Aussie cars in Thailand

[WayWokeWhiteGuy]

3 hours ago, NumbNut said:

Yes the tariff wall kills them, just can't compete on price. Mazda and Honda with their assembly plants in ASEAN countries satisfy the criteria and thus dodge the tariff.

 

I wonder if we'll see the Korean makes follow suit and set up manufacture/assembly plants in an ASEAN country down the track a bit

Kia manufacturers in Vietnam. Is Vietnam not an ASEAN country? 
 

I doubt the market here is big enough to support them. 
 

A lot of moaning on about tariffs, but no one seems to care about excise taxes which are much more painful.

[Lacessit]

6 hours ago, Olmate said:

I.m looking for a repairer formy G O GGO! Anyone? 

Do they have Yellow Pages in Thailand? That's what you need.

 

[Natai Beach]

20 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Do they have Yellow Pages in Thailand? That's what you need.

 

 

Yes, but increasingly irrelevant. People use a new invention these days known as a Smartphone.

 

 

Some more Holdens in Thailand. 

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by Natai Beach

[Natai Beach]

7 hours ago, Olmate said:

I.m looking for a repairer formy G O GGO! Anyone? 

Thailand has the best GoGos in the world. Heaps of them.

[Lacessit]

1 minute ago, Natai Beach said:

 

Yes, but increasingly irrelevant. People use a new invention these days known as a Smartphone.

 

Some more Holdens in Thailand. 

Would I be correct in assuming you love Holdens?

My first car was an FX Holden. It had its good points, such as the motor which was very reliable, and quite cheap to replace, almost like a pair of socks. The handling and brakes were probably the worst of any car I have owned, wallowed like a rowboat at sea. It was said fast cornering had to be done with the door handles.

[Natai Beach]

1 minute ago, Lacessit said:

Would I be correct in assuming you love Holdens?

My first car was an FX Holden. It had its good points, such as the motor which was very reliable, and quite cheap to replace, almost like a pair of socks. The handling and brakes were probably the worst of any car I have owned, wallowed like a rowboat at sea. It was said fast cornering had to be done with the door handles.

 

Not particularly. I like any rear wheeled V8. To me that is what a car should be, regardless of the brand.
 

I was more of a second hand cheap v8 fairlane man having three of them over the years. A lot of car for pennies.
The 928 was the car I kept for the longest (and it is still in my name as I gave it to a mate who has never transferred the rego over. And he gives it back to me when I visit Australia)

 

if I found an XA-XC coupe in Thailand I would buy it.

[Lacessit]

46 minutes ago, Natai Beach said:

 

 

 

if I found an XA-XC coupe in Thailand I would buy it.

Good luck with that, design faults in them that guaranteed rust.

Ford had its own plastics manufacturing site at the Broadmeadows plant, seemed to specialise in non-durable polymers. Although I will admit they always did V8 engines better than Holden.

If my memory serves correctly, they also topped out with the biggest straight six at 4.2 litres. There are smaller V8's around.

[Olmate]

1 hour ago, Natai Beach said:

Thailand has the best GoGos in the world. Heaps of them.

“No not the dart”

[Aussiepeter]

When I was first posted to LOS in the early 90's I was based in Chiang Mai and Chiang Dao. The local highway patrol bought six new Holden Camira's. I was familiar with them ,as I had one for a few months as an Officers' support vehicle in Oz. They were only four cylinders, 1.8L from memory with a built in design fault. They had 'wet-liner' cylinder sleeves (whatever the heck they are) and most of them started using heaps of oil & blowing clouds of smoke after they'd done just 40,000 kms. Pretty lousy. They needed constant maintenance. All six bought by the CM police were dead within a couple of years. Nearly all the Holden Commodores shipped to LOS from Oz came with a 2L four cylinder Nissan motor or its' Oz equivalent. Rubbish to drive - totally gutless. The six cylinder was never a sales chance in LOS after about 1974 because of the huge import taxes on engines over 2L back then. I spent my nearly thirty years in LOS looking out for any decent old Aussie car body - either Ford or Holden, to do up in LOS & then ship back to Australia. Labour in LOS is peanuts - a respray is pocket money - upholstery cheap as chips etc. Most of the time, I could not find one that any Thai was even prepared to sell. Those that would sell wanted crazy prices for junk - like 500,000 baht for a rusty shell, now fitted with an ailing diesel truck engine and not legally registered. "As soon as they see a farang is interested," they add two zero's on to the price. There is a chap on the ring road between Sankampang and Borsang in C Mai who has about twenty old Oz cars and a few old Ford Mustangs for sale, but as soon as he sees a foreigner looking at them ..... you get the picture.   

