I knew this would happen

Anyone noticed the Dash layout is the same as the New City, Dials n All.Not impressed,remembering the old 3.0 Alpina Coupe, to me the most super B.M. ever without going OTT.

I think the 850CSi.......................

BMW.jpg...................

850

The new Vios interior is far better than the old one, agreed. But the 3series has a little more to offer, even though it could be better, little more class leading like it used to be.

Well the 70K which I think I saw on the bill are not granted, maybe I´m wrong there, as I said, was just a short glimpse when I sat there to sign the paperwork. But 12K is impossible either, that would be cheap as hell?? But usually BMW parts aren´t cheaper in Thailand than in Germany? Whenever I ordered something it was more expensive than at home. When I check the prices for the parts for that inspection in Germany it would be:

2 discs front 280€

1 Set of brake pads front with sensors 170€

1 Set of brake pads aft with sensors 140€

2discs rear 206€

Inspection kit all filters 240€

Oil 100€

=1136€ just for the stuff needed, overpriced dealer crap of course. The same things could be bought for 50% from part dealers though. There is no reason to think that these BMW parts should be cheaper in Thailand? But other sources here should be able to offer better prices too.

But yes, 120K is too much, you won´t need a big serice every or tires every year. So if you would average the costs to a yearly figure:

So insurance: 30.000

Service work average per year: 35.000

Tax: 5.000

Tires: 10.000

=80.000 average per year. Your guess should be allright if everything goes well with the german rubbish

If you are in Bangkok, don´t go to Millenium Rama 4, Rama 3 is good.

Buy from a BMW dealer, the used cars are usually in a great condition and don´t leave the dealer unchecked/serviced+ you have a full history of the car.

-Tax should be about 5500 per year if its a x25i, not much at all.

-1st class insurance depends from a lot of factours of course. Guess for such a car you could be around 30.000 per year

-I can´t comment a lot on part prices because I´ve always had the service package. So I never saw a bill for the service work. Mabye others have accurate figures regarding brakes, oil change and such stuff.

One time I could take short glimpse on a service bill from my dealer, it was oil change, brakes with pads and discs front and aft, I recall a sum of 70K Baht, but I cannot guarantee for that.

p.s. i knew this would happen!

p.s. i knew that [good advice] would happen

I always knew you´d like me

Still mad?

Btw, noone is perfect, rubbish everywhere:

Of course there is nothing wrong with that car, quite nice. And it is British. Then it became a Ford, and then a Tata

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo, his "E" has always been British...............

His E of course. Maybe I´ve written something misleading here. Meant the company. Sorry for that.

This is of course a forever lasting British icon.

BMW and Mercedes way overpriced here due to the import tax. Cannot understand why anyone buys here especially a Farang. Wasted your money...should have bought an Accord or a Camry for less than half the price of your German rubbish!!!

German rubbish? Maybe the OP could try a British car.......oh wait!

Btw, seriously, the ZF gearboxes are great. There is only one fault with the BMW maintenance policy. BMW says they are maintenance free, but ZF says that at least the oil should be changed after 100.000km. In this case there was a manufacturing error, bad luck and very annoying indeed. Could have happend with any product and brand.

there's nothing wrong with my soon 45 year old British car. i love it as much as i love my wife's German car.

Of course there is nothing wrong with that car, quite nice. And it is British. Then it became a Ford, and then a Tata

My co-worker bought a new BMW 320 in America. He was so proud. About a year later he called and asked for some advice, he needed brakes in the front. He was quoted $2800 from BMW, I told him I just had front brakes on my Honda accord, $60. He was so upset! About 2 months later he came in with his new Honda civic, never been happier. Two best days of a BMW owners life, when you buy it and when you sell it!

2800$ and 60$ dollars. Before you post such figures you should verify what exactly was damaged or should have been fixed and not just compare some random numbers.

A complete set of rear and front brakes (discs, pads and work included) will be about 600€ in Germany. 2800$ dollar is either a ripp off or something else was damaged, but after one year that has to be in warranty cover anyway. Dealer prices are crazy though, gotta admit that.

