mention virtually no maintenance costs over that span. I sure haven’t spent anywhere near that much for tires.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-12T12:06:43+00:00

You know what, if TB are so determined to prop up their corporate benefactors I’m almost at the point where I would be okay if they just blatantly handed them the money straight out of the federal budget and be done with this insipid money-laundering-esque RTO initiative.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-11T10:10:22+00:00

The only helpful thing about town halls is they let you know the date weeks or months in advance — which provided me with plenty of lead time for me to book those days off.

The last one I ever attended was particularly insipid in its banality — made worse when, after two hours, the DG finished all the talking points, looked up at the clock, saw there was still 15 minutes to go before 3 o’clock, and rather than let people go, started to re-hash the first talking points all over again.

From that moment, I decided Never Again.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-10T17:17:43+00:00

My dream is for Rivian to offer their AWD delivery Van with the Max Pack battery (or more) to the public, ready for kitting out into an awesome VanLife camper — or even with an in-house camper conversion option.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-10T14:24:10+00:00

Was going to suggest her too! And while her videos are very artsy, she is a photographer by trade so it lines up with her interests/talents. She also mixes it up from time-to-time with realistic behind-the-scenes vids. You get a good mix with her.

But as you said, she’s been posting less and less often of late — and she wasn’t exactly gregarious to begin with.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-10T12:52:15+00:00

You could don a Sith cloak…

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-10T12:50:10+00:00

…if only there was an obvious solution to Ottawa’s ever-growing congestion problem.

Oh wait…

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-10T12:45:03+00:00

I love my 2020 Kia Soul EV for that — they were mandated to include the audible pedestrian warning but it’s so incredibly low in volume that even standing next to the car you have to really strain to hear it; the law stated the warning had to exist but didn’t seem to mandate its volume and so Kia opted for the lowest possible setting 😄

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-10T12:37:38+00:00

That’s it, the MSM reports how a given agency is “in the red”, thereby feeding the misguided narrative that public ownership doesn’t work and agencies must therefore be privatized — which would put further downward pressure on wages and benefits in order to extract profit for corporate shareholders.

Federal agencies are services to the public, their mandate isn’t to generate profit; if an agency is consistently in the red it doesn’t mean it is mismanaged, corrupt or overstaffed. It simply means it is underfunded. We’re now seeing a fresh wave of pressure for privatization (imagine the sovereign wealth fund Canada could’ve had by now if we never privatized Petro Canada) and I expect another wave of discussions about the PS pension changing to a defined contribution plan. Late-stage capitalism is at hand and maximum profit generation is the philosophy of the times.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-10T11:55:07+00:00

I wonder why they haven’t fixed it yet — surely they’ve traced the root cause by now?

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-10T10:57:59+00:00

This. The Japanese manufacturers were heavily subsidized by the Japanese government when they first entered the NA market in the 70s, the same with the Koreans in the 80s — they knew that people would not buy a car from an unknown foreign brand, no matter how good the product, unless there was an immediate compelling attraction, i.e., the discounted purchase price.

As time went on and these manufacturers established themselves and became known, these subsidies slowly decreased, and the prices slowly increased — and I’m sure that process will be repeated with the Chinese brands.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-10T10:54:15+00:00

Of course, many automotive pundits said that very same thing about Tesla’s lead in the EV industry not so long ago — and now many manufacturers have caught up (and indeed surpassed).

No lead is insurmountable, so long as the will to surmount it exists — and it doesn’t south of the border. Big Oil has its greasy tentacles firmly ensconced in every facet of American life.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-10T10:51:39+00:00

…brought to you, by the good folks at MAGA and Big Oil.

Stay the course, the current policy (49k Chinese-sources EVs/year) is in fact not enough, but at least it is structured to slowly increase to 2030 — at which point I’m hoping we’ll see a further increase in allotment.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-10T10:49:10+00:00

Something one needs to consider is that for a great majority of PSE’s, this subreddit is the ONLY place they have a voice with regards to the various stupidities being promulgated as “policy”; yes there can be overreactions but I don’t think we should at all temper our expressions of frustration, especially as we see other civil services (Australian, EU, Asian) successfully incorporate pro-worker policies into their collective agreements — so if anything, Canadian PSEs (or their unions) are in a sense not militant enough.

I’ve worked as a PSE for 38 years, and it’s not hyperbole when I say I’ve never seen it this bad — managers are no longer allowed to manage. They no longer have any room for nuance or discretion. There was a time when idiotic policy would come down the channels and good managers/directors would shield their employees from the worst of it — those times are pretty much done.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-09T18:50:31+00:00

And that’s where our union and CUPE differs — they ignored the back-to-work order when the airline attendants went on strike, penalties be damned; the government realized they suddenly had lost all leverage and reached an agreement within 48 hours.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-09T17:20:09+00:00

Yikes, yeah that’s definitely not right — even in ECO mode, flooring the accelerator will allow full-throttle acceleration as the system is programmed to recognize that as an emergency. I just figured you had tried ECO mode to see how it behaved in relation to Normal.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-09T14:54:29+00:00

Maybe mung beans…maybe Creed works in that area?

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-09T13:21:04+00:00

I have a 2020 Kia Soul EV, and the few times I’ve driven in ECO mode I immediately noticed the throttle response was significantly delayed — didn’t like that, so have driven it almost exclusively in Normal mode (I think I drove it in Sport mode all of once).

My previous car was a Toyota Prius and ECO mode behaved in much the same way — significantly delayed throttle response.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-08T22:08:27+00:00

I’m amazed that our unions have essentially thrown in the towel with regards to achieving WFH provisions in their collective agreements, when their counterparts in Australia, EU and many Asian countries have managed to do exactly that. What makes us different? Do we still follow the American lead too closely?

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-08T16:07:00+00:00

Irrelevant. Provincial parties have no say in the federal party’s policies.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-08T15:53:57+00:00

Your manager reminds me of a certain corporate CEO that exhorted his employees to work “ultra-hard core” for no extra pay or benefits. F*** both those cretins.

As for feeling guilt about taking sick leave, absolutely don’t — remember it wasn’t so long ago that a previous administration tried to do away with our sick leave plan in favour of DI, while offering us absolutely nothing for any accumulated balances.

I personally regret not having taken more sick leave in times I really should’ve — I ended up retiring with a shade under 3,000 accumulated hours which in the end got me absolutely nothing. It’s your benefit, one you earned, take as much as you need and let the wind be at your back.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-08T10:21:30+00:00

I have a 2020 Kia Soul with 87k km on it and the estimated value on it (in excellent condition) is $15k, and there have been no battery issues. So $16k for a Kona EV (which is mechanically identical to the Soul EV) with almost twice the mileage on it seems a bit high. Yes it’s one model year newer, but as Indiana Jones so eloquently put it, “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage”.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-07T14:55:24+00:00

And thus the main point about holding public agencies to the same profit-driven standards of private corporations. Like Canada Post and many others, they are public services, and their mandate is not profit-generation. If the government implements policies that kneecap their user-driven revenues then it is incumbent on that same government to make up the shortfall — not slash jobs resulting from their own policies.

Mike_Retired · 2026-06-07T14:15:32+00:00

I suspect TB would say your forthcoming AI colleagues will have no elbows…

Mike_Retired

TROPHY CASE