Porkster

Where did 5-Star go?

Aren't they an all black UK pop group from the 80's?

Bit off topic, but we find similar between shell v-power and the standard diesel. Better economy and performance with the v-power which evens out the cost saving of regular. You might save at the pump with regular but will be going to the pump more often. As they say here, same same.

Plus its cleaner burning and better for the engine as well.... allegedly.

Couldn't agree more

And the smoke factor is minimal with V power vs other fuels

on the subject of used car cost, I agree on older cars they seem to hold value extremely well. But there some value in the nearly new with good discount on new.

But tempted by the 0% on the new Fords at the minute!

From personal experience don't get a fiesta, the focus is a nice drive and handles well

When the light is red and there's not a Blue and White sign stating you can turn left in red light ONLY when it's clear

If in doubt, wait for green... Simples

The car's camera was not getting power connected on the cigarette lighter jack on my wife's Honda, and because I didn't have the lighter to test it, and find out if the problem was the jack or the connector, I brought the car to the Honda Dealer...just blocks away from home.

We explained to the service manager the problem, just asking him to TEST the jack. He said that we can have a coffee inside the show room, and he will call us when ready.....and he drove the car inside the shop. Okkkkk....

After 20 minutes waiting, I step inside the shop and I saw a technician working inside the car...taking the fuse panel, and part of the dash apart.

In panic, I called my wife to ask the manager what happened.

The manager shows up, and he was trying to explain to my wife that the jack MAY have a problem, even trying to draw a technical sketch of the jack to her....etc...etc...but I did not let him to finish the "lecture"...

I asked if they inserted a lighter to see if was working...He looked at me like I was hallucinating...didn't say one word..and left...for another 10 minutes.

Finally he was back with a lighter, inserted it and ....guess...was working!....Ohhhh....Looks like the camera connector was the problem Sr!

We have to wait another 20 minutes for the technician to place all in order again.

I was ready to kill the guy...my wife trying to understand why I was so upset.....

TIT

Reminds me of each time I take my car to Toyota Hua Hin... Something really expensive is broken and they're just coming to confirm that I want it changed...

Now I know a fair bit about cars but not everything... But I've had a mate show me over a handheld diagnostic computer...

Lee the Toyata mechanic tried telling me the 70k turbo needs replacing! (my orange engine warning light had come on, hence the visit)

I said there's nothing wrong with the turbo...

Funny enough he was pointing at the screen saying "turbo turbo"

I looked down at it and said "where WHERE?? The only red thing there is AFM... What does AFM mean"?.?

I'm sure you can see where this is going...

It appears to me and most of my farang friends here that once your car hits 100k km the dealership starts hinting you need to buy a new car...

So I did buy a new car... I went to Ford

I got as far as the second paragraph and felt worried for you driving a vehicle that by the sound of it had to be put on a jig and straightened out and then put back together, so badly it had to be done again!

I'll say a prayer for you next time we're at the temple.

Good luck

My wife's got a new Focus and we've been trying to set the doors to lock automatically when you drive off.

For the programming procedure it says exactly the same steps in the Thai manual than it does in the English manual.

Get in car

Press start button to switch on ignition

Press lock button 3 times

Press start button and to switch off ignition

Press lock button 3 times

Press start button to turn on ignition and you hear a beep signalling you're in program mode

One short press (less than 1 second) toggles Auto-lock on/off (No it doesn't!)

One long press (more than 1 second) toggles Auto-unlock on/off (yep, that works)

Can anyone spot something different to theirs if they managed to get it sorted?

Any valid info would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

My mate in the UK runs a 2004 e66 735Li, and he is a tiler and bathroom fitter!

I don't know how much major services are but he says its is cheaper than you would expect to run. He has ran BMW barges for years and has a trusted independant specialist

middle aged german barges can repersent amazing value compared to the new price even in LOS if that is your thing, all you need is a good ind specialist. no experance of this guy personally, but on his FB he does amazing things to BMW's

http://www.powerbynat.com/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1179093760

could be a good place to start?

cheers

Totally agree with you Jay,

I had a BMW in the UK yonks ago and one of my mates used to work a a BMW specialist... You'd be surprised how much the service centre at the showroom rips you off! I'm talking about the UK and I guarantee you it'll a much sadder story here...

You can't go wrong with the Specialist.

I'd definitely start with Jay's link and see what the guy says he can do for how much...

You got me in that BMW broody mood again!

BMW luuuurrrrve millionaire farang's...

That's why I make sure the shell points card is always in the ashtray [emoji300]️

Found this...

http://driving-in-thailand.com/road-markings-and-traffic-lights/

The answer to this question is simple... TIGHT WALLETS and laziness

They just don't want to shell out 100฿ every couple of years!

That's how I see it... TO SAVE MONEY

A 10 year old could change the rubbers on wipers!

We had the same problems with our now three year old Fiesta. Like you said, car couldn't decide what gear to stay in at low speed stop start traffic resulting in a jerky ride. Ford did something at the 3000km service and it was problem solved for us. There are a few threads on the topic including one about Ford software upgrades meant to fix things but I still see people saying it is still occurring.

