BKKBike09

Buying land is a gamble because it will be in the partner's name and can be mortgaged.

I have to confess I've never even thought about folding them manually. However - just for you! - I can confirm that they do fold manually just fine. Need to push with firm pressure; there's a fair amount of resistance and then it suddenly folds smoothly. In a highly-scientific comparison with my Scirocco, I can add that the Atto mirrors require much more effort to fold. However my Scirocco doesn't have power folding mirrors, so maybe that's not surprising (that they're easier to fold). Happy folding.

For the Atto 3, yes. Everything off. The 'safety' features are (to me) not needed. The Autonomous Emergency Braking is downright dangerous. Predictive Collision Warning - pointless. Lane Keeping - maybe helpful if dog tired and on a long drive but otherwise useless. At least since the last OTA update you can permanently disable all this stuff, not have to switch it off everytime you start the car. Then there's the 'Adaptive' Cruise Control. I think the Atto cruise control is among the worst systems I've ever tried to use. Particularly frustrating is that it only allows for speed settings to change by minimum +/- 5 kmh, not 1 kmh. Apart from this stuff, it's a great car. Even the Batman Atlas tyres aren't as bad as some people claim. Speaking after 9 months of Atto ownership.

Please. Covid is the same as bubonic plague? The latter (not viral) killed roughly 1 in 3, irrespective of age. The former killed what % in age groups under-50? Or over-50, for that matter.

This guy is a bell-end. Seen him riding like a tw@t for years now. Usually wears a wife beater and shorts. I look forward to him nursing some full body road rash.

According to the news source that cannot be named: The navy came up with two proposals. One is to buy a frigate that can fight against submarines, and the other is to purchase an offshore patrol vessel.

Yep. They could allocate the budget for local-build (Bangkok Dock) of a couple more OPV, which ran around THB 5-6 billion each. They're so desperate to support the local economy it seems stupid to give the money to an overseas builder, full stop. Without knowing the mission requirements it's difficult to say why they want a frigate: a war-fighting vessel as opposed to something optimised for maritime patrol / interdiction. If they do buy a frigate I suspect it will probably end up running the same mission profiles as the OPV anyway.

If you're in the NW of Spain, possibly think twice before telling people you have a bad case of the Covid Pirola variant.

From the linked article: “The truck driver had no insurance, but he’s taking responsibility. The total damage is over 300,000 baht.” 300K + for that low speed drop! Crazy.

Although if you're trying to get from A to B very quickly on busy roads, while also working a radio and other kit, automatic is quite handy.

The Seal is a fine looking vehicle (saw a black one on the road yesterday). My main worry with it would be flooding; my soi floods regularly and much worse in last two years (to the extent of having 3 inches of water in the house once last year and once this year). The water also goes down much more slowly than before (I've lived in that soi 15 years), so although the Seal battery is, indeed, 'sealed', it could be sitting in water for several hours. Would be interesting to test drive, though. Particularly to see how well developed the various 'adaptive' tech really is. As I've said in other posts about the Atto, things like the adaptive cruise control and autonomous emergency braking are sub-par. Last thing you want if really pushing a car is assistive tech that's okay but not great. Sometimes better (and more fun) to turn it all off and see how things go ...

28 confirmed dead.

Volkswagen DSG auto box (I have a (now very old) Scirocco) gives that experience - in fact you could argue better than manual because you don't need to lift off at all when shifting and the shift is quicker than a manual change. Now if only they'd made the Scirocco AWD or RWD. I've also got a BYD Atto. Handles like a boat on the stock rubber / suspension, but it's a very relaxing car to drive if not hammering it. If you can charge at home and your journeys are typically less than 300 km round trips, EVs are great. But certainly not suitable as a blanket replacement for ICE, at least not until charging takes 15 min or less and chargers are literally everywhere. Which is going to take a long time. Where all that power will come from is another thorny issue.

^ Actually it seems there are 4 videos covering taking apart through to integrating into home storage system.

