Bad economy? Thais buying million b cars

[madmen]

On 8/16/2020 at 6:27 PM, timendres said:

Q Bad economies do not affect the wealthy the same as the poor.

Wealthy? These are just normal middle class punters who are taking advantage of whatever promotion is happening.and signing up for credit just like in the west very few pay cash and even those with cash will take credit farmers always have and all ways will be poor so will the chubby bar girls and they can't get credit either 

[newnative]

    Not everyone is in financial difficulty.  There are still buyers for cars and still buyers for condos and houses.  People with money can look for bargains with both right now.  

[moe666]

On 8/16/2020 at 5:39 PM, Sheryl said:

Having just been through purchase of a new car, I can assure you it is very much a buyers market out there, at least for Hondas. the dealerships are jam packed. One reason may be that they were closed for 3 months during lockdown.

 

 

Not all were closed near where the wife works here in CM the big Honda dealer was open the entire time.

[Saltire]

In our village there are many partially-finished homes e.g. roof and supporting pillars but no real walls as such, just tin etc. Whole families living there. Many have a nice shiny pickup sitting outside. When we walk by the wife always says 'why buy new car when house no finished!'

 

The shiny pickups also disappear as quickly as they came sometimes.

 

And why is white so popular for a new car in such a dusty and dirty country?

 

 

[1FinickyOne]

On 8/16/2020 at 3:34 PM, trevoromgh said:

the Thais to all be buying flash new cars

a small small % is not by any means all Thai... 

 

people like to buy cars when they can afford them... not sure where you are from but I bet plenty of people buy cars there... likely a larger % than here.. 

[1FinickyOne]

OP - that looks like the show at CM - I was there Tuesday morning and it was empty, sales people actually following us around... also, a disappointing # of vehicles - the model I wanted to see as well as its competitors was not there... seemed only 3-4 models per dealer... 

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

An enormous gap between the poor and the wealthy, the largest in the world.

 

I won't argue with anybody, I'm sure you all know some rich people. The ones I know aren't so much. Their humble, easy going attitudes have been a much welcome departure, from the pretentiousness of the American home state I escaped from. 

 

Several family members of mine haven't been able to return to work, in restaurants and hotels. They've remained upcountry to help out on the farm, and sell food by the road. They've planted additional crops for this, and thankfully there's been rain. One pair of family members has returned to BKK, but with reduced hours, and so has had to take a cheap apartment with no windows nor air con. Several times a week my wife cooks extra for them, and they come by to pick it up, seemingly embarrassed. They make less than 10k a month. Theirs and other family members' vehicles have been repoed in the past few months. Yet they work hard, are happy with what they still have, and persevere.

 

Meanwhile, in the big malls in which my wife loves to walk and window shop, the lots are filled with new, high end, red plated cars, to which hi-so Thais carry bags filled with brand names. Upon several occasions, I've also seen large screen TVs proudly wheeled around in shopping carts.

 

Something's gotta give. There were 10k at the Victory Monument protest the other day. The Thais are usually resilient and reserved, and tend keep their displeasures with the things they see, to some mumbling and grumbling. But now that they're indebted, starving, and even dying because of this situation, while seeing new cars and TVs paraded right in front of them, it's inevitable that such displeasure will continue spilling out into the streets.

Edited August 20, 2020 by CrunchWrapSupreme

[Chassa]

A lady I know has had at least  2 new cars that I know of, an MG and a Mitsubishi Pajero both lasted about 3 months - never saw again!

[Bender Rodriguez]

rich people get richer by exploiting the same poor, since well ...

[dingdongrb]

2 hours ago, sanuk711 said:

 

Interesting. I wonder how many of those Chinese manufactured cars are of USA auto companies that have setup shop in China like so many other products? 

[Brickbat]

Thais live for today and don’t understand economics. They borrow and spend like drunken sailors. Debt bomb. World wide. When the big boys pull the pin, lots of wealth will change hands. 

[Krikkiz]

Lol! Is the same in Sweden. 
low paid work and a brand new BMW 800k ???????? Leasing or 100 years payoff 

[RichardColeman]

I truly believe that Thai's qualify for new car finance purely if they can show an ability to put flip flops on the correct feet - and they get two attempts !!!

[khunPer]

On 8/16/2020 at 10:34 AM, trevoromgh said:

I've never understood where the money comes from for the Thais to all be buying flash new cars at exhorbatant prices. I understood salaries over here are pretty low compared to other parts of the world so unless they all have rich parents or are leasing the vehicles and are therefore in-hoc for millions of baht.  If so it could all backfire if the pandemic leads to large scale redundancies longer term. 

Average Thai salaries as per March 2020 (latest stat I've found) says just over 22,000 baht a month.

 

As many makes less, around 10,000 baht a month working in the minimum wage job, some must make (a lot) more than 22,000 baht. 

 

Furthermore there might be unregistered informal income...

[scoupeo]

mazda and toyota ????

and I guess that they will finance the new car 20 years...

 

so whealthy ????

 

55555...

[Jimbo2014]

On 8/16/2020 at 3:34 PM, trevoromgh said:

I've never understood where the money comes from for the Thais to all be buying flash new cars at exhorbatant prices. I understood salaries over here are pretty low compared to other parts of the world so unless they all have rich parents or are leasing the vehicles and are therefore in-hoc for millions of baht.  If so it could all backfire if the pandemic leads to large scale redundancies longer term. 

Debt! - debt funds most purchases in Thailand - if there is no growth then its a house of cards.  By the end of the Covid mess there will only be a few good demographic years left before Thailands population starts to age and shrink.  Then the Japanese effect will start - asset prices will drop across the board but without Japans global ownership.  Interesting days ahead.  

