josephbloggs

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I don't think it was mentioned in the question.

I also think new or used is an important question.

As far as I know all vehicles lose a lot of retail value in the first year or two. So I guess it makes sense to buy one used which is not too old.

But that obviously brings up the questions: Where to buy such a used car which was properly serviced?

 

Personally, I know a little about cars, but I wouldn't be able to really check out if a car is in good condition. Maybe it's possible to buy such cars from reputable dealers. But do those dealers exist in Thailand? And what if I buy a used car from a dealer and later find out he told me a lot of BS? I guess there is little one can do when all is paid. 

Most major brands in Thailand also sell certified second hand cars that have been fully checked and will come with a warranty.

Toyota has Toyota Sure: https://www.toyotasure.com/home/
Honda has Honda Certified: https://usedcar.honda.co.th/
BMW: https://usedcar.bmw.co.th/buy-used-cars
Volvo Selekt: https://selekt.volvocars.co.th/en/home

You get the idea, pretty much sure every brand does this these days. I would never buy from a tent - either certified from the manufacturer or a direct private buy from a farang. When I first came to Thailand there were no manufacturer certified used cars, I bought from a tent and had nothing but problems - I've only bought new ever since.

5 minutes ago, Gweiloman said:

Not sure about the Seal but the Dolphin stop and start is quite smooth. For sure, smoother than a new relatively inexperienced driver but probably not as smooth as those of us that has been driving for over 40 years. The one thing I don’t like about the adaptive cruise control is when a car comes into your lane. Both my Dolphin and Haval are nervous “drivers” and tend to “brake “ quite hard so I only engage the cc when the road is clear and disengages it when I see heavier traffic up front.

 

With pilot assist, I only engage it when I need to take both hands off the steering for a few seconds. Easy to do on the Dolphin. Just a button press on the steering wheel.

Thanks, and yes, got you mixed up with Bandersnatch - forgot you had the Dolphin. 

7 minutes ago, Gweiloman said:

So why do they have it in premium cars such as Mercedes, BMWs etc?

 

 I assume you don’t have it in your car so you probably don’t know what you’re missing. Adaptive cruise control for example is fantastic for city driving with stop and go traffic. Blind spot monitoring is really useful particularly in Thailand where bikes ignore turn signals and zip by on your left when you want to turn into a smallish soi. TPMS takes the guesswork out of kicking your tyres. Lane keeping assist can be useful if you need to take both hands off the steering wheel for a couple of seconds for whatever reason. Dashcams reduces your insurance premiums and an integrated solution is just so much more elegant. Automatic tailgate is really useful when both hands are occupied.

 

You could always go back to crank starting your car if you don’t need modern conveniences and safety features.

Agree with you. Personally I don't like adaptive cruise control but understand why many people do. My Volvo has it and can even steer itself on highways (they call it "Pilot Assist") but I find it more stressful than driving myself, always having to be alert for "what if" moments. It's good for showing people as a gimmick, but again I understand why others would like it.

Curious as to how the Seal does it in traffic? Again I never use it in the Volvo - it does stop and start traffic perfectly well but always seems to accelerate and brake too hard so I don't like it. Does the Seal do it smoothly?

Same as parking. It can detect a space and reverse park by itself but I find it much easier just to park on my own. Good for showing people as a gimmick though. Maybe I am just too old school....

19 hours ago, Gweiloman said:

I. accidentally locked my keys inside my car. I took my Chines made Oppo mobile phone out of my probably Chinese made trousers, connected to my Chinese made Wi-Fi router, opened up my Chinese made car app and unlocked my car at the press of a button. China rocks lol

20 hours ago, KhunLA said:

Already happened to me, locked out of EV, though not because of my non existent social credit score, since I'm incognito on the internet.

 

I just happen to lock the hob in the car, w/dog & AC on.  We'll call that 'user error' by some idiot ... oops.

 

Wife, didn't have her hob with her.   So had to get a ride to the house to recover hers, which was too easy, since we leave the house unlocked 

 

Though I did have to squeeze through one of those taller than wider windows, where the pane opens almost in the middle.  Actually easier than using a ladder to go through one of the other unlocked windows.

 

Getting locked out of one's car will be the least of y'all's worries, as getting locked out of your digital financial account will be keeping y'all in compliance.   Coming to a 1st world country sooner than you want.

