Been living in Thailand for 1.5 years on work visa (5years) and married to a Thai wife. Looking for advice on pros and cons and experiences ex-pats have had dealing with either or both cases. Thanks in advance. 

Long term in Thailand buying a car new or s/h for personal use will be cheaper than leasing IMO.

Leasing is for businesses and companies that do high kilos and change every 2 or 3 years and maybe they get tax concessions on vehicle expenses.   

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Long term in Thailand buying a car new or s/h for personal use will be cheaper than leasing IMO.
Leasing is for businesses and companies that do high kilos and change every 2 or 3 years and maybe they get tax concessions on vehicle expenses.   

Thanks mate


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18 hours ago, sir charles IV said:

and married to a Thai wife

Does her husband know about it? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

 

To address your question, I would say buy. This is because cars hold their value well here. From my experience:

2005: Bought a Toyota Vios for 541,000, sold eight years later for 240,000

2013: bought a Ford Focus for 959,000, sold four years later for 470,000 (this with a well known dual-clutch problem, otherwise I'd say 600,000)

 

The return on your new car allows for a healthy deposit on the next one, if you stay that long. I don't know what the pick-up deprecation is like if you go down that road.

 

Take a look here for second-hand prices:  https://www.one2car.com/en

Does her husband know about it? Sorry, I couldn't resist.
 
To address your question, I would say buy. This is because cars hold their value well here. From my experience:
2005: Bought a Toyota Vios for 541,000, sold eight years later for 240,000
2013: bought a Ford Focus for 959,000, sold four years later for 470,000 (this with a well known dual-clutch problem, otherwise I'd say 600,000)
 
The return on your new car allows for a healthy deposit on the next one, if you stay that long. I don't know what the pick-up deprecation is like if you go down that road.
 
Take a look here for second-hand prices:  https://www.one2car.com/en

Nice pick up “married to a Thai wife”. Should’ve stayed in school a bit longer!
I’m leaning towards buying too. Maybe my wife’s husband should chip in [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]


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depends how often you use it. taxi can be a lot cheaper but do you want to deal with taxi drivers

if you know cars you can do 2nd hand avoiding lemons etc.

3 hours ago, Wiggy said:

Does her husband know about it? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

 

To address your question, I would say buy. This is because cars hold their value well here. From my experience:

2005: Bought a Toyota Vios for 541,000, sold eight years later for 240,000

2013: bought a Ford Focus for 959,000, sold four years later for 470,000 (this with a well known dual-clutch problem, otherwise I'd say 600,000)

 

The return on your new car allows for a healthy deposit on the next one, if you stay that long. I don't know what the pick-up deprecation is like if you go down that road.

 

Take a look here for second-hand prices:  https://www.one2car.com/en

The above are good examples...but it depends on the car. After 5 years my Ford Ranger truck (well kept and low kms) fetched 50% of original price privately...quite good, whereas I was offered 40% by a dealer. After 5 years I my MB AMG Cabriolet fetched only 28% of original price from a dealer, and dealers have offered only 50% of original price for a MB S500e after only 2.5 years. It's easy to analyse what to expect from any of the online car trading websites. https://www.one2car.com/en/   https://www.bahtsold.com/ https://www.expat.com/en/classifieds/asia/thailand/cars.html http://siammotorworld.com/ etc... 

12 minutes ago, jkcjag said:

The above are good examples...but it depends on the car. After 5 years my Ford Ranger truck (well kept and low kms) fetched 50% of original price privately...quite good, whereas I was offered 40% by a dealer. After 5 years I my MB AMG Cabriolet fetched only 28% of original price from a dealer, and dealers have offered only 50% of original price for a MB S500e after only 2.5 years. It's easy to analyse what to expect from any of the online car trading websites. https://www.one2car.com/en/   https://www.bahtsold.com/ https://www.expat.com/en/classifieds/asia/thailand/cars.html http://siammotorworld.com/ etc... 

Would the lower return be because a Mercedes is an import, and a large chunk of the original price being import duty? Just curious. Thanks. FWIW, my two examples above were sold privately, so probably would have fetched less to a dealer, as was with the Ranger you mentioned.

I leased a Fortuna for 3 years when I first arrived on a work placement.  Big mistake.

 

As others have said, buying makes more financial sense.  My lease (long term rental) payments for 3 years would have paid for the car, but after 3 years when I decided to buy a new car I had nothing to part ex.

 

Just to highlight my error, I asked the lease company for a cost to buy my lease car, and it was almost as expensive as new.

 

And if you don't have the cash to buy, a low interest loan via the dealer is still better than leasing.

