Govt to ban import of used cars for personal use starting in December

By The Nation

 

 

The Commerce Ministry will ban imports of used vehicles for personal use starting on December 10, the chief of the Foreign Trade Department said on Tuesday.

 

Adul Chotenisakorn, director general of the Foreign Trade Department, said the Commerce Ministry has issued a directive to ban the import of used vehicles for personal use, so as to reduce air pollution and for the sake of road safety.

 

Adul said the ban, which will be enforced on December 10, is also aimed to prevent importers from avoiding paying high tariffs for entirely-imported vehicles by disguising them as used ones.

Adul said the ban was issued after the Commerce Ministry had consulted other government agencies.

 

He said the department would continue to allow imports of used cranes for construction businesses along with used fire engines and used ambulances that government agencies, state enterprises and charity organisations receive as donations.

 

Those who want to import used cars for their personal use must bring them in before December 9 and the department will approve their import applications within 25 days. After December 9, the import permits for used vehicles for personal use will not be valid, Adul added.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/auto/30372626

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand  2019-07-09

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35 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

Adul Chotenisakorn, director general of the Foreign Trade Department, said the Commerce Ministry has issued a directive to ban the import of used vehicles for personal use, so as to reduce air pollution and for the sake of road safety.

To me, the two points which spring to mind are:

1) A vehicle, if imported from a country with genuine pollution standards, will be a lot more energy efficient than one purchased in Thailand.

2) For the sake of road safety. Again, if imported from a country with genuine safety standards, the vehicle will be a lot safer than one sold in Thailand.
Having said that, as we all know the most of the accidents here are not down to safety standards, but driving standards.

24 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

To me, the two points which spring to mind are:

1) A vehicle, if imported from a country with genuine pollution standards, will be a lot more energy efficient than one purchased in Thailand.

2) For the sake of road safety. Again, if imported from a country with genuine safety standards, the vehicle will be a lot safer than one sold in Thailand.
Having said that, as we all know the most of the accidents here are not down to safety standards, but driving standards.

Good luck finding competent/certified technicians, specialized tools & diagnostic equipment + available part inventories for the above mentioned vehicles.....

Just the smog criteria alone for US versus CAN versus MEX doesn't match up on one continent, let alone world wide....

Does that mean a General with 19 cars on loan from Singapore has to return them? LOL.

Is there any expat on these pages that has successfully imported a car to Thailand? Or know for a fact a westerner who has? My impression is that Thai customs has made that so difficult and expensive, reportedly so that they, customs, end up with our imported car, that we farangs have given up that strategy long ago. 
What say you?
And what of the Thai population and their appetite to display their wealth with high end imports? Benz, BMW, etc. Those cars already here will certainly hold value.

Seems they just don't want anything from outside the country....????

 

As for the polution thing, the country is stuffed with old buses belching out crap, now why don't they sort that out first before stopping the odd bloke bringing in his pride and joy...

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Adul Chotenisakorn, director general of the Foreign Trade Department, said the Commerce Ministry has issued a directive to ban the import of used vehicles for personal use, so as to reduce air pollution and for the sake of road safety.

Strange as a reason! A Mercedes or BMW from the 80s, for example, are cleaner than most cars (even the latest ones) we find in Thailand!

Is there any expat on these pages that has successfully imported a car to Thailand? Or know for a fact a westerner who has? My impression is that Thai customs has made that so difficult and expensive, reportedly so that they, customs, end up with our imported car, that we farangs have given up that strategy long ago. 
What say you?
And what of the Thai population and their appetite to display their wealth with high end imports? Benz, BMW, etc. Those cars already here will certainly hold value.

I have now my third BMW M5 imported from Japan as spare parts (car is cut in 2) In Thailand they re-assemble all M5 parts on a local F10 chassis and this car is officially registered in Thailand with M5 engine. I wonder if this will still be possible under the new regulations..


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How does this affect garages that import beaten up old classic cars from the UK and Europe then repair them to sell in Singapore, Japan etc ?

 

The cars they’re importing are not road worth and basically scrap

1 hour ago, RandolphGB said:

 

The cars they’re importing are not road worth and basically scrap

.............or with Thai drivers soon will be anyway

3 hours ago, RandolphGB said:

How does this affect garages that import beaten up old classic cars from the UK and Europe then repair them to sell in Singapore, Japan etc ?

It shouldn't.

Ban is on personal use but may have to road test only on private property.

So that is why we have so many cranes topling over .

14 hours ago, captnhoy said:

Is there any expat on these pages that has successfully imported a car to Thailand? Or know for a fact a westerner who has? My impression is that Thai customs has made that so difficult and expensive, reportedly so that they, customs, end up with our imported car, that we farangs have given up that strategy long ago. 
What say you?
And what of the Thai population and their appetite to display their wealth with high end imports? Benz, BMW, etc. Those cars already here will certainly hold value.

I knew a guy back around 2003 that imported a 1990's Ford mustang. He told me it cost him over $20K USD he used to live down around the Thong Lor area.  

17 minutes ago, ericthai said:

I knew a guy back around 2003 that imported a 1990's Ford mustang. He told me it cost him over $20K USD he used to live down around the Thong Lor area.  

Yeah i tried doing that... gave up, hilarious import duty.

Then i tried to import an eBike - literally a mountainbike with battery attached, nothing fancy... cost in germany, 4k euro - would have cost me around 280000-320000 thb after import duty... twice the price. Whatever, gonna kill the the nature and pollute you all a bit more now with a normal scooter instead.

It's about time others started putting tarrifs on countries with ridiculous import duties..And I am not only referring only to cars....