MESmith

How about the Thai Rung Transformer

How about all TV members boycott Phuket? It's a start, & might spread virally over the www......

I often consider my silver Strada to be a "stealth pickup" - quite a lot of drivers & motorbikes don't see me & just pull out in front of me.....

My 2 sons have shown me the inspiration for the chilli orange Wildtrak

Unfortunately, Ford didn't incorporate the chrome grill.....

Update after today's trip to Ford, CM.

The first salesman just repeated the usual answer, that USB etc not available in XLT, only Wildtrak. Later on, while sitting in the XLT, I noticed a "phone" button on the dashboard. Asked the more senior salesman what that does, as the XLT doesn't have phone bluetooth function. "For the future" was his response. When pressed further, he suggested that there should be options to upgrade the system without having to change everything behind the dash....

Paid a visit to Ford, Chiang Mai today & they had a chilli orange Wildtrak on show

It was a 4x4 2.2lt, but only for show. The 2x2 model they said 6 months for delivery. XLT 3 months.

To be honest, I don't like it. Less choice of colours, the chilli orange looked darker than this photo, may be they should've parked it in the sun. Black (or dark grey) plastic door handles, dark grey grill.

I don't mind the orange color, but I wouldn't buy it...

However, the black door handles, grille and fender 'vent' trims make it look like some sort of weird base-model 'taxi pack' with some aftermarket body parts added. The XLT's small amount of brightwork makes it look 4 levels higher up the range IMHO.

Agreed. If the XLT had the same features as the Wildtrak, without the "tonka toy truck look", I'd pay the extra. I think I'll save some money & order the XLT as it is today. We went to look at the Mazda today. Inside is ok, but I prefer the look of the Ranger interior. Didn't like the exterior at all.

Paid a visit to Ford, Chiang Mai today & they had a chilli orange Wildtrak on show

It was a 4x4 2.2lt, but only for show. The 2x2 model they said 6 months for delivery. XLT 3 months.

To be honest, I don't like it. Less choice of colours, the chilli orange looked darker than this photo, may be they should've parked it in the sun. Black (or dark grey) plastic door handles, dark grey grill.

The quality of vehicle emissions from new cars could wholly explain the trend for the old town monitoring station.

We still don't have much idea about the most dangerous PM 2.5 because its not measured. Newer vehicles are supposed to create more smaller particles. We might be seeing PM 10 getting better but PM 2.5 could be getting worse..

We just don't really know about the greater health risk factors. They might be getting worse for PM 2.5...

Would be nice to know but I guess that collection equipment is more expensive.

I booked a trip back to the UK last April, hoping for some cleaner air. As we all know we had heaps of rain here in Thailand, & a much better season pollution wise.

Back in the UK there were a couple of days where weather conditions led to smog alert. Blamed on vehicle emissions. I would imagine vehicle emissions are "cleaner" in UK than over here, where "dirty" diesel is burnt.

My 11 yr old Strada has done less than 170,000k. And it's been south to the beach from Chiang Mai 4 times. School run everyday for 6 yrs. Mileage might be true.

we usually say 10km around town equals 100km highway in wear and tear

I believe this is false for BKK driving, I d say 10km in BKK equals 2-300km Th highway

Not sure what you're on about. All I was saying was that the mileage might be true. But having said that, I wouldn't even look at a second hand car here. Unless I was selling it ;-)

My 11 yr old Strada has done less than 170,000k. And it's been south to the beach from Chiang Mai 4 times. School run everyday for 6 yrs. Mileage might be true.

There's no CD changer option available for the Ranger or BT50 in Australia, so that's probably a good indicator that no such thing exists:

http://www.ford.com....sories/interior

http://mazda.com.au/vehicles/bt-50/accessories?bsid={435894B6-C4FE-42EF-9463-E464B8281276}&gid={76C590A4-167D-4457-82EF-50D69B033DCF}

The BT-50 Hi-Racer 4-door 2.2L 6AT 4x2 V-Grade ABS/Cruise/Leather model (874K) is practically the same spec as the Ranger 4-door 2.2L 6AT 4x2 Wildtrak (869K), less the roof bars, roll bar and tray rails.

Note that USB input is available on models as low as the 639K Baht 2.2L Extracab V-Grade in the BT-50 Range though, and all; BT-50's with ABS also get Bluetooth - which again tells me that the source units are all the same, and that USB and B/T are just plug-in accessories...

What a clusterf#@k in marketing!! The Wildtrak has unnecessary extras, the XLT is lacking in features. Mazda offer some of the Wildtrak features on their more basic models. Give me, sorry sell me, an XLT with some of the Wildtrak accessories that are available on a basic Mazda. Too much to ask? And to top it all, the Wildtrak isn't available in my favourite colour!!

Ahh yes, CD only in Ranger, sorry!

As for asking a Ford sales rep, forget it, they won't know - and if you're Thai and you don't know something that a farang just asked, that must mean it's impossible..

Your best chance of getting the upgrade will be a helpful parts dept who will spend the time comparing drawings and part numbers between the XLT and Wildtrak models to get to the bottom of it. Good luck with that though...

Maybe they know whether the audio unit will accept a plug in cd changer box. If so, I found on the web a gadget by GROM that plugs into that socket, allowing USB input.

Btw, does the BT-50 Pro offer all that the 2.2 Wildtrak has, without the bars etc?

The question for me is why does it suddenly get better after two or three days intense pollution, do the people suddenly stop burning, do the winds shift, do the authorities go out there and do something we don't see, if I look at the number of dots on the firemap over the past few days I don't see any decrease in the number of dots?

