Airbnb has always provided a good alternative for us. We lean towards Airbnb still nowadays because it allows us to rent a whole unit with kitchen and separate rooms for the price of a bigger hotel room. With kids the kitchen and separated space really makes a difference.

We met a really nice host in Melbourne and she took us out for dinner. Lots of hosts will go the extra mile for you if you are nice. Other than an odd one in Munich where the plumbing broke the day when were checking in, no fault of the host and she found us alternative arrangements. I think the only below average experience was in Osaka where I think the unit was vacant for a long time and the drains dried, and the unit smelled like the sewer. Once we filled up the u bends with water and let the smell dissipate it was fine.

That’s racist !!!

Forums all across the board are pretty dead. The only forum type site that's really alive is rfd and reddit; and the reddit (not really a forum anyway) interface is complete shit for anything more than 50 replies.

New forums are YouTube and TikTok comment sections

Probably all 3 and more. The price point to drive something fun for sub $10k-20K has gone. I remember $2-5K was enough to get you a RSX-S / Civic SiR, GSRs, 240sx. Now they are $8-15K+ for 200-300,000KM+ examples.

New cars cost almost $40-50K out the door + financing for a new GR86, Miata, Elantra N, Civic SI. People are too worried about affording to move out, eat, travel, short-term entertainment, that the thought of buying a $10-15K shitbox is not desirable. The $30-50K car are probably never attainable for 80% of the Gen Z's out there without help.

I don't think the car scene locally is dead. But, the scene has moved onto new ways of organizing and discussing cars. I decided to check out the local cars and coffee last week. Pretty good turnout and there are lots of people, young and old, who can still afford (or racking up credit lines) the hobby.

What's probably changed is that I don't think a lot of people under the age of 40 turn wrenches anymore given the lack of detached home ownership and the complexity of newer cars.

The scene is also more fragmented. There's less big homogeneous meets like RS where everything goes and everyone comes out to a big event, more little groups here and there. A lot of meets are under 10 cars to get coffee or whatever.

There's also one more medium that's not mentioned, whatsapp (or insert your choice of IM app) groups. I'm part of 3 different car groups on whatsapp for completely different ppl, purpose, and audience. There's probably more that I can join, but message overload.

Facebook started it, but other social media as well, mostly reddit

And yeah, being a niche forum also limits new interest, especially regional. Anyone interested in cars will find a subreddit to go to. Vancouver people will go to the Vancouver subreddit. I guess there's Whatsapp groups too but I never used Whatsapp for group messaging before.. it seems like it would be awful for that

Also yeah, 25 years later it's just one of those things people don't really do anymore in very large numbers.

Even most of the FB groups I joined ages ago are pretty dead now, which I don't really mind since they were way worse than forums for people asking the same noob questions endlessly. I think a lot of people shifted to Reddit/WhatsApp/Discord which are even more of a disorganized mess than FB so I haven't bothered.

When younger, could drop money on mods and cruises like pocket change. Now can barely even afford putting a day permit on the car LOL. Marriage, family, mortgages etc, the shift in priorities.

What's a wrench? :D :troll:

I don't know about this. Sure, there are many people who are struggling, but there are so many newer cars on the road these days. People aren't buying traditional sport compacts anymore - they're buying F150s, luxury SUVS, or Teslas. Out here in suburbia, everyone is rolling in some sort of 50K plus premium SUV, Tesla, or Ram/F150.

Very few new cars are worth modifying in the traditional sense these days since everything is hidden behind computers and mounds of plastic. There's no shortage of money being spent on cars.

It's the new pencil trick where you sit in your office and twirl it around your fingers

There seems to be decent car culture activity going on in Facebook groups. I'm not on other platforms like IG or Tiktok, discord, etc. I basically use FB just to scroll through newsfeeds of a bunch of car related groups I follow.

I'm in a few local cruise and car & meet groups. They seem decently active throughout the summer.

Now that you mention it, it's no longer about modifying civics and all about "Adventure!" with #vanlife and overlanding by buying a $4k tent you use twice a summer.

lol

Maybe I'm just disabled, but after watching some port worker strike videos, I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of people crying for more money while parading around in vintage Corvettes, custom Harleys and $500k custom Freightliners.

And they are all shaped like Christmas hams.