 

TH & CH Rock ... no worries for hopefully a decade.  Don't think CH will be putting software in their cars to appease western govts, unless mandated to, and probably have an on/off option, like most of the driver assist options.

 

Goes in line with all the other silliness mentioned about EVs, that doesn't involve TH or CH.

I am surprised you can lock your hob/key in there. I haven't had a car that allowed that to happen for well over 10 years. Current Honda HR-V (7-8 years old) and Volvo XC-40 (four years old) don't allow the doors to lock if the key fob is inside. My car prior to the Volvo didn't allow it either and I had that for around 7-8 years. Weird that a modern car lets you do that, I wonder why?

16 minutes ago, Gweiloman said:

To be fair, I believe that Ford has announced that they are stopping EV production as well as basic models and focus only on premium models. Apparently their strategy is profit per vehicle sold and not absolute sales.

 

What I would like to address is the certainty that anti EVers have that there is no future. Private investment firms/banks such as Blackstone are pumping in hundreds of millions, investing in charging infrastructure. I don’t think they would do that unless they believe they will get a return on their investment. I also think that I trust their judgment about the future of the EV industry a bit more than that of some retirees in Thailand.

Yeah, Ford are slowing production as they have massive union and production issues and can't make a profit from EVs. They need to sort these (if they can) but are committed to an EV future - they haven't just given up because EVs are not the future as people here have stated (people who read headlines but not articles).

Just another shoddy and complacent old legacy brand that could not adapt with the times and hoped the EV thing would go away if they closed their eyes for long enough. Now they have realised it isn't going away they are too far behind to catch up, and they are stuck with a highly unionised workforce that means they just can't compete with the companies who innovated and disrupted.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ford-withdraws-2023-forecast-warns-ev-results-2023-10-26/

20 hours ago, Photoguy21 said:

And why would the manufacturers decide to stop producing them? Toyota and GM to name just 2 have made those statements. Could it be that EV's are not such a good option for a company that needs to make a profit or are these companies just too stupid to understand how good EV's are?

Here you go again. You already said this before and I asked you to post a link to the statement that they are stopping EV manufacturing. I also posted a detailed explanation of what these companies are doing and why - and guess what, they are not stopping production.

Maybe you missed it so here it is again:
 

Once more I'll ask you to post a link or back up you statement. It is simply not true.

And once again I expect you'll fail to do so and will probably post the same lie again tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that. Yawn.

19 hours ago, Issanman said:

Interesting and very informative video about the pros and cons of hydrogen usage. 

Hydrogen seems to be an impractical solution for privately owned vehicles.

This lady is pretty damn smart.

 

 

Thanks for sharing, I found that very interesting and learnt a lot of things I didn't know about hydrogen production and storage.

2 minutes ago, talahtnut said:

Be prepared to get locked out of your EV in 2030 if you have a bad social credit score,

or eat a steak [Co2 emissions] in your 15 minute city.

Oh wow, yeah, thanks for the warning!!

You people are hilarious.

22 minutes ago, CHdiver said:

Good? Tesla goes along with iphone and vegan. They have a Tesla not a car and will tell you. They have a iphone not a phone and will tell you and they are vegan and will tell you. 

 

So you will hear this people tell you I open my Tesla with my iphone, then sit on the vegan leather and eat a vegan snack on the way to Starbucks to get a vegan coffee. Then I charge my vegan Tesla with vegan electricity produced with farts from Elon and pay with Apple pay from my iphone. Talk about bubble.

You missed out "woke". Come on, if you're having a cliche fest at least do it properly.

I think Tesla is a good name as it is named after Nikola Tesla who was a visionary electrical engineer and inventor. Naming your electric car brand after him is a good  way of honouring him and it immediately says what you are about as a company. I don't like Teslas much although I admire the technology in them, but is a good name.

The rest of your post is just weird. A Tesla is a car. If someone drives a Tesla and they are asked what car they drive they will say "Tesla". By the way I like EVs, I like meat, I like leather.
 

50 minutes ago, bravo19 said:

Have been in many Starbucks shops in Thailand and in all of them i could pay by cash. If you don't want to pay by cash use credit card.

I've been in a couple that don't take cash. So you either pay by QR or card.

34 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

 

Toyota announced in the past few months and Ford did this last week.

And you would have a link for these announcements of course? Please share. Please don't post an anti-EV YouTuber giving his spin, just a link to the actual announcements that you saw.

