Used Cars in Thailand - Why are so many sellers Russian?

[Thomas J]

I see numerous ads particularly on Facebook for selling used cars.  The vast majority of them are Russian sellers?  Why?  I know in the USA at one time many Russian's owned or worked in salvage yards and they would purchase badly damaged vehicles, repair them, and sell.  That is not so true anymore since most insurance companies will not insure car that has what is termed a salvage title and most banks will not loan against them.  As a result most of the cars that have been declared total losses are sent overseas.  Is that what is happening here? 

[Kwasaki]

My guess is once upon a time there were many Russians in Pattaya and their currency when awl so they left a lot of motors and they are still waiting to sell,  are you American. ????

[2 is 1]

Russian is russian even you fry whit butter! Finnish saying lol. Mean basicly, can't "taste" any better!

[Rmac442]

Good money laundering business !!

[Thomas J]

7 hours ago, Rmac442 said:

Good money laundering business !!

RMAC442  

Would seem to be a challenging one.  There are records of what you pay for the car, records of what you sold it for.  

[Lancashirelad]

They deal cars. I saw one female in Jomtien advertise many cars over a period of time.

[ronaldo0]

Possibly bought a load for renting out and now that market has tanked so maybe selling up. Or maybe they were all flood damaged and bought cheap and sorted out .

[charliebadenhop]

Not sure about recently, but the Russians have been huge players in the used car market for years. Lots of cars go there after being stolen (high end models) and lots go there legitimately, but still within Russia the Russian mafia is very much involved. So somehow all of that experience winds up being used in Thailand. 

[Bigz]

Amongst others one possible reason is that there are a lot of Russian owned car hire businesses in Pattaya. They usually lease new cars for their business and once the lease/payment is done (after 3-6 years)they sell the cars cheaply and get new ones. It makes perfect sense, the car already paid itself and to be competitive they need fairly new cars.

[Deli]

Many Russians here, almost everybody has/had a car. Economy is cr@p, car has to go.

I bought some nice 2nd hand stuff from Russians leaving, never regretted.

[SiSePuede419]

There Yugo again. ????

[Rdrokit]

Must be a Pattaya/Bangkok thing as I have not seen any Russians selling used cars in Korat.

Edited August 11, 2020 by Rdrokit

[Sheryl]

Indeed, solely a Pattaya thing.

 

Nationwide vast majority of sellers are Thai

[transam]

Perhaps some have found out how to earn a 'legit' living.............