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It's just a small thing - don't bother with the insurance...

pedro01

By pedro01
in Thailand Motor Discussion

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pedro01 Platinum Member

pedro01

Posted
Posted

I'm one of these people that would prefer to pay for small scrapes in the car - because claiming just bumps up your premiums.

 

That is - until today. The wife was very lucky - some lunatic overtook her so close that it took off the wing-mirror. He didn't stop.

 

So here's me thinking "when that drunk chap took the wing mirror off our 5 series one lunchtime, it was 20k for the mirror" - I can deal with that....

 

Until.... I got this from MB today....

 

ouchMirror.png.93b0cb49690afd88fea372c4ac5feeb8.png

 

Line by line:

Mirror Frame - Thai Price 20,810 ($666), online price $339

Mirror Bowl (with Glass) - Thai price 13,560 ($434), online $253

Lower Cover - Thai Price 1,930 ($61), online $41.25

Mirror Cover - Thai Price 6,030 ($193), online $156

 

Basically $1,353 for a wing mirror.

 

Anyone know a cheaper source for such things before I go to the insurance? That's pretty much my premium for the year!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

 

 

 

 

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KamnanT Advanced Member

KamnanT

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Posted

Back in the days when we could still travel, I would always pick up a handful of needed BMW parts on any trip to North America. Brake pads, bulbs, interior and exterior trim, ignition coils, door lock and window actuators, anything I thought I needed and would fit in checked luggage. Genuine BMW parts 20%-50% cheaper online in the US than from dealers in Thailand. Not an option now, of course.

 

I wonder if anyone has mailed auto parts to Thailand and what treatment they got from Customs? I suspect duty rates are high.

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Falcon Silver Member

Falcon

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Just claim on the insurance, 1 time shouldn’t put the cost of your yearly premiums up. You’d probably need to say you knocked it yourself though somehow as most insurance companies put a premium on claims that say it’s someone else’s fault but don’t have the person available to acknowledge it, I.e you’d probably need to say you reversed too near a wall or something.  The garages do load the bill if it is going through insurance, if you asked them for a cost price for cash, they’d probably give you a better quotation..

Edited by Falcon
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Guderian Ruby Member

Guderian

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Posted

It's not just Thailand. Back in the UK my brother drives an old VW Passat estate. It has one of those push-button operated hand brakes which is snazzier than the lever-and-cable type, but a month or so back it suddenly stopped working. He took it to the garage he uses (a cheap place as it's an old car, not the official VW dealer) and they said it was the pads that the hand brake applies when it's activated that had frozen and that bit of the assembly needed replacing. Total bill was £450, for fixing the hand brake in a 15+ year old car. He said the garage owner had told him the bill would have been close on double that if he'd taken it to the main dealer.

 

The solution is to only buy cars that have a 5 or 7 year warranty and change them before it runs out. Not sure which ones have that in Thailand, but I think Kia offer it.  

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Jitar Silver Member

Jitar

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Guderian said:

It's not just Thailand. Back in the UK my brother drives an old VW Passat estate. It has one of those push-button operated hand brakes which is snazzier than the lever-and-cable type, but a month or so back it suddenly stopped working. He took it to the garage he uses (a cheap place as it's an old car, not the official VW dealer) and they said it was the pads that the hand brake applies when it's activated that had frozen and that bit of the assembly needed replacing. Total bill was £450, for fixing the hand brake in a 15+ year old car. He said the garage owner had told him the bill would have been close on double that if he'd taken it to the main dealer.

 

The solution is to only buy cars that have a 5 or 7 year warranty and change them before it runs out. Not sure which ones have that in Thailand, but I think Kia offer it.  

Warranty won't help OEM extortionist parts prices for damage repairs.  

Only solution for this situation is decent quality Non OEM parts, if they are available.

Edited by Jitar
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Grusa Gold Member

Grusa

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My friend has a very expensive twin engine plane, bought new from Europe, and flown here. On the way, a fuel transfer pump, which pumps fuel from the reserve tanks where it cannot be used to the main tanks where it can, failed, forcing him to land in India to refuel.

The pump was replaced under warranty by the local dealers, but failed again several times. The fault was eventually found - not by the dealers - to be an under-rated fuse, in a highly inaccessible place. 

The "certified" fuse cost over $100. it consists of a bog-standard fuse and two crimped on terminals, covered in heatshrink tubing and a part number stamped on. Total cost of parts from a local electronics shop, retail, 20baht. But, totally illegal to use the non-certified parts.

Sorry I don't have a picture. 

 

"Just because you are paranoid, it doesn't mean they are'nt out to get you!"

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fantom Senior Member

fantom

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Posted
1 hour ago, Guderian said:

It's not just Thailand. Back in the UK my brother drives an old VW Passat estate. It has one of those push-button operated hand brakes which is snazzier than the lever-and-cable type, but a month or so back it suddenly stopped working. He took it to the garage he uses (a cheap place as it's an old car, not the official VW dealer) and they said it was the pads that the hand brake applies when it's activated that had frozen and that bit of the assembly needed replacing. Total bill was £450, for fixing the hand brake in a 15+ year old car. He said the garage owner had told him the bill would have been close on double that if he'd taken it to the main dealer.

