Buying a Car in Pattaya.

[rocky123]

Thinking of buying a compact car here, like a ford Escort or Mazda 3. Can you please give me any advise ? ie cars to stay clear of. Looking on "marketplace" some have milage of 150,000 plus, is this a "Keep Clear" ?  

Its been 20 years since I owned a car, so a bit out of touch. Should I buy "New" ? Many used cars I see have still, future payments, not sure how that works. Is there a good used car sales depot in Pattaya ?

Many thanks for your help people.

[Henryford]

Used cars used to be so expensive it was only ever worth buying new. Things may have changed a bit now but i would still advice you buy new if you can afford it. Unfortunately the Ford Fiesta/Focus are no longer available. The best small car imo is the Mazda 2 @600,000 baht. If you must buy second hand better off a farang and someone you know (and can trust).

[fdsa]

"rolling back the mileage is a national sport in Thailand" ©

keep that in mind.

[richard_smith237]

Do some research on local sites...

 

I find that one2car.com is good resource to assess the models / ages / prices of cars available in Thailand. 

 

There are millions of cars in Thailand - there are the obvious rumours that Thai’s don’t look after their cars etc, but thats rubbish, just like anywhere else, some do, some don’t. 

 

A lack of oversight and crappy enforcement of lawbreakers does mean that ‘some’ second hand dealers employ questionable practices, thus buying new makes many people more comfortable.

 

Also, buying second hand is risky. The advise to buy from a Westerner is flawed, I wouldn’t trust a westerner over a Thai when buying a car - each vehicle (and person) should be judged on its individual merits. 

 

 

Get an idea of what you like, get the price range of the car you want. Go and look at a few. 

 

One option would be to buy a second hand car which is two years old still under warranty - given the Covid-19 downturn there maybe more cars on the market. Some dealerships also offer second hand-cars with warranty. 

 

IF a car has outstanding finance its usually simple enough to pay off the finance - usually, the finance company are involved in the sale when making the transaction. 

 

 

 

[mran66]

Just in Facebook For Sale forums see 2-4 year old cars with few 10k kms substantially depreciated vs new price, both from farang and thai owners, so if you are OK with 2nd hand  and do not want to spend too much, good deals to be had, just shop around and make offer if you see something you like. One2car, taladrod and kaidee many many on offer.

 

I personally bought 4yr old Focus with 55k on the clock (adjusted to 45k...) 4yrs ago, about 60% depreciated vs new at the time. Perfectly OK for my use as only drive ocasionally some 6-8k km/year. 

 

Buying a used Ford bears a risk if you go for the PowerShift DCT version though, so even if I still would find a good low km Focus mk3 (as great driving car vs japanese) if buying today, probably would get a late model with normal auto gear and steer a way the DCT risk. If need any minor repair of wearable parts like undercarriage bushings etc, is cheap here so not really worried about that (though have not had issues myself, nor gf who has Fiesta of same age).

 

If just need it to move around around town, and would not want to take any unnecessary risks, I would look around 2-4 year old japanese compact (like Mazda2/3, Honda city/jazz/civic or the likes) with low mileage directly from owner who for whatever reason needs/wants to get rid of it and make offer when see a good one. Reliable and cheap to fix if anything happen. Would stay away Fiesta/Ecosport and older Focus (pre 2016 I recall, new Focus with 1.5 engine OK) due to the clutch risk. Probably would steer away from CVT gearbox cars also like smaller Nissans are.

 

Enough options available with less than 60km on the clock at low price so why by one with 150k (unless you are a hobbyist yourself) as high mileage inevitably means more work needed for small cars. Not that it would be a no-go, but if you can spend 300k instead of 150k, gives you quite a bit peace of mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rocky123]

Going to look at a Ford fiesta, 1.6, tomoro.  year 2012 .One owner 87,000kl. Wants 169,000 bht. Wish me look lol. Thanks for all your great advise

[Leaver]

6 hours ago, rocky123 said:

Going to look at a Ford fiesta, 1.6, tomoro.  year 2012 .One owner 87,000kl. Wants 169,000 bht. Wish me look lol. Thanks for all your great advise

 

As another member said, they roll back the speedometer.  

 

It's probably got 169,000 kilometres, and only worth 87,000 baht.  ????

[Fujionrye]

You should research Ford Fiesta. Cars are so expensive here. That's maybe tops $3k in the states.

[fdsa]

Also you you should google the license plate number, sometimes it reveals different listings of the same car with different owners/prices/mileages.

[jacko45k]

3 hours ago, fdsa said:

Also you you should google the license plate number, sometimes it reveals different listings of the same car with different owners/prices/mileages.

In Thailand?

[fdsa]

Yes, I often find cars by the license plate number. First they appear in auction listings with NNN km mileage, then they reappear on Facebook marketplace with NN km mileage with higher price.

If "text" google does not yield any results - switch to image search, this way google might find you a photo of that car, on different second hand vehicle websites. Same here - I've found cars on taladrod.com with higher mileage and lower price that later appear on facebook with lower mileage and higher price

 

P.S. note that some sellers don't even bother to remove the auction stickers from the car, so if you see a sticker with short number (like "A1234") on the odometer it means that the car was sold on the auction. So be cautious if the seller insists that it is his own lovely car and try to google that short number with the car model.

 

Also there are lots of middleman resellers on facebook, you could find one car listed by 10 different persons in different groups. Most listings appear on the marketplace so if you look for the specific model you might find all these listings on the single page. The hardest part is to find the original owner to avoid paying the middlemen.

Edited February 20, 2021 by fdsa

[MAF666]

I have bought 2 vehicles in the last 6 months from foreigners on Bahtsold. Some bargains to be had currently.

[fdsa]

On 2/20/2021 at 11:01 AM, fdsa said:

P.S. note that some sellers don't even bother to remove the auction stickers from the car, so if you see a sticker with short number (like "A1234") on the odometer it means that the car was sold on the auction. So be cautious if the seller insists that it is his own lovely car and try to google that short number with the car model.

this is what I'm talking about:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do not ever tell the sellers that you know that the car was bought on the auction! Because they will start to remove these stickers

 

Edited February 21, 2021 by fdsa

[fdsa]

On 2/20/2021 at 11:01 AM, fdsa said:

taladrod.com

sorry, I meant rod.kaidee.com - most new cars appear there.

taladrod.com has fewer and older listings.

and motors.co.th is the worst website I ever used, it doesn't even show the date when the vehicle was listed.