JoeW

Mazda 2 XD HB is an absolute great car, but please stick to the dealer for maintenance.

I was involved in the marketing of their OEM oil supplier and a Mazda 2 only takes OEM oil for their transmissions.

Anything else in it and it will break down within 500 meters of the shop. 

Other than that, imho one of the best HBs in that price range for sale right now.

Our car shop will always check the batteries when they come in from the distributor and before we put them in the customer's car.

I think especially checking the CCA is important as this is one of those things you can't really fix by charging a battery.

We used to deal in GS, but those batteries came with 20 to 30% less CCA as it said on the box.

For us, 3K, Panasonic, Bosch and Hitachi are the batteries which real CCA is the closest to the advertised one.

Also, 3K makes a lot of batteries white label for other manufactures (some Bolidens, Hitachi, FB, etc)

Not to sound like a Toyota fanboy, but when I was doing their (TMAP-MS) comparison tests (2 years ago) with this hilux my independent test-drivers never got the truck to behave like this, and they drove it extremely hard.

Nevertheless, the Ford Ranger came out on top with the Isuzu Dmax in second place....

Good update :) I guess a workpermit will work as well?

1 hour ago, abab said:

 

 

Complete reply but too complete for Thailand. Not even sure that any of the shops doing coating know what you are talking about :-)

 

Anyway, the OP just needs to know that coating is useful to protect his paint and that he needs to do it only 1 time every few years. No addon necessary every 2 months.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To return to the topic: actually I also recommend a 6 month "maintenance" for my customers. Ceramic / Glass coating is not a magic product so it does allow some scratches to happen.

In that case, the coating has to be polish a bit and re-applied. In addition, when it rains a lot the hydrophobic effect of the coating might lessen and in that case we re-apply the hydrophobic coating to the car once again.

We recommend every 6 months, but that's included in the warranty of the service. 

Example: 10,000 THB will give you a complete polishing, ceramic coating, window coating, wheels coating and a 2 year warranty which includes 4 maintenance services.

3 hours ago, Jeffrey346 said:

Jonathan,

Is your shop here in Thailand and if so where?

I am in Thailand, but in the North East. In case you are in Bangkok I can recommend a top-of-the-notch coating shop which charges reasonable prices (+- 10,000 THB).

However, I think they are pretty booked full so if you don't mind the 1 month waiting list then .... :)

1 hour ago, abab said:

It's worth doing, but not for this price.

 

I was against the idea of paying stupid coating and I finally understood that it was useful.

 

You don't need any package and recoating. This is BS marketing.

 

Pay less than 10000 to have your car coated only 1 time is what is enough but what nobody anywhere will explain you.

 

The coating lotion that they use costs less than 5000 so they already get 5000+ profit when coating your car, it's more than enough and only retarded pay 20000+

 

Trust me, do it, but only 1 time and at a correct price.

 

 

I agree with you to some point, but it's not the coating shops that are making the big bucks, but the franchise owners.

To be a Ceramic Pro franchise owner you need to spend at least 1,000,000 THB/year on their products and after the first year you need to pay license fees.

Also you have to decorate your shop according to their standards so I can see where those shops need to charge 20,000 THB in order to get their investment back.

However, the shops which I would recommend in Bangkok are independent (as am I) and we don't need to pay expensive franchise fees so we can keep our costs down.

3 minutes ago, Deepinthailand said:

Any around kk

4Dwash near Lad Prao do a good job at compounding / polishing. No glass coating services, but the owner is good at what he does.

You can look them up on facebook

Just now, Deepinthailand said:

Scratches aren't deep more discolouration maybe due to sugar cane being loaded on hard to describe.

Well in that case, it's worth to compound and polish. Go to a shop nearby that does it or I can recommend a few in Bangkok, or Isaan.

9 minutes ago, JAS21 said:

I hope Joe won't mind me adding ... that if the paintwork has a considerable amount of Orange Peel ... eg a Ford ... if you remove the orange peel, while removing the deep scratch, then the panel will look different from the rest.

 

Of course you could then remove the Orange Peel from all the other panels to match up and really make it shine! Orange Peel is a protector of sorts ... 

