In the mid-2010s, biker gangs or bikies were often in the news. Bikies were thought to be used as an option to settle disagreements hence the meme of bikies as an option to resolve a matter is often referenced in OzBargain culture.

Biker gangs or bikies have long been a part of Australian news coverage. According to Google Search trends, bikies mentioned in news articles were at peak popularity in October 2013. During this time period, the media was oversaturated with daily biker gang news.

The first use of “bikies” was on January 1, 2014 by strangeloops66 in reply to a comment from kronicmacstigator:

The joys of having to go to court…
Can't book :( Would of loved to have gone. Ah well, for $200 I can get free meals/bed on the tilt train to Cairns anyway.'

kronicmacstigator

Juror, lawyer or bikie?

strangeloops66

By September of 2014, use of the term bikies was in the OzBargain vernacular:

The consensus of comments isn't really consistent with high purely positive votes. Maybe there needs to be another option.

tomwood

The other option is usually bikies.

Baysew

• Deal: Vintage Leather Biker Jacket $249 Delivered @ Superdry

Bikies

elgrande

OzBargain bikie gang on a budget? We can rock up on Segway Ninebot scooters.

sobriety22

As of 12/1/24, “bikies” appear in 2,140 Google Search results from OzBargain.

• What's the safest part of Western Sydney? Bikies?
• Customer Had Car Accident and Sent Letter of Demand. At Fault Party Won't Take Receipt
• Charging My EV in a Charging Bay. Parked in by Truck Driver, Asked Him to Move. AITA?
• Tas Uni Has Compromised My Personal Phone Number

OzBargain ran a competition: Show off Your OzBargain Gang Sign and Win Cash Prizes (Total $2,500) and OzBargain "Bikies" T-Shirt. The competition introduced 2023's OzBargain t-shirts which referenced the bikies theme in polls.

Reddit Brisbane: Where have all the bikies gone?

Too busy chasing up kients on ozbargain

• Boxing day sales 2012 led to hundreds of people snapping up tablets at an incorrect price.
• Jerry Harvey wasn't pleased, calling it the work of “professionals”.

“It went up as a mistake around midnight and by 4am our people were alerted to it,” Mr Harvey said.
But not before about 300 people snapped up 1600 of the bargain tablets, according to Mr Harvey, who said it was the work of professionals, not everyday consumers.
“It was obviously a mistake and they knew it,” he said.

Source

• Reference; This post explains it better than any wiki would be able to… 'Public' Park Barbecue Rules

Typically used when a user asks about what car to buy and gives an eye watering budget, or makes reference to their expensive luxury car, it is always referenced as a “high yield investment vehicle”. Often used at any mention of a European (especially German made) vehicles or when someone tries to pass their s#%t heap off as some kind of rare and valuable “collectable” vehicle.

This meme may also occasionally be manifested by a question; “Do you work for Westpac?” with reference to the original poster stating they worked for Westpac.

Source;

Was started by this comment made by a user that said that the Mercedes Benz car they were looking to buy would actually be an “investment with high yield”. What they meant was in terms of face value and fitting in at their new job working for Westpac, but the community never lets that get in the way of a good taunting, and thus the “high value investment vehicle” meme was born.

Used when someone talks about their car in an appealing way, even though it is a 100% run of the mill, poverty pack, base model with some stickers on it. Often coupled with the moniker of having “all the bells and whistles”, when it quite clearly doesn't.

History;

A user posted a question about what people kept in their car and tried to humble brag about owning an AMG… but the problem was, it wasnt an actual AMG, but an AMG line, or a base model car with some AMG stickers and some nicer seats. The user tried to humble brag about owning a Mercedes Benz and then proceeded to get owned in the comments with users pointing out that it wasnt an AMG, but an entry level vehicle with badge engineering.

Source; What Do You Keep in Your Car? post.

Yep, those AA rechargable batteries…

• The official currency of OzBargain. Can be used to buy/trade for anything and is the prime payment method for OzBargain Premium™ membership.

A must have addition to any “I was involved in an accident, who was at fault?” post.

The things you must supply are;

• Your distorted version of the facts (only tell your lop-sided version of events)
• A photo of the damage and/or dash cam footage.
• A crudely drawn version of the event with the least amount of detail you can offer. Preferably done in a drawing program that could only be described as MS Paint.

This last one is by far the most important. You could have an 8k video at 120 frames per second and photos of everything… But in the 9th circuit court of OzBargain Automotive forum, the only real evidence that will convince the jury is a poorly drawn MS Paint diagram. (Drawing over a Google Maps photo is also passable in this situation).