Last year I rented a Focus three times and the last one was a bit iffy, stalling on me several times just after moving from a standing start, but otherwise a good ride in and out of town.

[emoji106]

I used to feel like (when pulling away) I had to pretend that the accelerator was made of glass shards and I had bear feet...

If you wasn't careful at the lights the boy racer next to you thought you wanted a race!

After reading this thread from the start and being in the market for either a new Ford Wildtrack pickup or a new Toyota Hilux Vigo Champ TRD, I bought the Toyota... Great truck...

See, TVF does have a purpose....

I had that attitude when the driveshaft first broke... I put of all the new focus's driveshafts into one basket...

Funny how it turned out to be just that one unit that was at fault aye

As I said last week... "It was probably the last one they made on a Friday afternoon - job n knock off" or something similar... Can't be bothered to scroll...

I was P'd off at ford at the time and decided to get a Vigo... But I've calmed down now that it's all sorted... I just can't stop thinking about the torque of that 3.2!

And it's got a really funky "rollover" sunglasses holder!

There was a report broadcast on the Channel 3 Thai TV news only an hour ago about some major problems with Ford Thailand and their new Ford Fiesta.

Many of vehicles have major gear problems, 30 new Ford Fiesta owners were detailed on the report. All were told to take their cars back to the dealers and have taken their vehicles in several times but have not cured the problem. All the owners allege that Ford Thailand told them that because they purchased the lower price range Fords, about 500000 baht, than what else should they expect and then simply just fobbed off?

So in future if I decide to replace my car in Thailand, I shall avoid a Ford.

Wonderful post from you, Beetle.

Did they mention anything about the Ford Focus?

Yeah, did they mention anything about the Focus??

The courtesy car was a Fiesta Titanium... I believe that's the top "comfort" model of Fiesta and what a piece of crap it is!

I hated driving it,

I'm not surprised they're having problems with the gearbox, it was really horrible the way it just didn't know when to change gear, jerking harshly between gears changes...

I found that if you put is in S and use the + & - buttons you get a smother gear change because YOU know what the engine's doing... And that's how I explain the problem... The gearbox doesn't seem know what the engine is doing...

Oh and a 1,500cc engine in a Saloon Fiesta is just sheer stupidity!

You've constantly got your foot planted on the floor searching for a smidgen of power...

We were going to go up to the temple on top of the mountain here (can't remember the name) but I thought we wouldn't be able to get up that hill on on tank of fuel...

Small engine in big car = 10 km/l !!! My fortuner does at least 12!

Anyway,

That's my experience on the Fiesta gearbox and I'm glad this came to light because I thought I was driving it like a brunt!

I can positively say that the Focus gearbox behaves completely differently and.... "Normal" I suppose.

The Sport+ is an awesome car to drive & I'd be interested to have someone show me another one at the same spec for that price...honda don't come close and you can forget Toyota... Mazda? LoL... I'm not going "down" the line anymore.

Oh dear, I'm in Thailand... My wife would say I've just tempted fate.

See you soon Ford!

[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

Hmmm, I'll keep that in mind...

When you compare the service levels what do you mean exactly mate?

The difference in the interval?

I.e. My Fortuner goes every 10,000km when the Focus goes every 15,000km?

For me & my wallet I prefer Ford's service plan

Or do you mean what they actually check and change out at X km?

Please don't mention Mazda to me, had a 626 yonks ago that gave me nothing but breakdowns and huge bills when service time came around.

Worst of all it cost me a night of passion with a well tasty bird! Huge pout knockers an all!

I'll never forgive Mazda for that...

I'll never know anyway because they refused to let me have it.

There is a core charge.

Looks like a crack started at around the 0800 position, and propagated thru the shaft.

Oh yeah, didn't think of that,,, how easy would it be to replace that CVJ and make it new again? Couple of hours?

I agree, the rusty looking colour IS rust! And the pitting in the middle concerned me the most...

When it actually went/broke I thought the CVJ had exploded! I went BANG!

Had the report come trough from Ford yesterday regarding the broken driveshaft

It was what I thought it'd be, a poorly manufactured part.

As a result they said their parts testing facility will be looked at and improved...

I know actions speak louder than words but lets at least give them a second chance now that they've proved themselves to be better than most here...

Just got to wait for the refund of 11,000฿ and everything will be hunky dory again...

Apart from the driveshaft hiccup the car's been fabulous... Still love the auto parking !

For the record,

My initial complaint was against Ford's slack customer service... Which pretty much matches the standard across the country to be honest...

Was pleasantly surprised to receive a courtesy car while the wife's was being repaired.

I don't think many dealers here do that do they?

In over 15 years of owning cars here I've never heard of anyone getting a courtesy car!

Also for the record, referring to what car is good and what's not...

An opinion is like an ar$€hole, everyone's got one...

The Ford breaking down or having a hiccup is a problem in itself , is not good , I think the major problem is the after sales lying , bullshit and ineptitude from Ford .