[Lacessit]

28 minutes ago, Aussiepeter said:

When I was first posted to LOS in the early 90's I was based in Chiang Mai and Chiang Dao. The local highway patrol bought six new Holden Camira's. I was familiar with them ,as I had one for a few months as an Officers' support vehicle in Oz. They were only four cylinders, 1.8L from memory with a built in design fault. They had 'wet-liner' cylinder sleeves (whatever the heck they are) and most of them started using heaps of oil & blowing clouds of smoke after they'd done just 40,000 kms. Pretty lousy. They needed constant maintenance. All six bought by the CM police were dead within a couple of years. Nearly all the Holden Commodores shipped to LOS from Oz came with a 2L four cylinder Nissan motor or its' Oz equivalent. Rubbish to drive - totally gutless. The six cylinder was never a sales chance in LOS after about 1974 because of the huge import taxes on engines over 2L back then. I spent my nearly thirty years in LOS looking out for any decent old Aussie car body - either Ford or Holden, to do up in LOS & then ship back to Australia. Labour in LOS is peanuts - a respray is pocket money - upholstery cheap as chips etc. Most of the time, I could not find one that any Thai was even prepared to sell. Those that would sell wanted crazy prices for junk - like 500,000 baht for a rusty shell, now fitted with an ailing diesel truck engine and not legally registered. "As soon as they see a farang is interested," they add two zero's on to the price. There is a chap on the ring road between Sankampang and Borsang in C Mai who has about twenty old Oz cars and a few old Ford Mustangs for sale, but as soon as he sees a foreigner looking at them ..... you get the picture.   

The Camira and 4-cylinder Torana were not Holden's proudest moments. Their six-cylinders were a different story, I can remember the EH. For its time, a fast car.

A curious choice to go looking for car bodies in Thailand, there are any number of outback stations in Oz where the boneyards are full of car bodies. One guy I used to work with made a profitable hobby out of buying them up for peanuts, and converting them into choppers.

 

[NumbNut]

17 hours ago, WayWokeWhiteGuy said:

Kia manufacturers in Vietnam. Is Vietnam not an ASEAN country? 
 

I doubt the market here is big enough to support them. 
 

A lot of moaning on about tariffs, but no one seems to care about excise taxes which are much more painful.

Kia in Vietnam eh, wasn't aware of that. Do you know if they manufacture left and right hand drive? Wonder why Kia are getting hit with the non-ASEAN tariff then

 

Mate, I moan about ALL tax, I don't discriminate! Doesn't matter what it's called, GST, excise, tariff... it's all biccies out of my back pocket, it's all evil and it's all no buggery good!

[NumbNut]

12 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Good luck with that, design faults in them that guaranteed rust.

Ford had its own plastics manufacturing site at the Broadmeadows plant, seemed to specialise in non-durable polymers. Although I will admit they always did V8 engines better than Holden.

If my memory serves correctly, they also topped out with the biggest straight six at 4.2 litres. There are smaller V8's around.

The late run Valiant's had a 4.3 litre Hemi six option, with the most powerful being the mighty R/T Six Pack with triple Weber carbies making over 300 horsies out of a six. If memory serves it was the most powerful 6 cylinder production car in the world at the time

 

 

 

[Lacessit]

58 minutes ago, NumbNut said:

The late run Valiant's had a 4.3 litre Hemi six option, with the most powerful being the mighty R/T Six Pack with triple Weber carbies making over 300 horsies out of a six. If memory serves it was the most powerful 6 cylinder production car in the world at the time

 

 

 

I stand corrected, didn't know that. The first model in 1962, the SV-1, had a slant six which produced considerably more power than the corresponding Holden and Ford sixes.