Almost every single thread that starts with a premise about asking something that should have been asked of the interested parties before being asked on OzBargain. This is the usual reply put to people who have posted questions that should have been asked elsewhere first

• Got into a car crash? Dont ask your insurer, get straight on OzBargain
• Got a traffic infringement that was unfair? Dont ask police/council, get on OzBargain
• Council done you wrong… Better ask OzBargain first.
• Got duded on a new car purchase, don't ask the dealer, no, ask here on OzBargain

• Any time there is an issue with a car that is unexplained or some kind of relationship conundrum, it's always somewhere in the comments that someone will inevitably reference back to the "lip balm found in the center console" post where a user lamented on the breakdown of a relationship over a misplaced lip balm that was found in a place that it should not have been.

This reference is often trotted out as a reply to anyone talking about how cool their car is or how powerful it is.

This reference comes from a user that often liked to talk about their newly acquired Mustang and how much power it had, and was caught saying that they rarely take the vehicle "over 4000rpm" only to later state that "4,000RPM in a Mustang is like 8,000RPM in any other car.".

(ironically, this user makes a comment about how “Going fast is for idiots with small body parts”, but then later posted about speeding in a construction zone…)

Used when people complain about buying a new car and they either didn't check the sales order or purchased the wrong model, or are complaining about some spec or trim level issue on their new car.

Reference and history;

A user once made an account just to poo poo their new Rav 4 car purchase and how it didn't come with roof racks, only to ghost the forum (as expected) just as people were pointing out how it was this users fault for not researching and buying the right trim level of RAV 4 before they had purchased.

Used in reference to people talking about getting work on their car done on the “very” cheap. Like, bordering on illegal and unsafe kind of “cheap”. Basically if it's illegal and automotive, Uncle Ian will have a look (but it's gonna cost you “a carton of piss and a box of darts”).

History;

Habib's/Salim's Fully Sikre Sled Shoppe and Ferrari Emporium

Uncle Ian's Automotive complete with photo of Uncle Ian hard at work

Used as as a semi sarcastic and humorous remark to someone stating the obvious. This prase if often manipulated to sound similar to the original saying, but with a twist that fits the topic being talked about.

• Karens make rants, cheers!
• Flowers make scents, thanks!
• Eating noodles save cents. Cheers!

History: I don't know. It just appeared one day. (It's literally too hard to track the origin because the phrase is fluid and interpreted in many forms… But I'm going to blame user MS Paint until I get more proof.)

A list of the most common spelling errors that have just become memes at this point;

• Advise when seeking “advice” (or “advice” when asking to be “advised”)
• Breaks when asking about your car's “brakes”
• Bonut when asking about the front of your car.
• alot or allot which I tend to see a lot.

Standard answer for anyone looking to buy a new car. It is the car of choice of OzBargain users due to it being ridiculously reliable and cheap to buy, run and maintain.

• Need an SUV for 6 people, have you considered a “Camry”?.
• Need a 4×4 for camping, “Camry”.
• Just need a car to go to work and the shops? “Camry”.
• Your oldest child's first car… “Camry”.

Camry just ticks all the boxes. (Unlike that LPG Falcon suggestion from other unmentionable alternative automotive forums.)

The tide may be turning, however, as the EV space heats up and with a recent sale on the MG4 EV making them cheaper than most petrol vehicles in this segment, many users are now suggesting the MG as a viable alternative to anyone looking for a “cheap to own and run” vehicle. While the Camry has been “king” of the suggestion list for many years, its crown may be slipping with cheaper and more fuel efficient vehicles being adopted.

An acronym for: Another Day, Another Gift Card Horror Story

Used to describe any post where someone has posted about buying a gift card from a store and having it deleted, not honored, not refunded, not applied, no bonus credit, basically anything that you can think of that goes wrong, went wrong. (also may be applied to gift card scams from using OzBargain classifieds)

These threads get posted with such monotonous regularity that the atomic internet clock has started to cross check it's time accuracy against the regularity of these “gift card horror story” posts.

After further deliberation (possibly without the consultation of now ex-board member, Brian Perez), it was decided that any deviation to the acronym must contain 7 letter, no more and no less, as can be seen in this adapted reference to a trade in horror story.

Source; First coined by user mapax somewhere… at some stage. It has now entered the public domain for free use.

This isnt a meme so much as it's just hella funny, so I thought I would add it.

A (since “deactivated”) user wasn't getting the confirmation bias they were told they would get when posting to an internet forum when user spackbace laid down a few home truths. Unimpressed with this information, the user then proceeded to refer to spackbace as "sassmouth".