General Motors to stop selling Chevrolet cars in Thailand

[Don Mega]

15 minutes ago, transam said:

I don't care what other folk are driving, even their colour choice...????

 

Chevy and Ford have got it all wrong for decades, they should have had a closer look at what the leaders, Toyota and VW, were doing right...????

Ford are doing pretty good with the Ranger so they aint got everything wrong.

[transam]

Just now, Don Mega said:

Ford are doing pretty good with the Ranger so they aint got everything wrong.

Don't think a truck will change Fords status on the world stage any time soon....????

[Don Mega]

1 minute ago, transam said:

Don't think a truck will change Fords status on the world stage any time soon....????

Don't think that what I said or implied.

[Olmate]

1 hour ago, Peter Denis said:

Spot the embarassing mistake in the article >

Like Britain, Australia and New Zealand are right-hand drive markets. With sales of GM's Australian Holden brand plummeting, the company could not justify the investment to continue building right-hand drive vehicles, GM President Mark Reuss said in Sunday's statement.

No.?

[transam]

1 hour ago, Peter Denis said:

Spot the embarassing mistake in the article >

Like Britain, Australia and New Zealand are right-hand drive markets. With sales of GM's Australian Holden brand plummeting, the company could not justify the investment to continue building right-hand drive vehicles, GM President Mark Reuss said in Sunday's statement.

Except they are going to carry on making RHD vehicles, but in a LHD country, Germany, then send them on a very long sea journey.....????

[Grumpy John]

My son has a 2018 Colorado and I have to say it is the best pick-up I have driven!   It's done over 70.000km and not needed any dealership work other than servicing.  As for Great Wall......the first few years selling their junk pick-ups in Oz is enough knowledge for me to never park one under the house here in LOS.   

[Don Mega]

1 hour ago, transam said:

Except they are going to carry on making RHD vehicles, but in a LHD country, Germany, then send them on a very long sea journey.....????

Which vehicle ?

[drbeach]

23 hours ago, MaxLee said:

More mass shooters coming after closure..... 

Why? Most, possibly all of the workforce about to lose their jobs will probably be re-hired by Great Wall. Unlike in Australia's and America's case where sacked workers lose their jobs in the industry permanently, here in Thailand they at least have a chance of working the same job, just for a different employer.

[drbeach]

2 hours ago, transam said:

Except they are going to carry on making RHD vehicles, but in a LHD country, Germany, then send them on a very long sea journey.....????

I thought they would be made in the USA (Corvette) never heard about Germany making them. DO you have a source?

[transam]

33 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

Which vehicle ?

A ship................????

[Don Mega]

2 minutes ago, transam said:

A ship................????

So you don't know which RHD vehicles then.... Figured that would be your answer.

[drbeach]

18 hours ago, Don Mega said:

Great Walls are currently sold into Aus and I don't think too many bogons buy them so don't see why that would change.

 

The Izuzu/Chevrolet thing split a few years ago.

Great Wall is  buying the assembly and engine plants.... not the dealerships.

They may however end up buying/converting some of the old dealerships. Since fewer would be needed to service the existing Chevy vehicles on the roads and also serve as dealerships to sell low volumes of specialty vehicles imported from the USA such as the Corvette, which I believe will be factory made in RHD format and is the competitor to Ford's Mustang, which is now sold directly to Thai consumers through Ford showrooms. The factory built RHD Corvette is set to appear on Australian and NZ roads next year. Other GM vehicles imported from the USA to those markets will be converted to RHD locally. Personally, I have no desire to purchase a converted vehicle - if I went for an imported Chevy it would have to be factory built RHD but looks like the only option (for now) will be the Corvette. Otherwise I'd even be happy to settle for a fully imported LHD model such as a full-size pickup truck - unlike in Australia, LHD vehicles can be registered in Thailand without restrictions.

[transam]

5 minutes ago, drbeach said:

I thought they would be made in the USA (Corvette) never heard about Germany making them. DO you have a source?

GM Aus made cars are going to be made in Germany, Corvettes are made solely in Kentucky,  I have been there.....????

[transam]

2 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

So you don't know which RHD vehicles then.... Figured that would be your answer.

You have Google, don't be lazy....????

[drbeach]

20 hours ago, CGW said:

True! Thailand must have the most boring vehicles on the road anywhere! rare to see anything interesting, surprisingly one of the best variation of cars I have seen on the roads in recent years has been in China.

