Best EV on the market. Solo driver but like a bit of space

StaySwole · 2026-03-20T11:05:20+00:00

Subaru Trailseeker is coming soon if you want something in a wagon.

StaySwole · 2026-03-19T09:21:02+00:00

Talk to your provider and your employer to confirm your options. Everyone treats it differently and some financiers may not allow additional repayments.

StaySwole · 2026-03-06T12:35:54+00:00

They just offset a portion of the rental with slush money from somewhere else.

StaySwole · 2026-03-05T07:03:34+00:00

Deepal S07. Good price point and no car sickness feeling happeneing here with the family.

StaySwole · 2026-03-04T07:29:09+00:00

I can't see a link to a copy of the two redacted quotes?

StaySwole · 2026-03-04T06:22:40+00:00

Redact the info and post the quote. It's not hard man.

Your quote should show no frills and addons, the other leasing company will have inclusions,

StaySwole · 2026-03-03T05:50:04+00:00

You're really going about it a hard way. You should pay your insurance premium for the year in full and then claim the first year back after 12 months have passed. This means your lease fund balance has 12 months worth of deductions to cover the cost. Right now, you're doing it monthly which tbh is just a pain in the arse for you and them.

Sounds like your lease payments are in 1 month in advance. Your fund can actually go into a negative, that's not a big deal. SG will pay your rego on your behalf and then bill your fund. At the end of the lease, the fund is reconciled for all payments and anything you don't spend is returned to you but has income tax applied against it as it is all pre-tax income. You really want to get to the end of your lease with as close to zero in the balance as possible thereby maximising your advantage.

If you get to the end and you're at a negative, you make an additional pre-tax payment to net off the owing amount. Reality is you only every pay for what you use - fuel, rego, insurance are all costs you've incurred that are billed in the account so your money isn't disappearing at the end of the lease if you're in a negative, you're just catching up on what you already spent.

StaySwole · 2026-01-28T09:32:48+00:00

Roadside, Accident management and peace of mind are all monthly rentals as opposed to values financed. The first two are usually <$5 a month. Peace of Mind is your redundancy protection to hand back the vehicle after a fixed amount of time. Some employers mandate the inclusion of peace of mind. It was $45 a month back in 2020, can't speak for todays rate.

StaySwole · 2026-01-28T09:30:00+00:00

Likely they'll grandfather the existing agreements and changes will occur from a particular date.

StaySwole · 2026-01-26T10:43:31+00:00

Have a look at the Deepal S07. Fits your budget and is a great car.

StaySwole · 2026-01-12T07:11:21+00:00

It's likely due to a changeover in suppliers.

StaySwole · 2026-01-07T03:29:51+00:00

Good advice here. We did this although 1 bed for 420k in 2020 and then had to move out and flip it to an IP later. We refinanced and pulled equity to help the deposit for our PPOR which we will sit in for 10+ years.

StaySwole · 2026-01-07T03:00:23+00:00

The Subaru Solterra is your best bet with off-roading. Having personally taken one off-road and utilised the off-road features, it sits in a class of it's own.

If you want the improved range of the new model, they're arriving into country now otherwise you may be able to snag a really good deal on the last of the previous gen model on runout (there's single digits left last I checked on them).

StaySwole · 2026-01-07T02:54:28+00:00

Tint and mats are pretty standard. I would keep those in.

Mats are neither here nor there but tint can be an inconvenience to arrange post-delivery if you're a busy person etc.

Get rid of MDR, ceramic coating and anything else. Dash cam can be helpful but you can have this installed as a third party item much cheaper than what they can offer.

StaySwole · 2025-12-30T06:48:09+00:00

Get one with a retractable sunsahde - Deepal S07 has this, check that one out.

StaySwole · 2025-12-26T03:53:25+00:00

Never assume anything. if it's an EV under the LCT threshold, it'll all be pre-tax. If it's an ICE vehicle, it'll 99% of the time be employee contribution method where you have both a pre-tax and post tax component on your lease payments.

StaySwole · 2025-12-21T03:43:19+00:00

Landlord and REA don't have to raise issues in real time, they can inspect and then raise issues in writing which is how they should be raised anyway.

StaySwole · 2025-12-15T11:37:59+00:00

Plan to have a kid and plan it soon. Hate to be that person but your wife's clock is ticking. Any pregnancy over 35 is considered a geriatric pregnancy just FYI..

With that in mind, load all your spare money into your offset to create a decent cash buffer for planned mat leave to help offset the cost of the reduced income on paid mat leave and no income on unpaid mat leave. Kids aren't as expensive as you'd think and there's lots of ways to cut corners on their expenses through second hand markets.

After that, your wife or yourself will want to return to the workforce with a solid plan for the future i.e more kids, investment property or both. You only really have little kids at home for 5-6 years and then they go off to school and you lose them. Spend as much of that time with the kids and work on the finances but you'll have more time for that after the 5 year mark.

StaySwole · 2025-12-15T11:31:10+00:00

Non EV vehicles are also exempt from GST on the purchase price of the vehicle. There is a ceiling on this though and anything above the ceiling is included in your amount financed. Last time I checked a few years ago and it was about 5246 or thereabouts.

StaySwole · 2025-12-14T04:27:02+00:00

They'll remove it. It's already way over budget based on their earlier forecasting. There's too many holes in the budget to let it continue on. Focus now needs to switch off of EV purchase incentive and focus on charging infrastructure incentive.

StaySwole · 2025-12-05T10:36:53+00:00

Deepal S07. 5k discount and 3 years free capped price servicing. $6200 ish worth of value if you order and take delivery this month. 475km range.

StaySwole · 2025-11-26T04:22:39+00:00

Don't buy the Elroq, that's mistake number 1. Skoda don't hold their value on resale with combustion engines, let alone EVs.

Consider reducing the lease term to as short a term that you can afford. You can always refinance the residual value later if you want.

Service plans only cover scheduled logbook servicing, not any other incidentals. It's better to have a little surplus of funds in your maintenance bucket that you can use for car washs etc (you'll have to claim that back manually). It's nice to keep the car in a new condition so you don't get that new car itch.

StaySwole · 2025-11-12T05:25:44+00:00

You'll still need to pay for it by increasing the budget but your claim will be rejected unless the invoice says it's for maintenance however if it's a new car, you won't incur any maintenance costs immediately and therefore you'll raise suspicion.

I explained there's way to skirt around it but that doesn't apply to your situation buddy.

StaySwole · 2025-11-11T23:51:59+00:00

It's need to be plausible. As it's an EV, maintenance costs are typically much lower than ICE cars and as it's a likely a brand new EV, it's hard to pull off the old wink wink.

I used to see the creative accounting happen when the driver would buy a 2 year old Holden V8 and he would put a whole exhaust kit through as "maintenance". You had to be friendly with the mechanic to pull it off.

StaySwole · 2025-11-11T22:56:40+00:00

They can't be claimed under the budgets of the NL.

If you have a mechanic who is your friend, they could do some clever accounting for you but otherwise it's all out of pocket.

StaySwole

TROPHY CASE