I wasn't particularly rapt in the styling of the later models, I was quite taken with the lines of the original, because it was a funky change from what Holden and Ford had on offer.

 

[NumbNut]

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

I stand corrected, didn't know that. The first model in 1962, the SV-1, had a slant six which produced considerably more power than the corresponding Holden and Ford sixes.

I wasn't particularly rapt in the styling of the later models, I was quite taken with the lines of the original, because it was a funky change from what Holden and Ford had on offer.

 

Yes I agree, those early Valiant's had great styling. The handling though... the engines weren't the problem, the legendary Hemi's always had Ford and Holden's measure, but their handling let the whole package down. Just couldn't handle Aussie conditions, and they never really even tried to adapt like Ford did when the early Falcon's started coming back into the workshop bent.

 

For a few years Chargers were Highway Patrol cars in NSW too.

 

A bloke around town had one of those six pack R/T's and it had a great, unique sound. Nothing like a V8 but you could tell it meant business

[canthai55]

3 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Here is the N. American model 1962

[canthai55]

[WayWokeWhiteGuy]

7 hours ago, canthai55 said:

Here is the N. American model 1962

The early 60’s US Valiants had optional push-button automatic transmissions...

[NumbNut]

15 hours ago, WayWokeWhiteGuy said:

The early 60’s US Valiants had optional push-button automatic transmissions...

It was offered as an option on the Oz models too I believe

[Olmate]

34 minutes ago, NumbNut said:

It was offered as an option on the Oz models too I believe

Dodge phoenix, Chrysler Royal too

[Lacessit]

7 hours ago, Olmate said:

Dodge phoenix, Chrysler Royal too

The Chrysler Royal had fins as big as a Great White. Ivo Whitton ( 5 times Australian Open golf champion ) used to drive one.

[Natai Beach]

A VZ? Holden Ute.

 

[Litlos]

On 3/3/2021 at 7:57 AM, tifino said:

Thailand very lucky it didn't cop the Holden StarfIre4!! ???? 

 - conflictingly it would have starred as a good match for stringent engine size taxes 

We had a few as company pool cars. Commonly referred to as constipated, could not pass anything.

Cheers

[Litlos]

On 3/1/2021 at 3:11 PM, Natai Beach said:

 

Advertising for the ‘Upgrade “Holden Monaro LS”‘ in Thailand

 

And the Holden Belmont

 

LS is a 2 door even in Thailand, so no idea what the pictures are of, looks like a Kingswood badge on the guard, an LS Monaro would have a LS Monaro badge on the rear section of the guard. Oh and I actually have an HQ LS in Thailand I am restoring, but the engine and transmission are from A 92 Camaro, 350 SBC and TH700R4 auto.

Cheers

[tifino]

1 hour ago, Litlos said:

We had a few as company pool cars. Commonly referred to as constipated, could not pass anything.

Cheers

...just like its post-1973 ADR27A asphixiated Uncle (the latter 202) 

(and by which I always then tongue in cheek referred to in front of its owners:

- "oh 202... didntya know that's the firing order!!" :D 

[Natai Beach]

Some older fairlanes.

[Natai Beach]

On 3/21/2021 at 11:46 AM, Litlos said:

LS is a 2 door even in Thailand, so no idea what the pictures are of, looks like a Kingswood badge on the guard, an LS Monaro would have a LS Monaro badge on the rear section of the guard. Oh and I actually have an HQ LS in Thailand I am restoring, but the engine and transmission are from A 92 Camaro, 350 SBC and TH700R4 auto.

Cheers

It says Monaro in the yellow writing at the top.

[AlexRRR]

My god, i wouldn't drive let alone own an Aussie made car in Australia, like we never had our own Australian 100% manufacture you know they were mainly American companies.

 

Might be a few good reasons they packed up and left Doge.....like reliability could be one to begin with....