josephbloggs

Well done (excuse the pun). Oil is - for now - still important, and it keeps my cars running. Doesn't change the reality of EVs being superior vehicles though.

Sticker-tastic! And glad to see your daughter is taking her safety seriously with the helmet, very nice. I think you could do with a spirit level next time you apply stickers though....

Bit of a silly and pointless dig there about affording them. Not going to get in to a pissing contest but I have owned much higher performance cars than any BMW. And driven (rented) many more much higher performance supercars. Happy with my choices. No doubt the M3's and M5's of this world are great cars but they've never really floated my boat. Maybe because they didn't have stickers on them, not sure. But your bog standard BMWs - 320, 325, 330, 520 etc do absolutely nothing for me, and I have test driven them in the past before choosing something else. And their diesels are appalling.

Too late to edit, but for @ExpatOilWorker if you smashed your BMW, bent the wheels, had significant body panel damage and A pillar damage would you have to wait for parts? More than 32 days? How long would your "Performance Motors" stickers take to be reprinted? That is obviously the most important thing, as a BMW is nothing without the stickers....

Maybe, maybe not. I recently had an accident in my wife's Honda HR-V. Nothing major, but a rear ender in traffic. It took six weeks to fix, and when I got it back the radiator was leaking so they took it back for another 10 days. You have to wait for parts, I didn't go whining to a FB group. Is 32 days too long? It would definitely be nice to be quicker, but it is a relatively new brand expanding quickly in Thailand. And my legacy brand took longer for less damage than that. Aren't we really scraping the barrel now with this post finding a single person who thought their repair took too long?? She has some pretty extensive panel damage. Do they keep those body panels sitting around in all colours in warehouses? No. Do Honda? No. Do BMW? No. She also looks to have some not insignificant A pillar damage, not an easy fix. 32 days "without fixing a nut"? They order parts, wait for them to arrive then fix everything, just as they did with my HR-V. It is just nonsense. Maybe the new more reasonable EOW is no more?

Great video, very balanced.

Yeah I remember that - happened not long before I arrived in Thailand. An absolutely awful tragedy. Is this a new, mellower, more reasonable EOW? I like it.

Yes, if you believe the Mahanakorn, Baiyoke II, Magnolias, Four Seasons private residences and all the other (many) towers over 250m are built with a bad mix of concrete that is up to you, as you say that is your opinion, but what is it based on? Two of those buildings are taller than The Shard which is Western Europe's highest. I base my opinion on the fact that many of them have won global awards. Not sure if you've ever been to Dubai but Emaar built the Burj Khalifa (828m) and probably half of Dubai's high rises. You think they would allow dodgy concrete mixes in Thailand?? Really??? And their buildings might fall over perhaps? Sorry, your anti Thai blinkers really define you. I know you have to put a little snide comment on every single positive Thai story, you can't help yourself - I get it. But think about what you are saying, for once.

Yeah, and real trains go "choo choo". How old are you?

Not only are their stories rubbish but even their memes aren't funny!

Fascinating story. "Man Gets Electrocuted In High Voltage Electrical Equipment Installation Accident." He wasn't a consumer charging his EV, he was a contractor installing the equipment, don't be a drama queen and don't try to mislead (or perhaps you didn't actually read the article?) Has anyone been burned to death while refueling their car in Thailand? https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/man-rushed-burns-unit-after-28138874 Yes, I can play silly games too.

No one said it would solve Thailand's problems. Should the private sector not be able to do anything while Thailand still has "problems"? What a ridiculous thought. The Petronas Towers really put KL on the map. Personally I can't see it ever happening although I think it would be very cool on the small chance it does. We should have been close to completion of the G Land Super Tower (615m, 125 stories) by now but it never got started. There's a reason why the Burj Khalifa has been unchallenged for 14 years - it is incredibly difficult and expensive to build that high.

Okay. And how many of Bangkok's approximately 180 skyscrapers have fallen down because of "dodgy concrete mix"? How many bridges have collapsed? How many mass transit lines have fallen over? Yes, there are construction accidents just like anywhere, but they are pretty good at making tall buildings here, especially considering the composition of the land.

They don't make buildings out of cement.

Yep, plus finding the electricity for two thirds of the world's high speed rail (around 45,000 kms at present).