 

I have financed 2 new cars in Thailand.

I would advise to check the conditions you can get financing a car. My first car (HRV) I put 50% down and then got the normal rate of 2.39% flat per year for a 24 months contract. I paid off early and you get only a small rebate in that case.

But for my second car, the bank (Krungsri Auto) knew me well so I got a Mazda 2 for 0% interest on a 48 months contract with only 25% down. Cash out for that was only 160K so that's a lot less than a second hand car of decent quality. And with 0%, no risk whatsoever. 

Btw, I refused to put my wife as guarantor as I insisted that it's not necessary as 99% of household income is from myself. They said cannot, but in the end when I said that I will not do it then, they "can". Remember this is Thailand.

In any case, a car is a big cash-out position and I prefer to comfortably manage my cash flow which is why I think financing could be interesting if the conditions are right. Don't go for anything more than 2-3% flat p.a. And nearly 100% of Thais finance their cars so dealerships know how to maneuver the finance companies for you to get the best deal. 

1 hour ago, bbz404 said:

I have financed 2 new cars in Thailand.

I would advise to check the conditions you can get financing a car. My first car (HRV) I put 50% down and then got the normal rate of 2.39% flat per year for a 24 months contract. I paid off early and you get only a small rebate in that case.

But for my second car, the bank (Krungsri Auto) knew me well so I got a Mazda 2 for 0% interest on a 48 months contract with only 25% down. Cash out for that was only 160K so that's a lot less than a second hand car of decent quality. And with 0%, no risk whatsoever. 

Btw, I refused to put my wife as guarantor as I insisted that it's not necessary as 99% of household income is from myself. They said cannot, but in the end when I said that I will not do it then, they "can". Remember this is Thailand.

In any case, a car is a big cash-out position and I prefer to comfortably manage my cash flow which is why I think financing could be interesting if the conditions are right. Don't go for anything more than 2-3% flat p.a. And nearly 100% of Thais finance their cars so dealerships know how to maneuver the finance companies for you to get the best deal. 

Yes, good plan.

 

I did 50% down 50% on 0% interest over 4 years on a Nissan X-Trail.  I had the cash to buy outright, but why use your own cash when it's 0%?

 

Great advice guys. Appreciated.


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Leasing is not economic unless very high road use is anticipated, i.e more than 40,000 km a year. Consider a scooter if there are only short distances of travel needed.

Best buying is a low-mileage, reasonably recent Toyota, Mazda, Nissan or Mitsubishi. Preferably owned previously by a farang. If the vehicle has no service records, walk away. Bear in mind after 7 years, vehicles here have to be tested annually prior to renewing the registration.

 Manual secondhand vehicles here are significantly cheaper than automatics.

 

4 hours ago, Wiggy said:

Would the lower return be because a Mercedes is an import, and a large chunk of the original price being import duty? Just curious. Thanks. FWIW, my two examples above were sold privately, so probably would have fetched less to a dealer, as was with the Ranger you mentioned.

The lower return could also be due to servicing/maintenance costs, which are roughly three times that of a Japanese vehicle produced in Thailand.

10 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Toyota, Mazda, Nissan or Mitsubishi

Why not Honda?

Just now, bbz404 said:

Why not Honda?

You're right. Nothing wrong with Hondas either. Senior moment.

I think it was the 2014 or 2015 Honda Accord that was rated best in the American market for reliability and longevity, as measured by the total kilometres they had accumulated.

4 hours ago, Kinnock said:

Just to highlight my error, I asked the lease company for a cost to buy my lease car, and it was almost as expensive as new.

 

I wonder why this doesn't surprise me?

13 hours ago, manchega said:

depends how often you use it. taxi can be a lot cheaper but do you want to deal with taxi drivers

if you know cars you can do 2nd hand avoiding lemons etc.

I wouldn’t buy a taxi......????????

It depends on how much you will use it. My 2004 Chevy 4x4 has only 60,000km and looks and runs like new. Even if I can't sell it for much, it has been far cheaper than a lease over the last 14 years. If you drive a lot, like 100k km a year, a lease would be more cost effective.

Thank you. I’d say I’ll be driving around 20k per year.


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When buying second hand is there a way to check if finance is owing? In oz we can get that info readily but not sure here.

 

 

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1 minute ago, sir charles IV said:

When buying second hand is there a way to check if finance is owing. In oz we can get that info readily but not sure here.

 

 

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Easy: if the seller doesn't have the original blue book, don't buy. If the blue book still has the bank listed as the owner, then it's still in the bank's name. Ownership transfer from bank needs to be done, otherwise I would not consider buying the car.