I hear you

You know how when you've had work done on your car, they give you all the old crap they took off and replaced...

I virtually begged them to let me have the driveshaft because I reckon my mate's engineering workshop in Pattaya could figure out why this happened...

To me it just looks like poor production... A cast that wasn't at optimum temperature?

Probably a Friday afternoon job n knock!

I wouldn't be surprised if TVF has a Metallurgist that could put me right?

I'll never know anyway because they refused to let me have it.

Got it

Thank you Sir [emoji120]

A two week old (3,000Km) Focus Sport's offside driveshaft... Thank you

I sent you a PM asking you for the email addresses and any contact numbers you had a positive response with.

Would you be so kind Sir

We banned everything including air rifles in Australia after some nut killed 30 people at Pt Arthur. Except for registered sport shooters and licensed hunters (and even they cant own semi autos).

And we havent had a mass shooting since (22 years). It worked. Violent crime didnt go up. The govt didnt take over our lives or start arbitrarily locking people up. Slowly but surely the police are removing illegal guns from criminals and there is now a lack of a public, legal pool to replenish them.

youtube/fP3HJVp3n9c [emoji106]

It's funny reading all these posts. I don't mean the posts are funny. Actually, they are quite accurate in a lot of their suggestions and comments for improving things.

But the overall and outstanding issue that hangs over all of this like a specter is that, AGAIN, all the Thais do is talk about a problem. AGAIN, nothing gets done. AGAIN, they dodge the real issues of behavior and attitude in this society and culture, ...and that is where the real issues lie; their brains.

Every tool out there, that is needed to make this problem go away overnight, is readily available to everyone. These tools are not material, and moreover they are lodged in the brain of every Thai out there; conscientiousness, common sense, restraint, self-will, self-discipline, generosity, compassion, self-awareness, environmental awareness, problem-solving skills, caution, etc. etc. ad nausea...

Regrettably, every one of these tools is stifled, snuffed out, buried deep, avoided, ignored, quenched, quelled, etc. for the mere and simple reasons that they are undeveloped - attitude-wise and behavioral-wise - in these higher levels of consciousness, because of their culture and anything related to it utterly forbids it. We all know the reasons, routines, etc. We all read about it daily and we all experience it or are subjected to it daily.

The attitude and behavior here, singularly in each Thai, works against the system. Each seems to go into a feeding frenzy any time some good opportunity comes along. Each window of opportunity is wasted, and cannibalized to its bare bones. The resulting consequences are always half-baked, bare minimum, barely working, dysfunctional, undermanned, low-skilled, poor quality, second rate, etc.

Without being able to develop the natural instincts and intuitions which activate conscientiousness, common sense, restraint, self-will, self-discipline, generosity, compassion, self-awareness, environmental awareness, problem-solving skills, caution, etc. etc. ad nausea... then nothing will ever get done, and the subsequent "finished product" will always remain unfinished. Only their utterly mind-beggaring cockiness will see their unfinished work as a "HUB" of reality and success, and cause for some great celebration of this mediocrity that they continually churn out.

At a grass roots level, seeing people constantly pull out in front of others without so much as a glance just about says it all. Dumb. Stupid. Ignorant. Selfish. Arrogant. Impetuous. Compulsive. Impulsive, etc. All of these things are the first born characteristics of a human being that, if not weaned out of the characteristic by the good things mentioned above, will be the first behavior and first attitude that engages and affects what is seen as action.

I am suggesting that as long as this culture forbids the kind of behavioral adjustments and attitude changes that will unleash these higher levels of consciousness, then these problems and issues will always be nothing more than mimicry of those who do have these characteristics; ...but it will fall short and lie dormant at the point of action.

The material tools are in their hands, and they never use them. Unless they have someone prodding them and driving them with fear or crisis, they never act, and never see it through.

This is my general view and take on the situation, and even the exceptions are lacking. This is simply a more in-depth interpretation of what I call FACE, and it will be cause for years and years of regret and suffering as the world turns. All talk and no show. All talk and no working examples. They can't even manage the simple things, and all for the reasons I stated above...

Behavior and attitude.

So ubonjoe

You don't see this as a Thai bashing post then?

Probably because the intellect at TV office doesn't stretch that far...

Driving schools in Thailand? I remember seeing one once, a long time ago but I can't remember which town or city it was in. I was very surprised to have seen it. Of all the towns and cities I've been to I can't ever remember seeing another. Not even in Bangkok. I have definitely never seen a car from a driving school nor a car with "L" plates (or a Thai version of). If there were such a thing as a driving school, who would the instructors be? The answer to that question scares me. Having said all this, there seem to be millions of learners on the roads.

" Having said all this, there seem to be millions of learners on the roads."

and I would bet a few hundred thousand of them don't have an instructor sitting with them

But it's these Micky mouse "driving instructors" that are teaching them bad habits to begin with...

My personal pet hate is C@&£s that turn on their hazard lights because they're going straight across at a crossroads!