When someone is funded by an organisation or organisations he is writing in favour of he should declare it to have any hope of being taken seriously. In fact a group of journalists and educators petitioned the NY Times on this very point and the very same person - Robert Bryce - and that to maintain journalistic integrity the source of the writer's funding needs to be clear. JB did a much better job than I could of explaining how he has taken old facts and slanted them or mis-stated the "facts" completely. But as I said the man has a history and is dishonest, funded by big oil to denigrate renewables, and therefore cannot be trusted or taken seriously.

Sorry you are wrong on nearly every point. Malaysia and Singapore co-existed for nearly a decade. Singapore joined the calendar in 2008, Malaysia exited in 2017. Proximity is not a factor. We have Qatar and Abu Dhabi. In Europe we have Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Spain - heck we even have two races at different circuits in the same country usually (this year there are two in Italy). And your nonsense about taxis is irrelevant. Thailand has the existing infrastructure to host 40m tourists a year so it is better equipped than most places on that front.

You do know that Robert Bryce is funded by big oil, right? He has a history of writing misleading and untrue stories against all types of renewable energy (wind, solar). So he's hardly an impartial journalist - he has a clear mandate to protect the oil companies that pay him and keep them profitable as long as possible: it's his job.

Incorrect - at least for Vientiane. I did it recently. Applied on Tuesday morning, picked up Friday afternoon so they need three days.

There was an agreement maybe 14-15 years ago to hold an F1 race in Bangkok and it was to be on the 2015 calendar with an agreement in place with the FIA. It would have been in the old city around the grand palace and the river. http://en.espn.co.uk/f1/motorsport/story/106736.html They even had Mark Webber drive a demo up and down Ratchadamnoen Avenue and it was absolutely packed so there was a real appetite for it (I was there). It would have made a cool spectacle and the roads around there are wide with spaces for stands. Unfortunately a group of activist opposed to it managed to get a law passed that forbid racing in the old city so the whole thing died. It would be great if the idea came back and they managed to somehow make it work.......although that law would no doubt need to be rescinded.

Ok, I'll try one last time. Oh, and by the way, you can't have it both ways. You posted an article that says 22% of Chinese EV owners surveyed said they would not buy another one. You're happy to post that. But when I say that means 78% are fine with their decision you say it's not allowed because "The article doesn't mention if they are asked the question are you happy with your choice of vehicle or not". So it's ok to post the negative aspect without knowing the exact question asked but not ok to infer the opposite without knowing the exact question asked. So, if the article is saying 22% of those asked said they wouldn't buy another EV what question do you think they were asked? Do they like turnips? What's their favourite colour? Or perhaps "would you buy another EV?". Maybe? I hope you can see the hypocrisy now. Probably not, but for sure everyone else can.

I don't get it. I hate beetroot, just my personal taste. I don't go on vegetable forums and tell people beetroot are stupid, that 22% of people who bought a beetroot didn't like it, I don't search for links and surveys to try to convince people who like beetroot that they are wrong. Why would I waste my time doing that? I just don't like beetroot. I honestly don't understand the motivation of these people. Why not just say "I don't like EVs, I prefer petrol". That would be fine as it is a personal opinion. Say you don't like them and move on and get on with your day. What triggers people so much about a different propulsion method that they have to waste their time (and ours) posting nonsense about it?

Cool, hope it will spell the end of those horrible little red minibuses that have polluting Thonglor for the last 30-40 years.

Ugly ridiculous cars. Not surprised they only get humped by each other.

Sigh, it is simple maths. 22% regret their decision and wouldn't buy another EV. Subtract that from 100 and you get 78% who obviously are fine with their decision to buy an EV and wouldn't change it. No? So 90% are happy in 1st and 2nd tier cities - great! That's a lot of people. China is a big place so if the infrastructure is poor in 3rd and 4th tier cities it stands to reason that the ratio would be lower. TBH I have no idea what the charging infrastructure is like in Chinese 3rd and 4th tier cities. Same as anywhere else - if you don't have home charging or need to drive long distances and there are not enough CSs then it's not going to be a happy ownership experience - that isn't news and no one denies it. Ok, let's just leave it. You posted a link that says 78% of EV owners in China wouldn't change their decision. I said that's about the average approval rating for most types of cars and you kept pestering for a link so I gave you one that happened to come from the States. I am not sure why you are fixated on this because it is not a massive claim, it is just life, and it is incidental. Let's move on as this is pointless.