I have seen announcements that Toyota is reshaping it's EV platforms, slowing down production whilst it invests in new EV  technology platforms. It ignored the technology for so long seeing it as no threat to ICE sales, scrapped a JV with Tesla on an all electric RAV-4 back in 2012, and now it is paying the price at it is years behind the leaders. It's current production processes for EVs are too slow and cumbersome so they are not competitive on cost, hence the reinvestment in new platforms.

Toyota have missed the boat completely.

Ford are also having major problems with its unions that makes them uncompetitive and unproductive in the EV space. Again, they are trying to find solutions to enable them to compete with the likes of Tesla and other marques who didn't ignore the EV trend. The are paying catch up and are a long long way behind.

The future is Chinese and I love how triggered that makes people.

But again, please post your links to announcements they are not going to make EVs anymore.

8 minutes ago, Photoguy21 said:

If EV's are so good please tell me why major manufacturers, Toyota, GM for example, are going away from making them? If you like them fine but evidently the majority of drivers dont like them.

Evidently people who try them love them, that's why global sales are growing year on year at a huge rate. The US is seeing a slowdown in growth but the US has never embraced these kind of things or things like modern train travel. Norway now has about 84% EV market share but then it has always been more forward looking.

GM announced a split on the co-development project with Honda, but Honda and GM are committed to an electric future, just not together, and mainly due to problems with GM's unions.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/honda-shelves-plan-co-develop-smaller-evs-with-gm-bloomberg-news-2023-10-25/#:~:text="After extensive studies and analysis,only electrified vehicles by 2040.

Toyota sat on their hands for so long (as did Honda) that they have a lot of catching up to do. They are putting a lot of their eggs in  alternate technologies in the hope there'll be a breakthrough that will give them an edge in the future, but meanwhile they are committed to EVs, expecting to sell 3.5m of them by 2030.

https://www.gearpatrol.com/cars/g38986745/car-brands-going-electric/

I really don't know where you get your information from (actually I can have a good guess). Why not try one yourself? A test drive is free. Getting back in an ICEV afterwards feel like your gone back in time a few decades, more so if you are climbing back in to a diesel.

And before you come back with it, I'll get there first: EVs are not suitable for everyone. You need to have home charging. And if you need to drive several hundred kms at a time on a regular basis then an EV is not suitable for you. But for most of us they are worth looking at. I was a sceptic until someone let me try one for a period of time.
 

30 minutes ago, BenStark said:

 

Not difficulty to comprehend for the average person, which doesn't seem to include you.

 

In the US EV's are sold for many more years, so the woke market get saturated, and some of the early buyers already have learned their lesson.

 

In Asia the EV market is still in their puber time, so of course sales increase, until the same happens as in the western world

Here's a more in-depth analysis for you if you care to read it. It uses adult language though and not things like "woke market" or other childish terms.

https://www.ev-volumes.com/#:~:text=However%2C over 300%2C000 additional EV,damaged demand%2C particularly for PHEVs.

41 minutes ago, bravo19 said:

What is your problem to pay cash? It works everywhere. Or pay by Wise debit card in THB, it works in many shops there.

Cash doesn't work everywhere. I have been in many shops (including Starbucks) that only accept digital payments.

Granted, cash works in most places, but it definitely doesn't work in all. And I think you'll see more cashless shops throughout the year - it is the trend globally whether you like it or not.

33 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

I think I understand the pros and cons of EVs vs ICEVs pretty well.

 

Just speaking economically, for anyone that does not need a new car, buying a new EV would make no sense for the vast majority of people. 

 

For people that need a new car, it might make sense if you have a dedicated parking area configured such that you can charge it at night. Bump that up to probably is you have a decent solar farm and can charge during the day or have storage such that you can charge at night. 

 

For people that need a new car but have no dedicated parking where they can charge, it likely makes little sense. 

 

Of course, the best reason to buy a new car, is because you want a new car. And the best car to buy, is the one you like the best of the ones you can easily afford. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I agree with all of that. Home charging is a must, it makes absolutely no sense without that. Also doesn't make sense if you regularly need to drive very long distances.

I will get an EV as my next car as it makes perfect sense for my needs - I have a house that could have a charger installed, I mostly drive in Bangkok with the occasional trip out of town.

4 minutes ago, Pique Dard said:

"Eight districts in Pattani declared disaster zones as flooding worsens"

 

... how comes? i'd like to meet the dude who told me december is a "dry" month in thailand!

Dude is an idiot. December is never dry in the south.