For anyone who finds it strangely fascinating watching people take things apart - two interesting videos (only posting link to first here) of a EV-qualified engineer dismantling a battery from an Atto. Some of his posted comments are very useful eg this one about the battery's water resistance: "There is a thick gasket all around the outside where the top plastic case bolts down onto the aluminium base and there are O rings around all the connections. The pack also had a couple screw vents on top that equalised pressure when I undid them so the pack is air tight"

Does the WD40 tip work on teeth? Because I've been using toothpaste on them for 50 years and they still look the colour of pilau rice.

Only ever made Outpatient claims. Pretty straightforward so can't complain about that. However they won't pay for some medicines / treatments. If the hospital has these on an exclusion list then you pay for that at the hospital. But I've also had hospital ask me to reimburse them for something that PC said later wasn't covered. However PC underwriters are definitely not on my Christmas Card list. They will try to exclude as much as they can from coverage when you apply. They are also incredibly slow to assess / respond (in my experience). My antipathy towards them stems from them retroactively excluding coverage for something at renewal after having a policy for several years (and no claims related to the new exclusion). This was despite me making full disclosure of medical history when I applied for the policy. Took several very stressful months to argue with them and finally get them to be more reasonable.

Hmm. Let's see. Wacko shoots people with a modified blank firing pistol and the news since then has been all about control of illegal guns and crackdowns on online sales ... so let's agree to sell a modified blank firing pistol to someone anonymous online ... who turns out to be the police ...

From one of the linked articles: The Surat Thani Immigration Chief Colonel Suppakorn Pankosol stated to the Thai press, “We found that these guns and bullets were ordered online from the northeast of Thailand. Mr. Adam used these guns to practice shooting at a shooting range on Samui Island. He also posted on social media that he likes to collect guns. Many of his online posts also seemed to threaten other foreigners. Mr. Adam has fitness businesses and has stayed in Thailand for a long time.” I suspect 'Mr Adam' may be in for an extended stay in Thailand, but perhaps in less enjoyable surroundings. <deleted>.

Others have already answered but no, you pay flat rate regardless of how long it takes to get the power. If you had two cars connected at the same time to the charger in your example, they'd share the total power available between them. Also looks like that charger might not get the rated supply anyway, at certain times of high general demand in the area. THB 9 per kWh is pricey, though.

Those speeds are total output per charging station. I know from experience (with both PEA and PTT's EV Station) that once you connect more than one car to a station, the total output is shared between them. Some stations can charge 3 cars using different charging set ups so it's quite possible to be plugged in to a 160 kW charger and only get 50 kW (or a PTT 50 kW one and only get 20 kW). If your car won't charge faster than say 80 KW (eg Atto) then not getting top speed isn't so much of an issue. But it must be frustrating to have a car that could take 120+ and only be getting 50 ...

Legally, I don't know. In practice: I have a friend with a big Beemer (X4 I think) who's had it on red plates for more than 3 years. The dealer (in Bangkok) doesn't seem to care.

This speaks to the pressure on the Govt from the legacy car makers, especially Toyota (which has about a third of the auto market), Honda and Isuzu, none of whom have yet to embrace EVs or, alternatively, some other alternative to ICE. These companies still dominate the Thai auto market and have massive clout with government, thanks both to domestic sales, export earnings and the whole associated auto parts supply chain. Don't forget that the surging EV sales are still only a small % of the total market, which is expected to be around 850,000 this year. Toyota recently said their target for the year is 290,000 vehicles (including pickups). Total auto market in August 2023 was 60,234 (down nearly 12% y-o-y). That included: Toyota - 20,871 (down 10.6%) Isuzu - 11,380 (down 28.2%) Honda - 7,084 (up 0.2%) If these guys aren't very worried, they should be. Reminds me slightly of BlackBerry. "Ignore disruptive tech - we will tell consumers what they want". I also think Tesla could be heading for a massive fall if it doesn't a) diversify its line-up ASAP and b) introduce a cheap and cheerful model (USD 25K or less) to attract younger buyers to the brand and build future loyalty to it. All the fear about Chinese cars / spyware etc also won't mean much, if anything at all, to the next generation of car buyers, who will likely be hostile to the very thought of an internal combustion engine.

The longer it takes to get the white plates, the 'newer' the car is when registered i.e. you buy in Oct 2022 but don't get registration book/white plates issued till Apr 2023, car can be described as '2023' model when selling. Also, red plates = no speeding tickets ...

Bring it on, big boy.