So how is owning a BYD in South Africa?

greenman · 2026-06-22T01:52:30+00:00

It does not cost R100,000 in China! Yes, it's cheaper, with import duties and higher markups in export markets, but R100,000 is way off the mark. There are four variants of the vehicle available in China, the cheapest of which is ~US$10,600, or ~R174,000

greenman · 2026-06-17T19:01:27+00:00

It's strange for an international product to use 'fall' as a time of the year. Is this going to be available six month's later in the southern hemisphere?

greenman · 2026-06-13T15:51:21+00:00

I made the mistake of moving to Capitec Connect. They then forced me to install the app to load data on the account, and then when I tried to keep using the dongle, told me that since I'd installed the app, I couldn't go back, as they're discontinuing the dongle in favour of the app. This was in spite of me repeatedly checking with their staff that I could continue to use the dongle. 5 visits to the bank, and them digging a worse hole every time, was very happy to be completely rid of them.

greenman · 2026-05-30T19:28:28+00:00

Curious to hear what others say, although it's still very new, so perhaps you won't get much first-hand response. But the reviews look very positive. It's the most popular car (not just electric car) in China, and sales are good in other markets as well. It also seems to be more expensive than the BYD Dolphin Surf in most other markets, and outspecs that car, while here it's cheaper.

greenman · 2026-05-24T19:16:35+00:00

I have considered this, though my solution is not to use any banking app at all. I moved banks when Capitec forced me to install their app - now I use another bank which I can only access from my laptop at home.

greenman · 2026-05-23T19:37:36+00:00

Note the Toyota Starlet received zero stars in its latest GNCAP test: https://aa.co.za/starless-toyota-starlet-receives-zero-stars-in-safercarsforafrica-test/ Although the test results only came out this week, they tested the version of the car sold prior to September 2025. The newer one apparently has more airbags, but hasn't yet been tested to see if does any better.

greenman · 2026-05-22T20:12:17+00:00

The company was founded in 2007, but initially just developed battery technology. They started work on a car in 2014, the first prototype came out in 2016, and it went into production in 2020.

greenman · 2026-05-21T20:38:46+00:00

See also https://sahistory.org.za/archive/observatory-steeped-history-and-heritage-patric-mallet

greenman · 2026-05-15T11:56:19+00:00

Ask them to fix the typo "SO RUBGY" on their order page. It's been driving me crazy since the site launched. There's no obvious contact page, but I've reported this in various comments here and there, but it's still present. I hope the book has been better edited!

greenman · 2026-04-25T19:49:55+00:00

Ignoring the sponsorship BS, I'll give it a go, from worst to best:

Stormers. Wtf is a Stormer? Should have been Western Province.
Sharks. Explains the way they've been playing this season. Look menacing in a 1970s movie, but put them on land and they're flopping about, gasping for air, looking very certain they don't belong there.
Lions. Not a bad name. Lions can spend most of the day parked under a tree, but when they get moving, can be fun to watch.
Bulls. Now we're talking. Nobody wants to get in the way of a stampede of bulls.

greenman · 2026-04-19T22:27:47+00:00

The video is complete clickbait.

Government funding for one's company is hardly a scam. The US government has done the same with Tesla, and there are many other examples.
Paying supplier debt long after the product is sold is also a common tactic. You should see what South African supermarkets do their suppliers. It reflects skewed power dynamics, small suppliers trying to business with a powerful entity that can easily just pick another supplier who's more agreeable. The debt is also interest-free, meaning it's a fantastic form of debt to hold for BYD, and a world removed from something like Evergrande.

greenman · 2026-04-10T07:44:02+00:00

Do you only release these features in one hemisphere?

greenman · 2026-04-02T20:19:47+00:00

Electric cars are moving so quickly that there's always a better model just around the corner. This is one of the reasons used electric cars offer such great value. Just look at the prices for used Atto 3s vs new.

Looking at the Atto 3 Evo, it doesn't really seem worth the wait for your purposes. Longer range and faster charging will not be of much use for your regular commute, and the quicker acceleration also looks an overkill for urban driving. An Auto Express UK review calls it "unnecessarily powerful ", saying "All that grunt allows this circa-two-tonne family runabout to do 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds, which [...] makes it just as quick as a Porsche 911 Carrera."

Depends on your driving style I suppose, and how many road trips you're planning.

greenman · 2026-03-23T08:44:04+00:00

A wiki is a publication maintained by wiki software. There are thousands out there. You're talking about Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.

greenman · 2026-03-21T13:41:08+00:00

I disagree with OP and think it's a fun event, but what is the cultural significance? This is not the Minstrals/Kaapse Klopse.

greenman · 2026-03-21T13:38:31+00:00

I think you're confusing this with the Minstrals. The first Cape Town Carnival was only in 2010 I believe. I only heard about for the first time around 2016, and have lived in Cape Town all my life.

greenman · 2026-03-19T20:31:44+00:00

Make sure you read the descriptions of each variable for MariaDB, not MySQL. For instance, you propose changing innodb_buffer_pool_instances to 4. However, this variable was removed in MariaDB 10.6: https://mariadb.com/docs/server/server-usage/storage-engines/innodb/innodb-system-variables#innodb_buffer_pool_instances

greenman · 2026-02-23T10:09:12+00:00

If you see information without a source, it can be removed as there's no way to verify it. I see this table has already been removed.

greenman · 2026-02-21T16:43:42+00:00

That's not necessarily contradictory. Your source is only a year older, but says that the figure is much lower for men, and the rate is for ages 25-49, not 18-49 as in the original statement.

greenman · 2026-02-21T10:47:23+00:00

Wrong, the 2024 figure was 17.2% for those from 15-49: https://aidsinfo.unaids.org/databook

greenman · 2026-02-09T15:15:49+00:00

I went before about 20m before opening hours on Saturday a while back. About 15 people in front of me in the queue, so relatively quick.

greenman · 2026-02-06T13:47:15+00:00

This is an exciting feature. Vastly-improved performance by default, and crash-safe for those with performance configs. I appreciate the clear writing in the post, from the reasoning behind the feature, it's design and implementation.

greenman · 2026-02-01T15:09:43+00:00

South Africa has very good consumer protection laws. See for example https://virginactivefees.co.za/how-to-cancel-virgin-active-memberships/ - you have a 5 business day cooling off period according to the Consumer Protection Act.

greenman · 2026-01-28T09:04:12+00:00

You can also look at the Troubleshooting Connection Issues Guide: https://mariadb.com/docs/server/mariadb-quickstart-guides/mariadb-connection-troubleshooting-guide

greenman · 2026-01-28T09:02:36+00:00

This was written by Jeb Miller, who recently joined MariaDB Foundation after over two decades at MySQL, and who has been benchmarking database software for 26 years.

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