60$ for your "brakes" you mean brake pads only, with labour? Chinese ones? The cost of discs and pads for a Civic or a 3Series are not very different if you buy it from any spare part store.

Ir really seems that Benz do not have problem with water...

You are so kind, if it was me I would have burnt BMW garage and sent a bomb to Germany !

Sure you´d have done that.....

There is nothing you can do as you have taken delivery unless you are protected with "Lemon Law" in certain countries. The usual practice by manufacturers is that they would offer to replace a "brand new" gearbox for your car without any charges and to pacify you further, a courtesy would come along too. From my past experience, BMW always has this gearbox issues regardless of which models. Well, if you like the brand so be it. Best of Luck!

NO! BMW is not known for serious gearbox problems. Right now I´m really worried that they begin to fk. up their engines, the main reason for BMW in the past. Timing chain problems, injector problems and the new 2.0 liter turbos have yet to prove that they are anyhow reliable, after 100K km+ cracks have been found in the blocks.

BMW and Mercedes way overpriced here due to the import tax. Cannot understand why anyone buys here especially a Farang. Wasted your money...should have bought an Accord or a Camry for less than half the price of your German rubbish!!!

German rubbish? Maybe the OP could try a British car.......oh wait!

Btw, seriously, the ZF gearboxes are great. There is only one fault with the BMW maintenance policy. BMW says they are maintenance free, but ZF says that at least the oil should be changed after 100.000km. In this case there was a manufacturing error, bad luck and very annoying indeed. Could have happend with any product and brand.

Gotta love that German quality! Buy a Honda .

right you are! it's a well known fact that the gearbox in every German car breaks down after 9 days

It´s true!! I´ve had 4 BMW´s, each driven about 3 years. Makes about 12 years (4380days) of BMW ownership. During that time they replaced my gearbox 486 times

And even if my gearbox would brake every 9 days, Honda and Toyota?? Nope, never. I´ll buy one when they start to make cars, not transport devices with wheels.

Gotta love that German quality! Buy a Honda .

Well thats a shame for BMW, but this can happen to anything made by humans. The OP won the lottery and got one of the few cars that fails after one or two weeks.

And as a German I love German cars. They are great to drive, have nice engines and are great to look at. There´s only one problem, the qualitiy is going downwards........

But who´s to blame for that? After all the shareholders want profit, more and more every year. So everything is build to a price, sometimes I think we´ve reache a point were cars start to get worse instead of better. There is a lot of great tech and innovation in the German cars, but I doubt everything is build to the specs. the engineers would like to see it. If there is a screw that is 1 cent cheaper but only half as strong then the management will always decide for the cheap way.

Of course a 20 year old 2.0 liter engine and gear box in the camry is more reliable...........................

Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?

Yes, happen quite often Your little quote is aimed more about the daily nitpicking on western roads.

We are talking about things like intentionally running red lights and driving on the wrong side of the road. That is serious stupidity!

And I agree that it is possible to drive here without having an accident for 10-20-30 years. It just isn´t fun (for me), driving used to be something I enjoy, now I hate it. But as all board members live in different areas it´s hard to find a common point of view anyway. As I am in BKK, driving here is not pleasant at all. Other regions may be a lot better, haven´t been everywhere and don´t intend to go to certain places.

Putting it in a shipping container. That's a brilliant idea. Keep it locked and tell em it's farm machinery and you will only pay 3% import duty and 7% sales tax.

Farm machinery, great idea.......finally I can bring my in my Kubota Shelby GT500 still waiting in the shed back home. Can´t wait to show the rice field who´s boss

Let's face it, there's not a lot of difference!

Yes, the interior could be from Kubota indeed.

"Kubota Shelby GT500" I don't see the PTO shaft....is it in the trunk?

Of course there is a PTO in my trunk, if not I´m afraid that the customs guy might get warily......

Orange? Red

Putting it in a shipping container. That's a brilliant idea. Keep it locked and tell em it's farm machinery and you will only pay 3% import duty and 7% sales tax.

