Lacessit

13 hours ago, DavisH said:

Kia is very popular in Australia, along with Hyundai. But not here as there are very few service centers so getting it serviced may be a nightmare (never mind the cost of imported parts if it's not made here). Thais just want ease of service, reliability, cheap service and good resale - so they go with T or H mainly. 

AFAIK Kia is not made in Thailand, so there is also the tariff wall making them much more expensive than they should be.

Croos the border into Vientiane, and there are plenty of them around.

I don't care if it's a helmetless farang or Thai, it's just Darwinian selection at work. Statistically, that is.

8 minutes ago, Natai Beach said:

Which was the reason it was the best Toyota ever built. 
 

Many of the worlds leading car companies rebadged Holdens to improve their credibility. 

Another example of an Aussie made Holden in Thailand is the Holden Statesmen/Caprice which was rebadged in Thailand as a Chevrolet Caprice and sat at the very top of Chevrolet’s range in Thailand. 
 

Nice car.

 

 

Holden was the last vehicle manufacturer in Australia to adopt front wheel disc brakes. AFAIK it still hadn't got around to having disc brakes all round, before closing up shop.

It was also the last manufacturer in Australia to abandon black dip prime in favor of an E-coat system of corrosion protection. It's why so many older Holdens are rust buckets.

It never really has solved the NVH problem. I owned three Holdens, and they all had perceptible diff whine.

The most recent example I owned was an Omega, with a boot lid that must have been designed to trap water. So every time I opened the lid after rain, it would drop water on my golf clubs.

While you may be a Holden admirer, the facts contradict your assertion they are a leading brand. In marketing, maybe.

18 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

 

Nah mate, you can keep your ocker washing machines.

 

 

And the cars they made...

 

 

 

 

Very versatile vehicles, they could even do a double act.

11 minutes ago, Natai Beach said:

Lexus IS a Toyota.

 

And I think we can all agree the best ever Toyota was the Toyota Lexcen.

No. The best ever Toyota is and was the Toyota Landcruiser, in utility or wagon form.

I knew a farmer in NSW who was brutal on vehicles, the average was 2-3 years for any car he bought. The dealerships would be in tears when he traded them in, as they were not even fit for spare parts. He complained the Ford XA, XB and XC were too fragile, as the front windscreen pillars broke too easily.

He bought a Landcruiser, he was still trying to wreck it after 8 years, unsuccessfully.

A Lexcen is simply a rebadged Holden. Please don't get me started on their design flaws, the slowest to take up any new car technology.

2 hours ago, Tropposurfer said:

Japanese Kia better than mercedes ... you're dreamin' mate ... What a ridiculous thing to say! Obviously you have never had the pleasure of owning a marque such a Mercedes because if you had you'd be unable to say such a thing.

 

I've had the displeasure of owning one Mercedes in Thailand, damn thing was a money pit that broke down on me twice. Couldn't wait to get rid of it.

Apart from the fact Kia is Korean, not Japanese, it is equally obvious you have never been in a Stinger. I'd buy one in a heartbeat if I could afford it. Too expensive in Thailand due to the tariff wall.

9 hours ago, Natai Beach said:

 
Falcon XB coupe. 
 

I have been searching for one in Thailand for 12 years. As I said in an earlier post, my heavy drinking mate with poor eyesight claims to have seen one. But I have searched and searched and found no evidence of any in Thailand. 
Plenty of 4 door Falcon XBs, but not the two door. I actually started this thread with it in mind, hoping somebody would come up with one. 
 

Four door XA, XB, XC Falcons in Thailand....159,000 บาท new.

 

I used to own an XB Fairmont, it's now somewhere in the middle of NSW on a sheep station. Ended its days as a hunting vehicle.

One of the many design faults was the drain scuttle below the windscreen wipers. Instead of having a drain from the scuttle itself on both sides, there was only one. Water collected on the other side.

The first any owner knew of this was when the undrained side rusted through, and the floor carpets got saturated with water.

Another design attribute was an underdesigned or poor quality radiator, from memory I got through three of them while I owned the beast.

Who can forget the Wild Violet duco, that left owners of that color choice with cars that looked like they had developed leprosy after a couple of years?

But I think the acronym Fix Or Repair Daily started well before that.

10 hours ago, Tropposurfer said:

 

 

Australian cars followed a lot of the standards and expectations of car manufacturing modelled on the US and that meant cheaper cars but fit and finish and depth of R&D and engineering quality was as US cars - bad.  Badly designed and ratioed gearboxes, gas guzzling, shocking finish, terrible handling. There may be Aussies and Yanks that read this and disagree. Up to you but the proof of Aussie and American car-quality building is plain to see when driving European cars, The Australian car manufacturing industry is dead. Ford the same. 