 

A 'kin cat tried to 'board' my bonnet via the wing and failed ...  we just lightly compounded the worst out and you have to look hard to see what's left of the scratch now. Maybe the glass coating reduced the level of damage.

You're absolutely correct. Once you start with sanding panels, in the end those will look better than others. The new civic has almost no orange peel whatsoever, but new Mazda 3s and Fords have very bad orange peel. I am sure the glass coating protected against them, as they are meant to reduce damage.

FYI, I got my phone back so you can contact me again. I think my other phone is in Cambodia by now (if you know what I mean...)

22 minutes ago, Deepinthailand said:

Ok hijack time got a good few scratches not deep best way of getting them out. Don't mind a bit of hard work sweating ect any recommendations grateful. Color is silver bye the way.

Depends...rub with your finger nail over the scratch and see if it catches in the scratch.

If it does, even a compound is not going to get it out and then you have to sand the area of the scratch first.

If you don't mind them being still a tiny bit visible then you can just compound and polish them but they will not be gone 100%

If it doesn't then you can compound it out and then polish it to new. 

4,000 might be correct if the shop went through all the correct steps.

- Wash

- Clay bar

- Compound

- Polish

- Finish Polish

- Wax (synthetic)

Then 4,000 seems ok. However, if they just polished then scratched over 1,500 grit are still visible and then 4,000 baht is a bit over the top.

If you're really concerned about scratched on your car and want some peace of mind, I recommend getting your car ceramic coated. for even more peace of mind you can clear wrap your car...it all depends on how much you are willing to spend.

Scratches could have happened at the carwash place or anywhere else...

The hybrid in 3K means that the battery comes with battery water in it and comes fully charged. That's all it means :)

In any case, good luck with it.

XV, etc will still be build in Malaysia. 

Thailand will probably build other models and my best guess is a new eco-car (unannounced) in time for the 2020 eco car phase 2 

Well the Ford engineer can also easily say that he felt it was necessary and therefore went to you for your approval... (from their pov that is)

I finally found the article I ever read on facebook regarding gear problems with new Toyota fortuners.

https://web.facebook.com/carproblemsTH/posts/1183932968318744:0?_rdr

Seems similar to your case...albeit not the 6th gear...

2 hours ago, Don Mega said:

 

 

So your saying that black bottle that is labeled "Flushing Oil" is not infact flushing oil ?

 

When I google "flushing oil additive" there is very few hits for anything in a 5 liter can infact most seem to be small plastic bottles.

Years ago I used to use a wynn's  one and it was a 500ml can from memory.

Engline flush concentrate comes in 500ml bottles while flushing oil comes in 5 liter bottles.

The difference is that 500 ml bottles are added to the old oil before its drained. 

Flushing oil is put in after the old filter is changed and the old oil is drained. The flushing oil then flushes the engine. After that step the new oil is put in the engine.

Not sure what the advantages and disadvantages are of both.

https://www.ford.co.th/content/dam/Ford/website-assets/ap/th/owner/maintenance/maintenance-ford-ranger-2-2l-tcdi-4x2-hi-rider-at.pdf

Not sure it's your model, but they might have done some "unnecessary" work

The flushing oil is put in the engine when the old engine oil is still in there. The car is then ran for 15 minutes or so to take all the old oil and sludge out. Not a necessary step and some manufacturers even don't recommend it.

A can of Liqui Moly Engine Flush will cost you around 500 to 700 baht.

The filter is an Air Filter (AC) from inside the car. If I remember correctly Mitsubishi charges 700 baht for these (Pajero SP)

The other bottles I can't read :)

2020 eco-car phase 2 here we come.

I went for the 1.8 EL white pearl. Tested both 1.8 and 1.5 Turbo and couldn't justify the price difference...for my needs the 1.8 is more than good enough and if I want to avoid a crash, then I'll look to the left myself :)

In the article it does seem to say that the daughter sold the house in 2014 and that the agency to which she sold it came to collect the house and the belongings in 2015. Seems to me that this is an internal family issue...

According to the Thai article, her daughter is still living abroad. Foreign husband wasn't staying in Thailand...