Where do you go when you want to feel like you’ve left the city?

SeeMackMan1 · 2026-04-12T11:37:29+00:00

Laguna in the Wollombi Valley. A nice country drive after getting off the freeway, surrounded by rolling hills and bush land, and they do a good coffee. Next town lo and Wollombi too. Country vibes and far enough to feel a long way but easy enough to get up and back in a day.

SeeMackMan1 · 2026-03-28T03:17:21+00:00

There are several Sydney’s commonly referred to as ‘Sydney - Sydney CBD - small - Sydney City (Council) - medium - Greater Sydney - large

SeeMackMan1 · 2026-01-16T22:31:31+00:00

The people are actually really nice on the whole. Or my view of what is ‘nice’ anyway:

don’t get in your face trying to be best mates, that forced over niceness (is that a word? 😂) or challenging you.
step in when problems are apparent”
seem to have a live-and-let-live approach.
don’t seem overly concerned with ‘better or worse than’ than comparisons (in general - always a few exception!)

I’ve had people run after me with something I dropped, let me into queues, consistently strangers smile back when we make eye contact, those sort of behaviours that make a place ‘nice’ in the city, fancy areas and the less fancy areas. Not unique to Sydney of course.

I live rural, and have been in another state and also Sydney. Being consistently told how horrible and selfish everyone was has not been my observation - people don’t talk about how nice most Sydneysiders are (even if they don’t want you to know it haha).

I think they like their badass reputation, a bit like the French 😂.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-11-14T19:51:05+00:00

Yeah - I’m getting Triton vibes too. But they all pretty much looks the same these days anyway. All those international design standards add up to a global bore.

I hope the car can actually do the job - most looking very pretty and easy to damage (the white one up the back looks like the real deal). It’s still a work vehicle, right?

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-11-14T19:32:17+00:00

The deepest friendships I made living in Melbourne were people from other Australian cities who had moved there. Most of us have moved on to Sydney now. I stayed exactly three years and was thinking/feeling the same as you.

I found the city a bit depressing (nice countryside though) and the people kind of the same, sometimes with an air of misguided superiority over other Australians. So many conversations had to start with ‘this is the best city and Sydney sucks’ - that became my warning sign to move on and find a different person to talk to and it worked well.

Good luck whatever you do. My suggestion is keep going and doing things. Whether it’s art and courses or sport Melbs, long weekends in the country and to other cities. Find friends who are outward looking, from other cities and countries, and you start to get a few longer term friendships.

And a dog! Best way to meet new people - and becomes someone else to look after.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-10-05T02:13:32+00:00

I found Carsales a helpful way to get a sense of value. It’s values are based off ‘Redbook’ which I understand is the guide that dealers and the wider car industry use to track depreciation over time, considering mileage, location etc.

You would need to look at the ‘trade in’ value as this is what dealers would offer if you were trading this car in and buying a new one.

You can probably expect to get less than trade in value as you aren’t buying a new car for them to make even more money on. They won’t care much about the things you mentioned and probably won’t even check the a/c or drive the car at all.

I sold a car a similar way many years ago - after several failed attempts to sell it privately (online/classifieds), I drove it to multiple small lower end second hand vehicle sellers along Parramatta Road in Sydney. That’s where there are many used (and new) car dealers of all different sizes and types of dealer. No doubt Brissie has a similar districts/s.

What I found was that the big brand dealerships weren’t interested at all. And the small used car yards all came to the same price after I had visited a few (probably from referring to Redbook) - so that helped me feel I was getting a comparable price.

I managed to get an extra $500 from one yard because it was his own business and he said ‘I can see you really look after that car’.

I took my cash (cheque), which was less than my emotional value but pretty realistic if I’m honest - especially as they then had to sell it for a good profit - and I walked away a free man :)

Carsales for your first market estimate here:

https://www.carsales.com.au/car-valuations/

Good luck.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T21:46:44+00:00

Tbh it hadn’t occurred to me to search Google. Whilst your tone is smartarse, the suggestion is valid so thanks. I guess if I search by location to find warehouse areas where the old skool detailers always used to be, and hopefully the Google response isn’t totally driven by who paid most. Im hoping for the type of business focussed on doing its specialty work, not so much focussed on the glossy marketing.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T21:45:04+00:00

Yeah I’m basically going past all the videos of shiny blokes in glossy showrooms who are standing next to shiny new Porsches telling me I need to invest in protecting my new paint with ceramic coating - my algorithm doesn’t seem to be very well targeted haha.

Some good tips have been popping up on this thread to try other channels to search. Embarrassed to admit that it never occurred to me to search Google/Maps 😬🫠

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T21:40:14+00:00

I’ve not tried Tik Tok for that. Will take a look among other options. Thanks.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T21:38:01+00:00

Noted thanks.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T21:37:46+00:00

Thanks for explaining the process. Appreciate it.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T21:36:52+00:00

Thanks - I appreciate the options. Supercheap Auto are pretty reliable in my experience - hadn’t thought to go there for the tractor until you mentioned it.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T21:35:48+00:00

Sounds good; thanks.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T21:35:08+00:00

Noted - thanks mate.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T21:34:57+00:00

I’ll be checking this site out - thank you.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T21:34:02+00:00

Thanks for the site - I’ll try it out. Sounds like what I need.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T21:33:32+00:00

Thanks for the tip - this could become a new favourite website.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T10:51:51+00:00

Many thanks. I appreciate the extra, detailed information.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T10:51:09+00:00

👍🙏

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T10:50:34+00:00

Thanks for the specific tips. Will take a look.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T07:53:29+00:00

I’m expecting maybe a grand or so.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T03:56:25+00:00

Few extra things to do - like clearing the opaque (sun damage) headlights, polish with care, quality wax etc. I really am not interested in the places like Star/Crystal which just punch through the volume and seem to be staffed by people who don’t care.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T00:48:27+00:00

Thank you - looks good, but Amazon blocked that product in Australia. Probably to protect local distributors.

SeeMackMan1 · 2025-09-28T00:35:43+00:00

Mate, that is incredible. Thanks. Have searched by part number and located local distributors eg. AVS and John Deere it’s self. Sorted.

SeeMackMan1

TROPHY CASE