I agree. OK so Great Wall is coming to the rescue but they'll need a lot of work to sell any vehicles here seeing that it's an extreme rarity to see any Chinese car brand in Thailand. Maybe they'll do better in Laos, where budget conscious consumers who are just buying cars for the first time, are OK with Chinese vehicles. Then again Laos is an extremely small market, though very fragmented. I just looked up Chevrolet Lao's website, and their offerings are mind boggling! A total of like 11 different models, all fully imported, though I wonder how many they sell a year. Can't be many - perhaps a few hundred or thousand at most. They are just a Chevrolet branded vehicle importer with just 2 dealerships nationwide. After GM leaves Thailand, they will probably retain way more showrooms than that for servicing and to sell a few niche vehicles such as the Corvette, which is not currently sold here that I'm aware of.

 

Back to the fleet of vehicles in Thailand - yeah, it is boring seeing everyone drive the same 10-year old Corolla or recent REVO pickup truck, usually a prerunner version rather than the 4x4, which is for some reason comparatively uncommon. Nothing wrong with the prerunner, but for maximum flexibility, I'd rather spend the extra few 10,000s Baht for the 4x4.

 

Thais must be very jealous of the wide variety of vehicles on Lao roads when they travel there. It's strange though, given Thais are generally far wealthier than Laotians - I'm sure Thais could afford better cars rather than choosing to drive the same thing as everyone else. I posed this question once to a Thai friend - he said it was because it's easier to fix such vehicles. Yeah sure, but so? If you're living in or near Bangkok and driving something like a Volvo SUV or even a Ford Mustang, you won't have any issues getting it serviced even if there's just a handful of service centers. If you're driving a Chevy in Laos and live in Luang Prabang, you'll have to drive to Vientiane to get it serviced, which is much more of a pain with it's winding and poorly maintained mountainous roads...it's at least a 2-day trip back and forth for such drivers.

[transam]

4 minutes ago, drbeach said:

I agree. OK so Great Wall is coming to the rescue but they'll need a lot of work to sell any vehicles here seeing that it's an extreme rarity to see any Chinese car brand in Thailand. Maybe they'll do better in Laos, where budget conscious consumers who are just buying cars for the first time, are OK with Chinese vehicles. Then again Laos is an extremely small market, though very fragmented. I just looked up Chevrolet Lao's website, and their offerings are mind boggling! A total of like 11 different models, all fully imported, though I wonder how many they sell a year. Can't be many - perhaps a few hundred or thousand at most. They are just a Chevrolet branded vehicle importer with just 2 dealerships nationwide. After GM leaves Thailand, they will probably retain way more showrooms than that for servicing and to sell a few niche vehicles such as the Corvette, which is not currently sold here that I'm aware of.

 

Back to the fleet of vehicles in Thailand - yeah, it is boring seeing everyone drive the same 10-year old Corolla or recent REVO pickup truck, usually a prerunner version rather than the 4x4, which is for some reason comparatively uncommon. Nothing wrong with the prerunner, but for maximum flexibility, I'd rather spend the extra few 10,000s Baht for the 4x4.

 

Thais must be very jealous of the wide variety of vehicles on Lao roads when they travel there. It's strange though, given Thais are generally far wealthier than Laotians - I'm sure Thais could afford better cars rather than choosing to drive the same thing as everyone else. I posed this question once to a Thai friend - he said it was because it's easier to fix such vehicles. Yeah sure, but so? If you're living in or near Bangkok and driving something like a Volvo SUV or even a Ford Mustang, you won't have any issues getting it serviced even if there's just a handful of service centers. If you're driving a Chevy in Laos and live in Luang Prabang, you'll have to drive to Vientiane to get it serviced, which is much more of a pain with it's winding and poorly maintained mountainous roads...it's at least a 2-day trip back and forth for such drivers.

MG is Chinese...

[drbeach]

36 minutes ago, transam said:

GM Aus made cars are going to be made in Germany, Corvettes are made solely in Kentucky,  I have been there.....????

Yes that's what I was implying - Corvettes have been slated to be made in RHD format from the factory and will be sold in Australia and New Zealand and possibly also in Thailand starting after Chevrolet leaves Thai shores in it's current format. As for the Silverado and other LHD models that are not offered in RHD format, aren't these being produced stateside for the Aussie market too? Never heard of full-size pickups being built outside North America. Even in Europe, the market for these vehicles is very limited and due to emissions controls, the Corvette is no longer being offered for sale in Europe. These specialty vehicles (other than the Corvette) will be produced in LHD format and converted to RHD locally in Australia. I doubt Thailand will see any of these vehicles here except like now, in very limited quantities, imported by vehicle importers and remaining in LHD configuration for the odd Chevy enthusiast. This means ONLY the Corvette may end up being sold in Thailand come next year and it will be made in the USA.

[drbeach]

1 minute ago, transam said:

MG is Chinese...