Perhaps you have not caught up with the fact Japanese and Korean brands are now superior to all but the most expensive European brands. The technical specs of a Kia Stinger are way better than its counterpart Mercedes 200 SLK.

Having said that, I have heard one of the requirements of purchasing a Toyota Avalon in Australia was the buyer had to show the dealership a wardrobe full of cardigans and woolly slippers.

20 hours ago, Airalee said:

Who could forget the glorious Leyland P76.  Such graceful lines.
 

Farmers liked them because it was possible to fit a 44 gallon drum in the boot. Most buyers found they had British reliability. The Brits did better when they only had four cylinders to think about.

22 hours ago, Natai Beach said:

The early model Ford Lasers were exported from Oz.

 

 

Gutless. As Peter Wherrett used to say, they couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding. Bought one, had to use the gear stick to row it along.

1 minute ago, Natai Beach said:

 

I looked up Mitsubishi 380 in Thai and all it comes up with 380 is an electric motor for aircons.
 

They did export them to Brunei also. I have never been in one and actually had forgotten about them. 

The Magna AWD preceded the 380, which was never made with an AWD option.

It was actually a screaming bargain that most Australians never recognised. I paid $38,000 for mine. The only comparable sedan at that time was the AMG Mercedes, which was three times the cost.

I gave it to my son when I left Australia, he's still driving it with over 300,000 km on the odometer.

1 minute ago, Natai Beach said:

Did they sell them in Thailand? 
 

They didn’t sell many in Australia. 

They were sold in SE Asia under the Diamante logo. Quite common luxury car in Malaysia and Indonesia, don't know about Thailand.

They didn't sell many in Australia because Mitsubishi was much better at manufacturing cars than marketing them, whereas the converse was true for Holden and Ford. IMO the most underrated vehicle ever built in Australia, and I say that having owned all three brands.

Just now, Lacessit said:

Impossible to break traction with the AWD on any dirt road. Better build quality than any Ford or Holden.

1 hour ago, DJ54 said:

That’s one thing I find difficult to understand... tote around cash and some holeass robs you..  to dangerous..

 

Same in China we ( wife Chinese her name) bought a condo and I was on a travel plan throughout Asia I be gone 60-90 at a click..

It was kinda nice $70 USD per diem made some extra cash... 

 

wife calls I’m traveling she needs to get cash from our account and take it to the buyers bank to complete deal..  I flipped out she didn’t drive then used public transit... so I was <deleted>ting my pants until money was handed over...

 

US I rarely carried more than $20 USD I’d been robbed by gun point and knife it’s no fun... 

 

anyway i think its nuts... 

 

gunpoint I was with my fathers was early 20s... you think ah if somebody tries rib I’ll do this.. there were 7 customers on the floor 

face and demanded to give all valuables .. I was in good shape in 

70s 6ft tall not afraid of fighting.. but that gun pointed at me my 

money flew out pocket (I’d just cashed paycheck) my Dad said he looked over and he couldn’t my eyes open.. I was hope they shot 

any of us..

 

Two armed robbers one shot and killed going out by police other

caught a block away.. got money that back.. scary stuff.

 

be careful..

 

When we traded our older DMAX in on MUX the new car dealer took us to their bank.. gave us the cash they gave us for used truck 

350k and then back to dealer.. and we fill out paperwork and hand 

the dealer the cash.. strange for sure.. Isuzu new car sales lot..

 

be careful..,

 

 

It seems to be quite common for Thais to withdraw large sums of cash, I saw one woman at Kasikorn put a couple of housebricks of 1000 baht notes into a large handbag. 100,000 baht withdrawals are not unusual.

That's a year's pay for many Thais, it's amazing there are not more robberies.

17 minutes ago, Phulublub said:

A recent thread had similar topic...suggest wait until after 90 day 800,000 requireent passed, then move in two tranches of 400,000 so that you never go below 400,000 at any time in either account. 

 

Yes you will need both books.

 

PH

To be on the safe side, agree. Although I did note when I renewed my extension in November in Chiang Rai, a bank statement which only went back 6 months prior was acceptable. Probably because the bank book itself showed the 800K had been on deposit for 5 - 6 years, untouched.  Wouldn't it be nice if every Immigration office had the same rules?

14 minutes ago, domdom said:

Hello,

If I am not mistaken, people who got Covid 19 won t get vaccine but are immunized.. Will it be a test which could be done to be allowed to enter here quarantine free ?

Have a nice evening

Having had COVID 19 is no guarantee against subsequent infection, it depends on how long the antibodies produced by the body's immune system last.

There is also the consideration the vaccines may be less effective against the mutant strains of the virus, AFAIK they have only been validated against the original strain.

12 minutes ago, Nout said:

Not true is it? How many people do you know who actually WERE FORCED to do a double quarntine.

Applying logic, who is going to front up for a holiday anywhere if they have 28 days of it they have to pay for, while confined to a hotel room?