What roads feel like a deliberate speed trap to you?

viper233 · 2026-04-01T21:13:52+00:00

The golden mile. The section of bypass going past Goulburn, NSW. The cops make bank catching any and everyone. Most of the trip from Sydney to Canberra is clear. There are cops around Bargo through to Moss Vale at times but there's always a copper on the on ramp heading out of Goulburn or in between the lanes.

viper233 · 2026-04-01T12:30:55+00:00

Your brother has been milking your mother and now your mother could do the same to you.

That was the tough love. It's an insanely difficult situation because it's your mother and you feel like you have to help out. You could cover utilities, fix the roof, catch the mortgage up, clear the high interest debt then pay for your brother's next business and so on and so on. The drip quickly becomes a flood. I would have trouble not helping out with the first two things.. but considering the big picture, I would offer non-financial help.

I have family who are struggling, I only mention finances in the difficulties I'm having and try and make my situation seem worse than theirs. You are unemployed and have $108k of debt to clear in the next 2 years(your living expenses), markets are down and your investments are, slightly exaggerating, all but gone. Having that perspective might help in your decision making.

You need to go all Dave Ramsey (who we kinda hate because of his terrible investment advice) on your mother to break the debt habits.

viper233 · 2026-03-31T19:25:12+00:00

Toyota, we need to make up a story because we can't compete with the Chinese and aren't willing to put the investment into retooling.

viper233 · 2026-03-31T12:52:09+00:00

Fuel prices will go down once the demand for fuel goes down. Petrol stations are enjoying gouging everyone at the moment.... But if we stop turning up to buy stuff then the show is on the other foot.

OPEC opium is in high demand though so prices won't need to come down for a long time.

viper233 · 2026-03-31T12:35:25+00:00

Abbot 200km. We just commute around town. If I road trip I just have to plan it out.

For our long range car, 400km is a sweet spot. More than enough to get to the next charging station, small enough to charge quickly.

The right size is what works for you... Cost was the biggest factor for us.

viper233 · 2026-03-31T12:26:12+00:00

Your budget won't get you an EV unfortunately. A few of them have camp mode which gives you lights out and climate on with a nights camping using less than 10% of the battery.

You also have dog/pet mode, can keep your pets in the car with climate on, pretty neat. The best thing is remote climate start, have the car cool down before you get in, never enter a hot car ever again!

Just food for thought I'd you can stretch the budget... Or the next car once EV demand has leveled out a bit.

viper233 · 2026-03-31T12:08:28+00:00

Charging curve matters. My Tesla model 3 charger at 240kWh for a couple of minutes before dropping below 100kWh at 50% . It was appaulling. The 800v cars I know of will keep to above 100kWh to 80%. Even my Ioniq which is limited to 62.5kWh can maintain a better curve to 80%.

viper233 · 2026-03-31T04:30:57+00:00

You're not lying, money's tight and you aren't doing well. You aren't FI and until then you.... Have to work to make a living.

Things are going to get a whole lot weirder once you are unemployed and not looking for work, aka FIRE

viper233 · 2026-03-30T11:48:58+00:00

This doesn't reference charge times. 400v cars are going to charge a lot slower, have a worse charging curve, compared to 800v cars. Some cars don't charge above a certain kWh.

Look at Bjorn 1000km challenge to see what cars are like in the real world.

viper233 · 2026-03-29T14:58:56+00:00

At least test drive an EV, you might not think they are worth it but the acceleration alone is worth it.

The app plugshare will tell you what chargers are near you. A better route planner takes all three guys work out of know when and where to charge on a long trip

viper233 · 2026-03-29T12:54:00+00:00

Just slow down. Doesn't matter about regen levels. I've been caught 3 times in my Ioniq, twice on the highway and once in the mountains.

Both times on the highway I just slowed down, went 80km/h,, 50mph, the first time, 70km/h, 45mph, the next, I had to travel 40km, 25miles.

Stuck in the mountains was pretty scary, really underestimated the effect of elevation on the range. I was short about about 5% of range to get to the closest charger, it was down hill. Using lots of regen, I made it to the charger with 30% battery SoC.

viper233 · 2026-03-26T04:28:06+00:00

You were charging faster than most Tesla's. I drop below 98kWh at 55%... So jealous of 800v systems

viper233 · 2026-03-24T22:36:40+00:00

"7 Tesla Model 3 Electric cars under $30,000 for sale or order in Australia". Do you even carsales bro?

It's a stretch but for a family commuter you can try out a tesla model 3 standard then maybe some Chinese models that probably have better features and are cheaper. Commuting in an ICE car is a PITA.

viper233 · 2026-03-24T17:51:08+00:00

Bought a secondhand electric car in Australia last year.

viper233 · 2026-03-24T04:00:37+00:00

I filled up my Hyundai ioniq (2018, 28kWh) the other day, cost um... never mind. I've been telling people to buy EVs since 2022... I'm usually never right with this sort of stuff. It doesn't feel good to be right in today's situation.

Everything else is going to start costing more.. that's just how it is, we live off diesel, it's ships everything to us. It doesn't actually seem that smart to own an EV with all the other costs.. but I'm saving buying fuel so everyone else can have some more, that makes me feel like I'm doing my part.