Yeah I forgot about that one. It is now, but wasn't originally. MGs are becoming quite popular, but so far that is the sole exception. That being said, I have the feeling Thais will warm up to Great Walls.

[drbeach]

3 hours ago, transam said:

Don't think a truck will change Fords status on the world stage any time soon....????

Ford has a good reputation but decided about a year or two ago, to pretty much get out of car production, leaving just 2 car models in North America, with the rest being SUVs and pickup trucks.

 

The Ford Ranger is certainly a good vehicle and very popular all across the region.

[transam]

4 minutes ago, drbeach said:

Yeah I forgot about that one. It is now, but wasn't originally. MGs are becoming quite popular, but so far that is the sole exception. That being said, I have the feeling Thais will warm up to Great Walls.

Here it is, a Chinese truck with the English MG "performance" badge, makes me....????

 

https://www.mgcars.com/en/mg-models/new-mg-extender-gc/overview

[drbeach]

23 hours ago, baansgr said:

More job loses....oh dear....will Ford be next?

I can imagine most, if not all current Chevy employees will be re-employed by Great Wall. Unlike in Australia's case, where they won't be able to find a new role in the industry.

 

Ford, no. Ford are doing much better than GM and their Ford Ranger is now Thailand's 3rd most popular pickup. Actually in some recent years I think it was even second. It's pickup based SUV, the Everest, is also quite popular. Both are way more popular than their Chevy counterparts.

[CGW]

1 hour ago, drbeach said:

Thais must be very jealous of the wide variety of vehicles on Lao roads when they travel there. It's strange though, given Thais are generally far wealthier than Laotians - I'm sure Thais could afford better cars rather than choosing to drive the same thing as everyone else. I posed this question once to a Thai friend - he said it was because it's easier to fix such vehicles. Yeah sure, but so?

It's all down to cost I'm afraid! if its "manufactured" in Thailand tax bracket is sooo much lower, same with small engines, higher cc taxed higher!

[djayz]

On 2/17/2020 at 5:01 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

The article didn't explain why Thailand would be losing all those GM jobs, when it sounds like Great Wall is supposed to buying the GM plant here, not closing it????

 

Maybe the Chinese know that most (all?) companies in Thailand have way too many employees on the payrole. 

I'm pretty sure the staff who are not chucked out will learn what it means to really "work" under the watchful eye of their omnipresent Sino-cousins.

 

[Don Mega]

5 hours ago, transam said:

GM Aus made cars are going to be made in Germany, Corvettes are made solely in Kentucky,  I have been there.....????

GM owns no facilities in Europe that builds RHD cars so what are you harping on about.... GM has nothing to sell into Aus.

[Don Mega]

4 hours ago, drbeach said:

 As for the Silverado and other LHD models that are not offered in RHD format, aren't these being produced stateside for the Aussie market too?

They are converted in AUS by HSV, along with the Camaro and Dodge Ram.....

 

Will  HSV convert the Vette... only time will tell but if they do it will make it a $200k+ vehicle and GM will sell very few.

[garyk]

On 2/17/2020 at 12:23 AM, CGW said:

What about cars assembled with Chinese parts?

I have a Toyota Tundra here in the states. I just rebuilt the suspension with Chinese parts. NEVER AGAIN. Chinese junk.

[garyk]

On 2/17/2020 at 4:17 AM, transam said:

Sadly those cheap gas V8 days are long gone.......????

I just filled up here in San Antonio. 1.80/gal. and dropping like a rock. The big v-8's are making a huge come back here.

 

[garyk]

On 2/17/2020 at 6:30 AM, Don Mega said:

The fact you purchased a 1 yrs old pickup with only 10k on it for 325,000 speaks volumes as to the quality of the vehicle and how they are perceived by the buying public.......... little wonder GM has sold up shop in Thailand !!

I did the same thing with a Ford pickup, paid about the same price. Thai's don't like them. Cheap truck that lasted me until I gave it away. It is still running with 345,000 KM on the clock. I kept thinking it would die and it never did... ha

[garyk]

If I ever decide to come back to Thailand I would look for a Chevy Colorado and buy in a heartbeat. Parts readily available and every mechanic in Thailand can work on them. The used price will be dirt cheap. A very good investment for sure. 

[metempsychotic]

On 2/17/2020 at 1:41 PM, MaxLee said:

More mass shooters coming after closure..... 

It amazes me how folks on forums often focus on a single theme and seem to think it either intelligent or amusing to to repeat themselves ad nauseum wether the remark is relevant or not.

 

Perhaps slipping in a remark claiming gm is pulling out due to a lack of brown envelopes, or a gibe regarding prawits watch is in your future.