This might be the only strike I didn't support. Maybe if it was a job people could get without it being gifted to them. These guys make more than nurses and firefighters.

i get the great joy of cleaning up their mess now.

As the guy who manages this collection of unruly hams, and also a fellow xmas ham shaped enthusiast, I'm quite unhappy with how long and how many vessel disruptions happened.

Fuck you Trudeau you hippie ass bitch, why didn't you get that fucking leprechaun Seamus O'Regan to step in earlier. had to wait god damn 2 weeks before even "suggesting" that mediators approach him with resolutions. when the Canadian economy is bleeding out 500-750 million dollars a day, you go into limp dick mode.

That being said, if i was a longshoreman, would i have done the same thing? you better believe it. The USA ILWU just reached an agreement and had quite a huge pay increase (about a month back) so it makes sense that the Canadian side also negotiates for such an increase. everyone on both side (employers and union) are dicks. This whole industry is a fucking crooked and overpaid because transportation is a monopoly.

There's only 2 railroads (CN & CP) that service the 4 ports in BC that can handle containerized traffic. Out of those 4 ports, only 2 operators (GCT and DPWorld) and thus everyone is stinking rich. You want a good job? join this supply chain on the port side or the rail side and you'll be making a killing.

Get your red seal certificate in heavy-duty mechanic and apply to the BCMEA. they will get you a longshoremen ticket and you too can be a xmas ham!

The backcountry scene is huge, based on the price of older Jeep models and 4Runners.

Speaking of #vanlife, when I take my family to public campgrounds, the amount of RVs nowadays is ridiculous. Even though we have a few more creature comforts these days, like inflatable mattresses that run on powered inflators, at least we still go camping in a tent.

Whenever I hear people complaining about the cost of living, look at the things that people sink their money into.

As someone who recently joined the port as a side gig yeah it's a sweet ride for the guys that are in membership but for everyone else you're looking at possibly 10+ years before you'd ever get full time consistent work year round. It took 4 years just from submitting my application to getting trained to work there lol

^ is that mgmt's fault or the union? If union has something to do with protecthing their long time workers against new entry workers, maybe you should do a counter protest ... It's obvious that they need more people so why don't they do a better job of moving someone quicker through the system?

It's because the work is based on how many ships they get and whatnot, so one day they might need 1000 guys the next day it could be 4000. Members get first pick and then it goes down the spare boards after that etc.

Honestly the most annoying part is you have to go to the hall to try and get work and when you're on the lower boards you can go there day after day for nothing which means you're actually losing money with gas prices these days.

It would be so much nicer if you could put your name down online and then just go for work if it's available, but these guys are very old school mentality and if they had to grind back in their day then everyone else after them has to suffer through it too

they have a need for a washed up engineer? i wouldn't mind getting paid more than nurses and fireman at the expense of looking like an xmas ham

what's the chances this is the ham you're talking about Kappa :troll:

i might have forgotten to mention this part; thanks MarkyMark!

If you're a filthy casual (their words, not mine) its grind grind grind and eat a lot of shit before you are a member. Trades is a tad bit easier to get work as they often run short (heavy duty mechanical/eletrician for example)

But if you just have a regular ole casual that means youre either driving to east van (if youre local 500) or close to fraser surrey dock (if youre local 502) for dispatch and often walk away empty-handed for years on end. Its such an old school and bullshit system but hey, THATS TRADITION!!!!.

You'll never make it in the union. The only way to truly become a successful longshoreman is to grab a ticket when you are 18 and then wait.... and wait... and wait... until you're almost 30+ before you can hold a steady job on the waterfront. Till then, prepare to go to the hall every day, live with mom and dad, and eat a lot of shit from foremen/management/members.

The easiest way to get a job on the waterfront is to start working for the terminals/port authority in any capacity possible. Whether in customer service or just some low-end, paper-pushing front desk job, it'll open doors to something more lucrative. Or do what i always wanted to do and join a tug boat as a deck hand. The money is shit at the beginning and you'll never see your family, but when you make mate or captain its big bucks. Eventually, you can go do your Marine Pilots test and those fuckers make 500k+ a year easily. Some are pulling in closer to a million. Marine pilots make airline pilots look like a bunch of hobos on east hastings.