JoeW

I am seriously thinking of getting a civic 2016 model, but it all depends on how much features they remove from the Thai model.

Let's wait and see

My son-in law checked out the price of a Jazz here and in UK. The UK price was nearly 7000 UKP cheaper! Why?

tax

Or you can come to my shop in the Kalasin area where you can see the service being done in front of you.

As far as I know, you cannot get a DL on a Tourist visa. First get your Non-O, then apply for your DL.

On temporary visa: only temporary license (2 years), on non-immigrant visa or extension of stay: 5 year license.

Even on visa exempt it is possible to obtain a DL.

Thanks Steven for correcting me. I was wrong Please ignore my comment.

Actually I do belive some don't have a problem extending their stay. As we were queuing we saw a guy giving money to one of the employees in the office - that employee came back 5 minutes later with a tray full of coffees and lates which she shared with her colleagues. "Surprisingly" enough that guy who gave the money to the employee only showed his passport at the desk - no form, no photocopies, no other document whatsoever and had his stamp in 20 seconds (maybe that's what I should have done?).

Please don't get me wrong, I would like to believe the standards are are there or there-about, but so far all what I have seen tells me it is nowhere near. Though my education and moral will probably still get me to just follow that new rule and provide the added piece requested for no valid reason, rationality and reason definitely tell the visa run way would be faster, simpler and cheaper indeed.

You mean he paid 1,900 THB for the application and got his come back within 30 days stamp?

Don't be to quick to judge someone just because you saw something. I have done my extensions at Samut Prakan, Bangkok and Sakhon Nakhon and bribery was never an option.

As far as I know, you cannot get a DL on a Tourist visa. First get your Non-O, then apply for your DL.

What you have to understand is in Thailand the rich pay, farang or Thai, doesn't matter. I have a Thai friend who is very wealthy, and always pays. I stopped trying to pay many years ago. My Thai brother-in-law came home from slaving in the sugar cane fields and took us all out to barbecue, he paid. As far as saying thank you, my family always says thank you.

Exactly! same here.

There is a white line on the road indicating that oncoming vehicles do not have the right of way. The magnificent, very well planned elephant roundabout in Buriram had to have traffic lights to make it work. (recently).

The problem is not the Thai drivers, it is the lack of public education on TV. I see every day clips of villagers complaining about bad roads but I never saw any complaining about badly designed roads. The activities of the road safety council or whatever it is called seem to be confined to exhorting the cops to increase vigilance every Song Kran and new Year.

I have only seen one Thai road safety video since I got here, and it was never ot TV.

Exactly. There are so many accidents and deaths on the road, which could be avoided by well designed roads.

1. U-Turns on highways?

2. Turning left at stoplights even when it's red.

3. Roads changing from 1 lane to 2 lanes and back constantly.

etc etc etc.

I am quite certain many accidents, traffic jams, etc could be avoided by simply redesigning certain roads.

Of course public awareness and educacting are also necessary

Also a bad fuel system might cause the engine to misbehave (erratic RPM or sudden drops). We had a car here at our repair-shop with a similar problem.

We replaced the fuel pump and that solved the problem. His engine mounts were still ok.

From my perspective and my driving habits (I drive around 1,000 km on average per week for my work), I would opt for the Honda Accord.

The reason is not so much that repairing a Benz would be more costly than the Accord, but if something does go wrong, Honda has a well established dealer network throughout Thailand, and I would be able to get the car repaired at those dealers. I drive often to the Thai country-side or industrial estates 200 km away from Bangkok. For that reason and for piece of mind I would opt for the Accord.

However, if I wouldn't drive too far away from Benz dealers or repair shops, the Benz would be my choice.

Test drove it a couple of months back when we were making the product information guideline for the dealers. Have to say, pretty much the best small crossover I have driven in Thailand.

It seems that Toyota may have inadvertently recognized the driver attitude you speak of with their slogan for the new model:

New legend of the pride

I still can't work out if they meant:

Be a legend [in your own mind], and rule the pride [of lions in the concrete jungle]

or:

The new legendary way to be proud on the road.

I'm going with the former

For some reason, "the pride" reminds me of the gay pride movement...

their slogan made no sense from the beginning

And someone got paid for thinking that one up .

I can't imagine President of TMT Tanada actually agreed to that slogan.

Knowing Toyota, they probably paid Delphys, Dentsu or ADK, around 2,000,000 THB for the slogan and a 10% royalty fee....

Btw slogan of the "new" Innova is the legend reborn. Since when was the Innova a legend?

It seems that Toyota may have inadvertently recognized the driver attitude you speak of with their slogan for the new model:

New legend of the pride

I still can't work out if they meant:

Be a legend [in your own mind], and rule the pride [of lions in the concrete jungle]

or:

The new legendary way to be proud on the road.

I'm going with the former

For some reason, "the pride" reminds me of the gay pride movement...

Amaron is an ok brand and falls under the Johnson Controls group which also owns VARTA. Quality standards are really ok as long as you stick with the pro version.

PM me...I might be able to help you.

PM me the details

They were able to price them that high as Thai people were buying it at that cost...that might start to change soon.

On a side note, the new Mazda 3 Skyactiv will be available in Thailand somewhere in April next year. We are currently starting the translation process for this car.

My repair shop named by my insurance company is Mitsubishi.

My passport is issued in Tokyo...why would the country of issue be a problem? It's just how it is My previous passport was issued in LA.

I am from Belgium.

9 km/l seems high for a vios...

Yes, quality standard for Japanese cars meet the minimum standards. No reason why a Malaysian built car would be of less quality than a Thai built car. BTW, seems to me that the CX5 is the first car where Thailand gets the full line-up.

We will deliver the printed OMs to Mazda on October 3. The OMs include both the gasoline and diesel version so I presume they will be available in Thailand. HOWEVER, at the beginning probably only gasoline version.

They are imported from Malaysia and not made in Thailand.

I try to follow the highway code. Rather do like that then feel guilty for braking the highway code (yes, I actually feel guilty for driving on the emergency lane).

I might be not the quickest at my destination, but at least I feel good about myself

I changed mine firstly to a JVC unit and last week I upgraded to an aftermarket Alpine unit.

However, it isn't similar to the one in your picture as mine is a 2DIN unit and has no separate CD/DVD player.

I paid 27,500THB.