Farm machinery, great idea.......finally I can bring my in my Kubota Shelby GT500 still waiting in the shed back home. Can´t wait to show the rice field who´s boss

Again pointless focusing on a single issue. In fact most Thais are rather good at driving in Thailand, it is foreigners who get upset. Implying that if Thai drivers were "better" would make the roads safer? There are no more or less stupid drivers in Thailand than any other country - so the solution must lie elsewhere.

Maybe there are other isuses involved???

Yes, they are good at driving in Thailand, but what they do in Thailand is a mix of The Need for Speed and Grand Theft Auto, not driving!

And if you drive better, less accidents happen. Sounds about right for me. So if the Thai licencse wouldn´t be on par with the Big C member card but harder to get because you need to show that you acutally can drive a car/motorbike the roads would be safer, wouldn´t they?

Clearly non of these polsters have driven a car in Cambodia or Vietnam for that matter.

Thailand's roads are MUCH safer.

How does that help? Too many people die in accidents, if even more die somewhere else, how does that help??

We have to deal with the situation here, not with roads in India, Africa or Afghanistan, no matter how much worse they are.

And it´s not much fun to drive here, most drivers are idiots, period.

Sure, same old topic, same rant everytime. But it upsets me everyday again and again. Traffic is one reason I really hate this place for. Ok, living in BKK is no good idea anyway, but I have to.

I was a passenger once in a samurai from BKK to Phuket!

I will never ever sit into a van or bus driven by a Thai. We tried this only three times when we went on vacation, but we gave up. Crazy bastards!

Now I rent a car when we leave Bangkok to Phuket or elswhere. Also to avoid the taxi mafia of course. So many insane drivers here.....in that video only the gunfight was missing!

99% of all expats that move from anywhere in the world to here end up with some kind of japanese dull car/truck! Why? You basically have no other choice. Many had to leave their decent cars behind and accept a "downgrade" Everything that is not Thai made will cost you two or three times it´s actual value, doesn´t matter if you buy it here or you import it yourself (if you can manage that). Thats something I really hate here, Porsche money for a BMW. BMW money for a Honda, welcome to Thailand.

What car did you want to bring? Is it an RHD? Is this car sold here in Thailand? Hard to get spare parts if not. How much do you expect to lose if you sell your car at home?

Normal day on Thai roads, nothing special to see here...........

The world is watching?? The world is not interested!

Did any country try to colonize???

Educated work force cmon get real.

Once more the world watches Thailand

a revolution of development

We have an educated, professional workforce.

a determination to succeed

the will and ability to continue to grow, develop and perform, both nationally and globally

Our country is a hub for automotive manufacturing, technology, services, leisure and the creative industries.

Yep

I disagree with kuhn Abhisit. According to a poll taken sometime ago Thais find nothing wrong with corruption as long as they benefit.Thailand deserves what its got, a parliament full of corrupt self serving politicians.

That Thailand was never colonized is probably a disadvantage,in the long run they would have learnt good governance. When the British ruled Hong kong corruption was minimal as soon as they left, it soared. Just as honesty is a trait of the Nordic countries so is corruption a trait of Asian countries,it defines them,it forms them in every aspect of their being,it wont alter because of a new set of rules placed on the table. In the western democracies corruption also exists but the people practicing corruption are looked down upon, here they are admired because of their wealth.

Two years ago a young Thai man that i know entered the Temple as a monk for three months. A lost mobile was found on the Temple grounds by a monk. I asked the young man if they had tried to find the owner he replied no,the monk who found it used it himself,the Abbot of the Temple warned him it would be better if he changed the sim card so that he couldn't be traced,so much for the much respected religion here.

But they DESERVE better!? As long and 95% of Thais seem to have a wired view of rights, law, orders, do´s and dont´s it will stay the same forever.

We deserve better? The saying goes, you get what you deserve!

Thailand needs to change, but I cannot imagine who and how can achieve this gigantic task. All fights and clashe in Thailand only had one target: Money and power for ME. Noone has ever thought what will happen to the beloved??!! country. As long as everyone is just selfish, you don´t deserve better!