I brought my Ranger yesterday for an inspection.

A beautiful orange Ford Mustang 5.0 was ready to get picked up.

A young couple with a baby. Both parents looked like early 30s.

 

I checked the price. Almost 5 million BAHT!!!!!!

I checked the same car in the UK.

A demonstrator, registered in 2020, a few miles, you get for 38k £, that is around 1,550.000baht

 

Wow, what a massive tax is on this car here in Thailand.

14 minutes ago, AlfHuy said:

A beautiful orange Ford Mustang

Was is beautiful or was it orange?

Just now, OneMoreFarang said:

Was is beautiful or was it orange?

both

Yes - tax here is about 300%

i had a 2016 mustang GT convertible - cost me just under Aus $70k. The same car in Thailand had a list price of the equivalent of $230k!  I looked into importing my car to Thailand. LOL. It would have cost me almost the same amount to bring my car here!

I bought GF a Honda HRV here 2 years ago. Cost the equivalent of Aus $52k - same car could have been bought from dealer in Oz for $35k.

many things are cheap in Thailand.  Cars are not!!

even second hand cars go for silly money here...

5 minutes ago, G Rex said:

Yes - tax here is about 300%

i had a 2016 mustang GT convertible - cost me just under Aus $70k. The same car in Thailand had a list price of the equivalent of $230k!  I looked into importing my car to Thailand. LOL. It would have cost me almost the same amount to bring my car here!

I bought GF a Honda HRV here 2 years ago. Cost the equivalent of Aus $52k - same car could have been bought from dealer in Oz for $35k.

many things are cheap in Thailand.  Cars are not!!

even second hand cars go for silly money here...

True.

I wanted to bring my 640 Cabriolet to Thailand. Was 4 years old and was quoted 3,000.000baht import duties.

18 hours ago, AlfHuy said:

Wow, what a massive tax is on this car here in Thailand.

Common knowledge!

There used to be a lucrative trade in smuggling 'luxury cars', It's probably still operating.

18 hours ago, AlfHuy said:

A demonstrator, registered in 2020, a few miles, you get for 38k £, that is around 1,550.000baht

That there is a 300% luxury tax on such cars is not a secret.

But it's also interesting to see that they are actually getting 1,150.000 when selling such a car (if you add 300% import duties and 7% vat you end up at the 4.9 million THB for which they are sold in Thailand). Obviously from this they still make a profit, or they wouldn't sell it. This shows that production cost is surprisingly low and they probably have a quite impressive profit margin in other countries.

18 hours ago, G Rex said:

Yes - tax here is about 300%

i had a 2016 mustang GT convertible - cost me just under Aus $70k. The same car in Thailand had a list price of the equivalent of $230k!  I looked into importing my car to Thailand. LOL. It would have cost me almost the same amount to bring my car here!

I bought GF a Honda HRV here 2 years ago. Cost the equivalent of Aus $52k - same car could have been bought from dealer in Oz for $35k.

many things are cheap in Thailand.  Cars are not!!

even second hand cars go for silly money here...

 

Agreed.  I have told some Thai friends and friends in Australia that it is cheaper to buy a Thai made car in Australia than it is in Thailand!!!  They did not believe me.

It is all about Free Trade then?????

19 hours ago, G Rex said:

It would have cost me almost the same amount to bring my car here!

Thats quite logical otherwise you should keep it quiet and become very rich really fast.

I was eyeing with a 2,3L ecoboost on one2car for a long time last year. It was specifically that car, color, everything I liked. Then my situation changed, because of covid. And I never liked the idea of spending that much money for taxes, even if it is a second hand car.

 

I still like the car very much.

Certainly crazy car prices here. My  friend in Australia just took delivery of top of range fully optioned Non turbo Honda Civic made in Thailand. This was brand new and he had to wait 2 months to get colour.

Price A$26000 which converts to 572000 baht.

Same car here would be 900.000 plus and would have less options.

So does the manufacturer get the extra 300,000baht to subsidise exports or is it government taxes?

Maybe the manufacturers just think the Thais are all wealthy.