 

The solution is to only buy cars that have a 5 or 7 year warranty and change them before it runs out. Not sure which ones have that in Thailand, but I think Kia offer it.  

My I respectfully suggest the solution is to only buy cars manufactured or assembled in the country you live in.

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eisfeld Platinum Member

eisfeld

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1 hour ago, hotchilli said:

Welcome to the world of owning a beamer in Thailand.

It's a Mercedes. Not sure why OP called it "5 series".

 

But yea BMW and Mercedes parts can be very expensive because they include shipping from Germany, import duty which can be for example 30%, excise tax, profit margin for the local franchise etc. Adds up very quickly and usually to something ridicolous. A clear case for insurance imho.

 

But the lesson should be to have a dashcam that can show them the responsible third party even if they ran away. That way it wont count against you regarding next years premium.

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Tchooptip Platinum Member

Tchooptip

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3 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Why buy a car you can't afford? 

I love Thai Visa mainly for this kind of helpful and friendly answer ????

Without these charming answers which flourish regularly ThaiVisa would no longer be ThaiVisa ????

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Jitar Silver Member

Jitar

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, fantom said:

My I respectfully suggest the solution is to only buy cars manufactured or assembled in the country you live in.

The OP has a Mercedes and they assemble a lot of models in Thailand.  The OP does not say if the car concerned was fully imported.  It would be interesting to compare the parts costs for Mercedes locally assembled and imported models.  I would not be surprised if there is little difference.  

 

Generally OEM parts prices seem to be as much related to market as production of shipping cost.   

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NanLaew Star Member

NanLaew

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7 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

They punish you for having an expensive car. Mirror the price of a Honda Click, totally crazy

Furthermore, the OP could just get a Honda Click wing mirror and bodge that on. Believe me, with all that tinted glass, nobody will notice.

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DaLa Gold Member

DaLa

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We have a Merc Bluetec.  The battery has just been reduced from 600,000 baht to 400,000 Baht. I've never been keen on wasting money on cars since I bought my first car for £10 and scrapped it a year later for £12.

 

When I look at a dealership and see my money being silently extorted I wince.

 

I used to have a business that required me to rent a 7 1/2 ton truck once a month. I tried to squeeze down the inside lane at the approach to a roundabout but there was a telephone box in the way. I wiped out the telephone box and the wing mirror of the truck. Because businesses won't fall for ludicrous pricing of spares the replacement cost for the mirror was £14. 

 

So my advice is stick a truck mirror on your merc, they give better all round vision anyway.

 

Sorry to all those in Nottingham that couldn't use the phone box that night.

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Thomas J Gold Member

Thomas J

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In the USA there was a plentiful supply of spare parts at salvage yards.  In the case of some parts like mirrors you could even search for the matching color so all it needed to be done was to mount it.  Don't know about Thailand.  I suppose you could buy online in the USA and have shipped DHL but by the time you are done paying for the part plus international shipping it wont be cheap either. 

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scammed Gold Member

scammed

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one word: duct tape !

139 baht 50 satang on lazada

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/3m-1910c-48-x-10-i1486016708-s3913468778.html?exlaz=d_1:mm_150050845_51350205_2010350205::12:1498579383!58089999096!!!pla-294682000766!c!294682000766!3913468778!266725756&gclid=CjwKCAjwq_D7BRADEiwAVMDdHlZXM9hCH_igDOhyUkJ4VL8EOa4226hxCLjQIcliPpt1BL12F5cIWhoCUBoQAvD_BwE

 

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4MyEgo Diamond Member

4MyEgo

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Back in 2006 I purchased a BMW X5 because my accountant was at me for years trying to convince me that having a prestige car would reduce my tax bill while I would also be driving a nice car, i.e. pay the tax or ride off the tax via the car.

 

What he didn't tell me was that I would be spending around the same amount in tax dollars for the first year on the car, e.g. depreciation, lease payments, rego, insurance, tyres, services, brakes etc etc, suffice to say I kept it for 3 years and sold it for half what I paid for it.

 

As the saying goes, you have to have deep pockets to drive a prestige car, and even though I have deep pockets, I don't like throwing money down the drain, as much as I enjoyed driving the car, I would rather have the money in the bank or invested, I can drive a Ford Ranger all the same with minimal outlay every year.

 

As the other saying goes, cash is king when you can get it through jobs, beats the hell out of paying tax ????

 

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Curt1591 Platinum Member

Curt1591

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A pair of mirrors for my Honda Wave ฿180

 

But the lesson should be to have a dashcam that can show them the responsible third party even if they ran away. That way it wont count against you regarding next years premium.

If claimed on one's own insurance, the premiums will go up no matter who was at fault.

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Tchooptip Platinum Member

Tchooptip

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2 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

 

I see your post is really helpful as well, plus you re-post mine just in case anyone missed it.

 

It just seems odd to me that someone would spend that kind of dough on a car and then complain that the parts are expensive. 

 

The price did not seem that high to me. 

Sorry sir but I did not re-post, but to answer one's need to quote,  otherwise it would not be understandable. My post did not intended to be useful I was joking that's not against the forum rules ????

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