Just looked at the firemap

Comparing what it shows now for the "past 24 hrs", there appears to be a big increase in what was shown yesterday for the previous "past 24 hrs". Maybe we are seeing now the effects of a lull in the burning, to be followed by more smog. If you pull up the "past 48hrs" map there are far more red dots than orange

I haven't seen any dash kits for the new Ranger, and without one of them, it's going to be next to impossible to change the source unit.

There's 3 possible options I can think of (off the top of my head) that don't go overboard into things like external signal processors etc:

1) Ask Ford how much it's going to cost to upgrade the stereo to the Wildtrak spec (which adds USB, Bluetooth and Steering Wheel controls). I would be surprised if the core source unit in the XLT was dfferent to the Wildtrak -i.e. I imagine and these are all just plug-in upgrades.

2) Wait for the aftermarket to come up with a dash kit that will allow the whole thing to be replaced with a standard DIN or Double DIN unit.

3) If you only want USB so you can play MP3's (w/out a screen I couldn't see what other media you'd want to play?), you can either just burn DVD's of MP3's, or use the AUX connector with an iPod or Smartphone.

I tried contacting Ford Th a while back, but got the standard reply that "Wildtrak has USB"

When I previously tried playing an mp3 player through AUX plug, the sound was cr@p, & another time the jack plugs I tried were a bit loose fitting in the socket. Also, I'm not sure the player in the XLT plays dvds. mp3 cds only I think.

Think I'll pay another visit to Ford in Chiang Mai tomorrow & see if they can help with an upgrade.

Can any car audio experts tell me how I would go about upgrading the original audio unit in the New Ford Ranger? I definitely need USB input, maybe bluetooth. How much does the unit being hidden away behind the dashboard complicate matters? Would only a high end unit be able to connect to all the dashboard controls? Due to budget constraints, I'm tempted to go for the current XLT hi-rider, & need to buy with the tax rebate factored in, so don't think I can wait for upgrades to the XLT seeing that the Wildtrak is so late arriving. Don't really fancy the Wildtrak anyway.

Btw, I'm quite satisfied at the moment with my Pioneer DEH-2150 that cost all of 3000 baht in my current truck, so would prefer not to have spend heaps just to get a USB audio in.

Secondly, please explain why, if "this year the burning started around mid October !!!" the pollution level for October of last year (I assume that you mean 2011) was 18% below the 2002-2011 average (November was even lower)? Incidentally, the whole of last year (i.e. 2011) was the least polluted since the Pollution Control Department started posting their measurements in the late '90s. There was not one single day in excess of 120 µg/m³ (the Thai standards limit), in fact the highest value measured during the whole year was 92.0.

The above data are from the measuring station at the Provincial offices, at Yupparaj College in the old town, the October value was 25% below the 2002-2011 average.

/ Priceless

Annabel is correct, the ricefield burning to the east of the city started soon after the harvest in October, & continued well into December. If you live & work out in those areas you certainly notice it. Going by the figures you quote, it's obvious that this burning doesn't affect the whole valley, especially where the monitoring stations are. For me, where I live SE of the city, it's been a worse than average dry season, pollution wise.

January was OK, the last 2 weeks of January exceptionally clear. The last 2 weeks have seen the air quality deteriorating until we got the real smog last week.

OP, my house might be for sale. You a HEAVY smoker?

my wife says its some of the local people,they set the fires so that when the rains come the mushrooms come out,she also called them stupid for doing it,and shes one of the local people.

Remind your good wife to refrain from buying said mushrooms when they appear on the market. I'll be telling my wife the same.

I don't know what is crazier, the locals burning and creating the problem or all of us who could leave if we wanted to but subject ourselves to this health hazard.

Not so easy to up sticks when you've family here, invested in house etc.

Or even crazier still, folk asking questions on TV about moving to CM.

When I pull up the "Manual Report" for Chiang Mia City Hall from the Aqmthai.com website I'm getting far different readings then the chart on the home page.

No wonder my lungs ache.

The one on the main page is the moving average. The Report chart are peak readings at that hour. Just saw the 300 then it dropped back to 200 in the next hour and just before it it was 219. Suspect a glitch or someone lit up a cigarette next to the machine.

The 24hr average for Lamphun (a68) is 194. That's not very far away

So, how high can this (ug/m)^3 go until evacuation would be in order?

Thailand or "the real world"?

Well, I was thinking CM, which is "the real world" at the moment.

Sorry, I thought you were asking when would the order for the evacuation of CM be given.

If it's just you, & no ties to keep you here, the answer is "yesterday". Head for the beach.

So, how high can this (ug/m)^3 go until evacuation would be in order?

Thailand or "the real world"?

Does anyone know whether Nan is just as smoky as Chiang Mai right now?

These are the numbers from the aqmthai.com website. PM10 in red (ug/m)^3.

a67. Municipality Nan. 2012-02-17. 8:00:00. 0.9. 9.0. 14.0. 02.01. 92.92.

Chiang Mai is current at: Quite a bump from earlier today. Appears the Nam station is not updated as often so it could be close to the CM numbers by now.

35t. City Hall. 2012-02-17. 16:00:00. 2.0. 43.2. 55.7. 0.3. 123.45.

If you hit the report tab & pull up the graph for pm10 at city hall, you get a peak of nearly 215(ug/m)^3 at 15.00

Anecdotal, but today (Feb 17th) seems like the worst yet. No sign of the sun until 8.30 and as I write the scene outside has a sickly dull orange glow that reminds me of countless post apocalypse movies. Your reporter in Nong Hoi.

There was a fair amount of cloud on the eastern horizon this morning. We didn't see the sun until about 7.45, a dull red ball visible through the smog haze. Very eerie light

I'm going to pin this for the duration of the smog season at which point we can continue with the Rain topic.

If you could merge the two, smog & rain, problem solved. But probably best to park your car undercover, acid rain......