 

 

 

 

About 20 years ago someone i knew brought few used Benz cars from the UK into Klong toi without doing his homework and got hit with a massive tax and import chargers that he had no choice but to leave them behind there to rote in the port...  

300% luxury tax on auto imports over 3000cc.

 

 

Unless the engine, body and chassis are all imported separately, then reassembled in Thailand. Which is a bit illegal, but has saved a few Lambo owners the odd 15 million baht or so. 

 

It's also seen a few get their prized lambo confiscated. ????

Driving on the main highway to Jomtien and at the side of the highway was a nice new Mustang that had broken down. One more reason I won’t buy a Ford.

2 hours ago, Chassa said:

Common knowledge!

There used to be a lucrative trade in smuggling 'luxury cars', It's probably still operating.

I remember a monk was found to have a collection of supercars.

2 hours ago, JimHuaHin said:

 

Agreed.  I have told some Thai friends and friends in Australia that it is cheaper to buy a Thai made car in Australia than it is in Thailand!!!  They did not believe me.

When MG brought out the V8, it was cheaper to buy new in Japan and ship it to England than buy one there.

Go figure the logic in that 

19 minutes ago, Mansell said:

Driving on the main highway to Jomtien and at the side of the highway was a nice new Mustang that had broken down. One more reason I won’t buy a Ford.

How do you know it was broken down? So if you saw a new Toyota on the side of the road would you not buy one?

 

I saw an orange Mustang in Chachensao last week and thought it looked great. 

30 minutes ago, elgenon said:

I remember a monk was found to have a collection of supercars.

just back from the morning prayer (in style)

only the rich are allowed to drive anything else than the local <deleted>bag

When I bought my Ranger cash (10% discount), you don't believe how many of the girls working in the dealership suddenly wanted to be friends on line, in case I need some help. 555

22 minutes ago, AlfHuy said:

just back from the morning prayer (in style)

Can a farang be a monk? I crave such a deprived life. : )

What do people expect? In a corrupt society the wealthy pay little income tax, the middle classes are relatively few & not wealthy by 'Western' standards, and the poor have no money. So the government, corrupt & incompetent, can't rely on income tax as its main revenue (as in 'Western' countries).

 

They have to rely on good & services taxes (VAT, GST etc). And import duties on luxury items are big on the list.

1 minute ago, mfd101 said:

What do people expect? In a corrupt society the wealthy pay little income tax, the middle classes are relatively few & not wealthy by 'Western' standards, and the poor have no money. So the government, corrupt & incompetent, can't rely on income tax as its main revenue (as in 'Western' countries).

 

They have to rely on good & services taxes (VAT, GST etc). And import duties on luxury items are big on the list.

 

How are there few middle class? Have you redefined middle class?

2 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

How are there few middle class? Have you redefined middle class?

Many - not all - of what counts as 'middle class' here would be counted amongst the urban poor in The West.

Just now, mfd101 said:

Many - not all - of what counts as 'middle class' here would be counted amongst the urban poor in The West.

Middle class, earning around 30k a month.

I know a few working as lecturers at Uni and even some Dr's, working solely government hospitals. They are at around 30k.

Barely any middle class income.

1 hour ago, Mansell said:

Driving on the main highway to Jomtien and at the side of the highway was a nice new Mustang that had broken down. One more reason I won’t buy a Ford.

Yes Nigel, of course you did Nigel.

 

39 minutes ago, AlfHuy said:

When I bought my Ranger cash (10% discount), you don't believe how many of the girls working in the dealership suddenly wanted to be friends on line, in case I need some help. 555

Yes Alf, of course they did Alf.

3 hours ago, thailand49 said:

It is all about Free Trade then?????

Yeah land of the free..... rip-off merchants.

Maybe western countries should put 300% import tax on cars made in Thailand.

52 minutes ago, mfd101 said:

Many - not all - of what counts as 'middle class' here would be counted amongst the urban poor in The West.

 

If you don't know, just say you don't know, don't just dodge the question and regurgitate additional propaganda.

 

How do you define middle class, can you answer that?