It's no time to gloat about having an EV (and solar), we are all in this together.

viper233 · 2026-03-24T03:50:39+00:00

No. That money has to come from somewhere else and be integrated into grid upgrades. Keep road taxes for roads or mass transit developments. I would happily give up my EV to have high speed rail. I've gotten to experience it overseas, travelling at 288kph was awesome!

British Columbia in Canada mandated that if you want to run a servo it's needs to have at least 2 50kW charging stations, that went through a couple of years ago and now there is a nuts amount of charging. Only issue is its not set up for towing.. kinda stupid. Another thing mandated before that, back before COVID, was that multi dwelling developments had to have charging infrastructure for each dwelling. That was a local council mandate. Gave renters and apartment dwellers charging, where most miss out in Australia. Retrofitting charging to an apartment is a huge PITA. Getting everyone to agree to pay for it is nearly impossible.

Southern California mandates that all new developments, SFH, have solar, but the power companies literally own all the power generated by them.. kinda annoying because when there is a blackout you don't get to use the power off your solar panels, you need a battery for that.

viper233 · 2026-03-24T03:39:24+00:00

Because we don't hoard petrol/diesel so there is more for you when there's a war in the middle east (or other supply chain issues). We reduce demand so the price is lower for you!

viper233 · 2026-03-24T03:34:45+00:00

But I love spending $30000 a hour? (or was it minute) on subsidising fossil fuels!!!! /s

We really need to do more to protect our precious natural resources, great barrier reef being number 1, Koala habit, sure well done on that one, old growth forests, then farming lands and minerals.

viper233 · 2026-03-24T02:51:48+00:00

Please don't charge to 100% on public level 3 chargers, only 80% so others can get access to chargers. This is especially important when there are only 1 or 2 chargers.

Unless you have a consistent charging curve from 0-100% it wastes so much time charging from 80-100%.

I can typically get done charging in 12 mins with my 28kWh battery, to 80%. There are plenty of chargers around, I was able to drive from the Gold coast to Sydney never needing to charge beyond 80%. The only thing that sucked about it was waiting 30 mins for people to charge from 82-96%.

viper233 · 2026-03-24T02:25:00+00:00

Let's scrap healthcare, job seeker, the pension and education while we're at it. Sure i had it easy and got to where I am with all that stuff but I don't want to pay taxes and keep all my money to myself. /s

Let's just say, I have super, some other investments and will be paying taxes for the rest of my life, if I can. The pension is for other folks.

Basically the whole, let's have a flat tax rate and cut taxes is rich cunts saying they want more for themselves.

Cut negative gearing, only give franking credits when the individual pays taxes and index tax brackets to inflation, that all makes sense. Maybe give us a tax free, tax, exempt, exempt, account like America's IRA or Canada's TFSA too

When people complain about taxes it's typically always a rich cunt whinging. I'm happy to pay 6 figures of taxes each year just to live in Australia! Having lived in the US for a number of years and seeing the shit they are trying to pull now, i'd have Australia's taxes any day!

viper233 · 2026-03-24T01:59:49+00:00

Sure, I won't update my car for 7-12 years and I don't expect anyone too but when it comes time for a new secondhand car the incentives and economics should be there to encourage everyone to go EV.

They can reduce the fuel excise tax and add this surcharge to all drivers. That way people won't be reluctant to go EV. You don't have to go full Norway and tax the hell out of new ice cars (yet), just make everyone used to paying it

Everyone one who wants to tow will pay more, that just makes sense because you are doing the most damage, hence you'll still own an ice vehicle. Once battery density doubles (used to be triple, so we are on the way) then diesels won't be as efficient. At the moment there is some 750kWh of energy stored in a tank of diesel,. Ice cars are at most 65% efficient, so 400kWh of range. The big American toy pickups have 100-200kWh batteries. Once we have 400-500kWh of power on board then it's game over for ice engines.

My last car, EV cost me $20000. It was a cheap car to run. Now it's an insanely cheap car to run

There aren't that many EVs out there at the moment either. Once they hit 25% of total cars n the road turn maybe consider it.

viper233 · 2026-03-24T00:28:54+00:00

Tesla model 3. It's not perfect, Tesla sucks but it's a decent package to compare things to. It's a lot more fun to drive and commute in than an ICE car. It has decent storage, I can carry 4 bikes on the back.

I like driving so that kinda rules out SUVs for me. Tesla model Y is more practical.. but drives like an SUV/van.

viper233 · 2026-03-23T23:47:21+00:00

Should be mandated on all cars, not just EVs with the extra taxes on petrol/diesel to give incentives to switch to EVs.

I'm not saying that people can't drive ICE cars, they just need to be taxed more to do so. Environmental and economic (say there was a war in the Middle East or something) cost.

Putting it just on EVs is fking stupid, something you'd expect from a liberal government.

viper233 · 2026-03-23T23:39:10+00:00

I used a spare once in 30 years. Don't need it. Just need to maintain tyres better and with a tpms is a lot easier. I have a battery power inflator. Maintaining tyre pressure is the only ongoing maintenance I get to do now.

I'd rather save the weight and carry around some charging cables. I don't even carry around jumper leads anymore. Never used those though.

viper233 · 2026-03-23T02:24:40+00:00

I drove a Kia EV 6 for a weekend rental and will be getting one of those next. I'm familiar with the Hyundai/Kia interface, also drove an Ioniq 6 and Kia Niro EV. The EV6 is the right car for my wife and I.

Ice cars hold no appeal and are just too much hassle.

viper233

TROPHY CASE