How to buy a car

Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
Got your Atto3 now ?



My missus loves it, she's done about 1500km on it so far. As above, it's FBT free to lease an EV where you pay FBT on a normal car. They are $15k cheaper than others and a small SUV size, equivalent to the $75k Model Y which we needed for clearance.
No regrets at all... and I got to sell her Prado and squirrel those nuts away for bike stuff ;)
Yep got ours late March. We're very happy with it. It's unbelievably quiet and does everything we need. Changed the crappy OEM tires to Pirelli Scorpion Verdes and it's been great.

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ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
Yep got ours late March. We're very happy with it. It's unbelievably quiet and does everything we need. Changed the crappy OEM tires to Pirelli Scorpion Verdes and it's been great.
She's still running on the crappys, will see how she goes for distance to Melrose in a couple of weeks, I'm heading up early in the week, she'll be stressing with range anxiety on the Friday.
 

Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
She's still running on the crappys, will see how she goes for distance to Melrose in a couple of weeks, I'm heading up early in the week, she'll be stressing with range anxiety on the Friday.
The problem with the OEM crappys is wet weather grip and braking distance. If your wife is not a super defensive driver as is, changing to a good tire could make all the difference in an adverse situation.

BYD have obviously got the message; they are switching to Continental for their OEM.

As for range, we have the extended range and I'm pretty sure it will make 400kms of mixed driving. It will also take a 90kw fast charger, to give an 80% charge over a coffee break.

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Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
What are you thoughts on this one then? I’ve been looking at the Atto. But wondering if just better to pay up for a Tesla/Kia/Hyundai ev instead?.
Just a note. My GTR mechanic used to be the service manager at a big Hyundai/Kia dealer, and he saw a lot of batteries have to come back under warranty. Sounds like the Hyundai/Kia battery tech is not quite there yet.

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Haakon

Keeps on digging
I'm a bit late to this one.

If you can, get a novated lease on a plug in hybrid or EV. You won't get charged fringe benefits tax or stamp duty. This means you are paying for the car with pre tax income. Depending on your marginal tax rate, this will save you lots. E.g. my wife is saving $25k in tax over 2 years on our EV plus the $10k a year in fuel and servicing we are saving by parking our disco up.

If you must get something now, Mitsubishi and MG seem to have cars in stock. If you can wait a couple of months the BYDs seem to be very good.

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^ this.
 

dirtdad

Wants to be special but is too shy
Just a note. My GTR mechanic used to be the service manager at a big Hyundai/Kia dealer, and he saw a lot of batteries have to come back under warranty. Sounds like the Hyundai/Kia battery tech is not quite there yet.

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I like the idea of the 800v tech, and faster charging. But yeah, don’t want dramas. Warranty for Kia/Hyundai might be better than BYD though right?

What’s the current weirdness with the company doing the importing/sales for BYD in Australia? I’m keen to find a BYD to test drive, but concerned about this warranty stuff I read.
 

Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
I like the idea of the 800v tech, and faster charging. But yeah, don’t want dramas. Warranty for Kia/Hyundai might be better than BYD though right?

What’s the current weirdness with the company doing the importing/sales for BYD in Australia? I’m keen to find a BYD to test drive, but concerned about this warranty stuff I read.
It's a third party importer/seller. Pretty much the same setup as the smaller European brands.

Given that BYD have jumped to the second biggest EV producer behind Tesla (no.1 in China). Also, Toyota and Warren Buffet have invested in them, I'm confident that they will be around for many years to come.


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dancaseyimages

Mountain bike pornographer
Just get some seat covers.
Ali express has heaps of options.
1684978553410.png

We ended up buying some Canvas Type seat covers for my utes, and our daily car and even with kids/mtb gear and dogs. The seats under them have remained pretty well in tact and stain/mark free.
I know they don't always look great but just for the rear seat there are some good covers out there with plastic backed canvas etc that are reasonably priced and for less than $100, even if you get spew on the seat from a little one it won't soak through.

Its your car so no one should feel comfortable apart from you.
 

Haakon

Keeps on digging
1684979860305.png

Ive got this sort of thing in the back of the Alfa for muddy paws and car sick puppy incidents.

No seat covers when I was kid - just a no food/drinks policy and a bit of discipline!
 

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
We ended up buying some Canvas Type seat covers for my utes, and our daily car and even with kids/mtb gear and dogs.
I pulled an 11yr old set of Blackwidow canvas covers off the missus Prado before selling to reveal spotless new seats underneath. They'd been off a couple of times for washing but never really paid attention to what was underneath.
 

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
I pulled an 11yr old set of Blackwidow canvas covers off the missus Prado before selling to reveal spotless new seats underneath. They'd been off a couple of times for washing but never really paid attention to what was underneath.
Those seat covers will rip the skin off so no nudie drives.
 

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
Those seat covers will rip the skin off so no nudie drives.
They were great covers.

I went for black denim covers from Aussie company Supafit on my cruiser.
Just dont even look at them after you have been in the sea. Damp shorts, wet dogs... white salty stains, black was a big mistake. Should have stuck with old faithful grey.
 

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
They were great covers.

I went for black denim covers from Aussie company Supafit on my cruiser.
Just dont even look at them after you have been in the sea. Damp shorts, wet dogs... white salty stains, black was a big mistake. Should have stuck with old faithful grey.
Odd way to try and deflect from you enjoying driving very much.
 

boyracer

Likes Dirt
It's a third party importer/seller. Pretty much the same setup as the smaller European brands.

Given that BYD have jumped to the second biggest EV producer behind Tesla (no.1 in China). Also, Toyota and Warren Buffet have invested in them, I'm confident that they will be around for many years to come.


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Saw/ drove in the pre ADR test BYD's back in 2019 during a visit to Brabham BT62 workshop. They are a multinational vehicle/ logistics firm with fingers in many pies (suspension OEM/ buses/ heliostats ) and an ex-Tesla employee CEO. Told me some crazy stories about his time there. They would know exactly how far they can stretch the friendship with customers before losing out $$$wise.
 

SlowManiac

Likes Bikes and Dirt
So - a contender has entered the fray - a 2015 BMW X3 20d. It's being offered to us by the family my wife works for - it's well looked after and a very good price.

One question though. My research leads me to believe there are 2 engine versions that this car sold with. N47 and newer B47. The N47 had timing chain issues that were very expensive to fix.

I did a VIN check on the vehicle and the engine is listed as B47. The rego papers also have engine number xxxxxxxxN47D20C.
That looks a lot like the previous version to me.

Any ideas?
 

Haakon

Keeps on digging
So - a contender has entered the fray - a 2015 BMW X3 20d. It's being offered to us by the family my wife works for - it's well looked after and a very good price.

One question though. My research leads me to believe there are 2 engine versions that this car sold with. N47 and newer B47. The N47 had timing chain issues that were very expensive to fix.

I did a VIN check on the vehicle and the engine is listed as B47. The rego papers also have engine number xxxxxxxxN47D20C.
That looks a lot like the previous version to me.

Any ideas?
Have a look at what injectors are worth… I wouldn’t recommend a diesel, even before considering how anti social they are.
 
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