armortec

Thonglor shop has no VAT refund and discount is difficult. If you are in ChiangMai, you can go to Chiangmai Pantip plaza (yes!) last floor, Eagle GPS and the shop owner is a farang! He has a variety of GPS, he can give some discounts too. Another shop in Robinson Airport plaza.

In Bangkok: http://www.geocities.com/bkkriders/gps/index.html

I think the most accurate Thailand map comes from ESRI which is usually bundled into Garmin and they have the English and Thai version.

This is the Civic Modulo concept.

Last month, a Thai friend told me the white colour is a limited edition, which was what the sales told him. He mentioned something like 90~100 available.

I thought is is pearl white, just like the MU-7, apparently it is not going to be.

Another interesting product is the white Fortuner.

White Fortuner will become available in Thailand?

If so, since when?

Do they start accepting booking on white Fortuner during this motorshow?

They should accept booking because they displayed the white fortuner. The show will open tomorrow to the public.

Do you like the back? Price for the 2.4EL is 1,473,000 Baht. It has tinted HID headlamp, and so the black car looked really cool. And the rears looks like it has LED lamps.

Another interesting product is the white Fortuner.

I would like all BMW car owners to share with us the maintenance costs of a BMW 3 or 5 series circa 2002/3 either 318iSE or the 523iSE Executive.

Sample costs of parts and the service charges are deeply appreciated.

I heard BMW is problematic and costly to maintain. I had a friend who once owned a smallish BMW 320i but it has many problems with electrical items and cost an arm and leg to get it done. Sure that was years ago, but I hope it had improved in quality and reliability.

I hope the thai version will have what the US version is being offered in the SE version:

1. Bluetooth handsfree with number appeared in the LCD display.

2. digital amplifier for the 8 speakers.

3. air ionisers?

4. Allergy free fabric made of some kind of hair?

Interesting.

The bangkok post reported it might be announced in BKK motor show this march. I think the front grilles has a few designs to distinguish different engines. I agree the sunroof is not really necessary in tropical countries.

Nice?

I have a iQue M5. It is a PDA + ESRI's digital map. The M5 is not expensive, but it is the map. I travelled to the remote areas of N Eastern regions, Udon Thani, Khoekaen, SakonNakorn, it has all the details of small roads when I locate my vendors.

In bangkok, it is as detailed as you can get.

You need no outside sensor, as it has a flip up receiver, but you have to check the solar film I have a friend's car with 40% film and it still works. Under bridges or narrow streets with building on both sides, it might lost signal, but as you move on, it is quickly locked with the satellites again.

I once navigates to IMPACT exhibition. It showed me to the place but the some entrances/exits were blocked, so re-routing is mandatory.

The voice command and map data is in English. I wish the search function of POI are more intelligent. You cannot find Condo XXX when you key in XXX.

The car kit suction cup is powerful, my complain is the difficulty to angle the receiver up when you had it inserted into the cradle of the car kit, because of the sloping windscreen.

The PDA is slow, probably of the massive map data. (80+ MB). The screen is readable in the daylight.

The service from ESRI is great. (http://www.esrith.com/Eindex.cfm)Called them for the version 6.7 map update and in 1 day they EMS the CDROM over. It now contains another 10MB for the Asia pacific general maps for free.

Should you get a streetpilot C320 or the iQue M5 (the new M3 has concealed receiver) depends on whether you want to stick your gadget to the windscreen everytime or bring the M5 and walk with you when you are not in the car.

I chose the M5, overall I am satisfied with its performance.

Do i need to camp overnight? I have a regular job in Samut Prakarn province. I can't leave early on Friday. If you do not have idea of how bad even after paying the toll, I was twice stucked in the expressway for 2.5 hrs after leaving my Bangpoo office at 4pm on a Friday afternoons.

My route will take me to Banga Trad, or via Sukhumvit Road to Onut BTS station. I will take a motorcycle if the traffic is especially bad in Samrong area to Onut Station. And from the stations I can alight and continue my journey to Don Muang tollway. I am no cheap charlie, I have a Garmin GPS with thailand map, 3 or 4 thailand bangkok maps and a Mapking 3D GPS map installed in my laptop, but they don't tell you the least busy roads to the airpot.

I can't recall the expressway the taxi usually take. ( 40 baht from Bangna extrance) and I can recall I could see Lumphini building on the left and the sector of that expressway is the worst and I would like to avoid.

Please help me recommend the fastest route/expressways,and regardless of tolls to be paid, to airport next Friday night as I expected a terrible jam due to long weekend.

I shall originate from any BTS/MRT stations which you will recommend, and then hail a taxi and head to the airport before 9pm.

Thank you in advance.

Hi digger,

I was quoted 10,000 Baht off, free 1 year comprehensive insurance. I expressed a 38k baht discount off to the sales exec, and on top of that, I asked for HID lights, side mirrors with signal lamps, rear spoiler and the insurance freebies thrown in. The sale exec said she can "talk" to the manager, and the best is place a 10k deposit to express my interest.

What about your negotiation so far?

Current shape has been out since 2003 so I doubt they'll be a new shape for at least another year or 2.

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Usually they will do a minor facelift in the middle of their model life, and it seems like the Accord should have a facelift soon.

Can any kind soul tell us will the Accord comes with a new facelift soon?

I am thinking to buy the Accord 2.0, and the dealer seemed very happy to give me discounts, insurance and accessories that I predict they might be offloading the old look models.

TIA.

Are there many insurance policies available in BKK for insuring my rental apartment? I want to insure my properties against thefts, robbery and fire.

Any company to recommend?

The new civic is opened for booking in Singapore, they rumoured the sample car will arrive Nov and should ship around Christmas. And the version looks like the Jap model.

Singapore Honda agent typically sourced its Civic, Odyssey from Japan, while the Accord, Jazz and City ZX now comes from Thailand. I am not sure if it is still the same or not.

I went hunting for a top loader with pump assisted drain and I found one! The whirlpool. It has hot water and with 4 compartments for automatic dispensing of bleach prewash, wash and softener. It has hot water wash setting.

Price is real bargain for 16k with free installation and breaker installation.

But so far I have not used the hot water function, because it is not necessary and I am very very pleased with the wash performance.

Well just to inform those who may be interested ...

We found that at Emporium/PowerBuy we could get a front load, 6Kg load, internal hot water, output pump equipped, machine from LG for under 20KTHB. We went with a more expensive model that had larger capacity, higher spin rates (800 => 1400) and direct drive (fewer parts => reliability/longer life).

I assume we paid top Baht as Emporium is never cheap, but i could not find a reputable retailer easily and Emporium usually stands behind their products. In fact the lady said if we move, they would move the washer for us for a small fee.

The folks at Tesco Lotus were just very poor salepeople; that is when we could find one, and then they could not speak English which makes the information flow necessary for decison making impossible.

Delivery is in two days.

JFYI

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I think I read in Bangkok Post motorning section awhile ago that new Thai civic will get the same exterior look as the EU version, believe not same as the Japanese version. 

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That looks like the Jap version.

Anyone to share the new launch and pre-booking news in Thailand? Is the new civic same www.honda.co.jp ?

yes you can. Just bring along your bill. They need to scan the barcode.

I just bought a 29" JVC CRT TV with 100hz.

JVC made its own deflection yoke inside that even Hitachi buys from them.

Its yoke has better linearity. 17900 baht.

I did some research, I guess imported furniture are subjected to insane tax rate, 30%? That is why IKEA is not in thailand as their furniture are made in many coutnries.