[Ireland32]

On 8/16/2020 at 4:36 PM, Eibot said:

Car sales have been at an extremely low level since the pandamic. Car companies are giving out extremely risky finance deals to get the sales going. People who are not affected by the pandamic take advantage of this. 

It’s bait and switch , I was sucked into the deals but then slowly they disappeared I walked out of Toyota, they changed contracts , Ridiculous 

[PETERTHEEATER]

On 8/16/2020 at 12:51 PM, elektrified said:

There is a Burmese family that has lived around the corner from me for many years. They live in a shack constructed from surplus building materials, corrugated roof, etc. The bathrooms consist of "outhouses". They drive a 1.3 million Baht truck. In fact they traded in the one they had for a couple of years and recently got a brand new one. The guy spends about 90 minutes a day washing and polishing it.

When he accumulates enough to buy an aftermarket hard top for the tray the family will move into it.

[The Theory]

They buy anything they feel they want it today As long as they can afford the requirements today.
Tomorrow will be another day. 

[Don Mega]

Are they buying these cars with no deposit or ?....

 

Ive been to Izuzu/Mazda/Ford and Chevrolet over the past 2 weeks looking at cars and had finance deposits starting at 20%...

Its one thing to get a car on the drip over 7 to 8 years but to stump up a deposit  on a million baht car takes quiet some saving if your only earning 20k a month.

[The Theory]

Spending money does not mean there is any income. They spend whatever is there in their account and enjoy cars till the last single Baht. Then they ask the bank to give them some time (no payments) for selling the car. 

[ThaiPauly]

On 8/16/2020 at 5:25 PM, bert bloggs said:

what always amazes me is when you drive or walk past(near where we live) these small living places ,that they pay about 2k a month to rent ,then they have a car costing 800,000 parked round the side , why ,just to look well off?

 

It's that way in Thailand, it's all about face.

In the west if we were mates you and I would go round each others houses for food or a few beers and to watch sport.

Here, people only meet each other in restaurants, (not expensive ones) and show off their new clothes, cars and gold, nearly always brought on finance.

 

But they sometimes live in hovels, especially the below 30 with no kids not in a relationship brigade.

[geisha]

I often used to wonder how there were so many expensive cars driving around compared to most of EU. Of course, the Thais get credit easily, and in EU, the Tax office is watching you closely ! 

[Wandr]

3 hours ago, Ireland32 said:

It’s bait and switch , I was sucked into the deals but then slowly they disappeared I walked out of Toyota, they changed contracts , Ridiculous 

No bait and switch at Honda. You should have a copy of your contract,  and I am not sure how they can change it.

A few days back I was offered cash and kind discounts totaling about 10 percent of the car price.  That's more than 80000 baht.

This was at a dealership,  they did better than the dealer at the motor show.

I think the discount is even better if you finance. 

This is a good time to buy a car.

[pineapple01]

By this constant use of THEY, it seems many Posters are referring mainly to their Bar Girls Families, low income. There are millions of Thais that live modest lives, within their Respectable Family Budget.But dont let it stop You putting All Thais down.

[dingdongrb]

5 hours ago, Don Mega said:

Are they buying these cars with no deposit or ?....

 

Ive been to Izuzu/Mazda/Ford and Chevrolet over the past 2 weeks looking at cars and had finance deposits starting at 20%...

Its one thing to get a car on the drip over 7 to 8 years but to stump up a deposit  on a million baht car takes quiet some saving if your only earning 20k a month.

My experience tells me that the deposit is much higher for farangs than it is for Thais.

[Don Mega]

3 minutes ago, dingdongrb said:

My experience tells me that the deposit is much higher for farangs than it is for Thais.

Your are kinda correct, I asked my thai work collegues this afternoon how much they paid as a deposit on their cars, the answers ranged between 15% and 30%.

[jadee]

50 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

Your are kinda correct, I asked my thai work collegues this afternoon how much they paid as a deposit on their cars, the answers ranged between 15% and 30%.

Hi, I bought a Mitsubishi Attrage in December 2018 - the price was 470,000 and I got a loan, I paid 47,000baht - so 10% - as a downpayment. 

[runamok27]

On 8/16/2020 at 7:37 PM, dingdongrb said:

No different than the USA. I can't count how many times I would be following a Mercedes or BMW home from work and watch them pull into the trailer park (aka mobile home park).

This is too true.

 

A manager at my work told me a funny story about a guy we worked with. He asked for a private meeting where he was near tears saying he needed a raise because he couldn't feed his family and they were going to lose their home. The manager, like a pinhead, asks his superiors for and get this guy a decent raise. The week after he got the raise the guy comes to work with a brand new Mercedes Benz and not the cheap Mercedes but a really nice one. Oh and the guy did eventually lose his home and had to live in his brother in laws garage for 5 years, with his family.

[ericthai]

 

On 8/16/2020 at 6:25 AM, bert bloggs said:

what always amazes me is when you drive or walk past(near where we live) these small living places ,that they pay about 2k a month to rent ,then they have a car costing 800,000 parked round the side , why ,just to look well off?

we live in a lovely detached home on a large garden ,and outside i have a car that i paid 470,000 for and have had it for years and years ,well it runs nicely ,

When I first moved to Thailand I became good friends with a Thai guy that dove a BMW M3 (about 12 million THB at that time). He invited me over his place one day a small condo (about 5 Million THB for the place). I asked him why not buy a cheaper car and get a bigger condo. His reply " Nobody sees where I live, everyone sees my car" that pretty much explains most Thai's thinking right there!