Best car for under 4,000,000

[Pilotman]

13 hours ago, 2009 said:

You're asking us?

 

Probably only 0.001% on this forum has the money, and is a big enough <deleted>, to spend 4 million on a car.

Many of us here have the money,  but would never think of spending it on a fast depreciating  'statement of wealth', not a clever thing to do here. Be the 'grey man' and don't draw attention to yourself. You're not in Kansas anymore! 

[Kwasaki]

22 minutes ago, thailanddogerator said:

 

and a lot better than any BM !

 

 

I like Merc's but give me a 3.0L bi-turbo 140Mi over a Merc.

[Excel]

15 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

or a house? 

How do you drive a house around ? No sorry you mean an RV, the subject of another thread which someone is selling for 3 million.  Gotcha ????????

[Pilotman]

16 minutes ago, Excel said:

How do you drive a house around ? No sorry you mean an RV, the subject of another thread which someone is selling for 3 million.  Gotcha ????????

you buy a Vios for 600K and drive that around.

In 20 years time you will still have a house, but your Merc/BMW 3569GTIAMGLiGTSZ Big Dick Wally Wagon will be scrap metal and melted down for spoons.

Edited April 19, 2021 by Pilotman

[Cricky]

17 hours ago, pedro01 said:

What I noticed was that 4 million seems to be a target price here. So from BMW  that will get you a

- M340i - 3 liter, 387hp, 0-100 in 4.4 seconds

- 430 Coupe M

- x4

- z4 convertible

Pay the extra and get a M5 or E63s

[ronaldo0]

I would spend a little more and get a merc cls , but if not a merc gle or a Volvo. 

[mrbojangles]

1 hour ago, thailanddogerator said:

People here are more experts about cheap ugly japanese trucks that they buy for the cheapest price available with freebies !

 

 

I'm not one of those but I am trying to be. I just retired here a few weeks ago and there is absolutely no way I am going to pay the extortionate price of "luxury" cars here due to the tax. I will therefore do a lot of reading and looking around for the above you mention. PM me with any tips you may have ????

[pedro01]

4 hours ago, Bonio said:

Jaguar do an XE for around 3MM.

 

Funny thing - I went to the Land Rover place on Rama 4 - it says "Land Rover & Jaguar" on the building.

 

Inside, the only Jag they had was an old e-Type. They took us round the back to the servicing to see some of the other stock and out there, the only Jag was an old XJ12. There wasn't a single new Jag in the place.

 

That's a bit of a red flag for me.

[pedro01]

1 hour ago, VYCM said:

Pay the extra and get a M5 or E63s

 

The M5 is 13,000,000 Baht - the extra is 9 million. 

 

That puts me slightly over my 4m budget.

[Cricky]

2 minutes ago, pedro01 said:

1 hour ago, VYCM said:

Pay the extra and get a M5 or E63s

 

The M5 is 13,000,000 Baht - the extra is 9 million. 

 

That puts me slightly over my 4m budget

Cheap Charlie

 

[pedro01]

2 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Chasing brand names will get you into trouble... everything behind the badge on the bonnet these days is as plastic as the badge itself.

Merc's, BM's, Audi's all plastic and we know how long that lasts in Thailand.

Get a top end Toyota or Honda they'd outlast any brand car.

Ohhh forget the Land Rover Evoque.. they are rubbish these days, always breaking down & you'll spend another 4m repairing it.

 

My C43 is all leather inside - but I do agree you step in a lot of these cars and it's a plastic overload inside. I really thought the Audi TT was going to be something but it's also a plastic-fest inside.  The Land Rover wasn't though - that was nice inside but the pop-out door handles looked like they were disposable. They seemed very flimsy. 

 

As for Toyota or Honda  - we usually hire Camry/Accord when on holiday - they are decent cars but a bit like driving a boat or steering a fish. I think there's a guy in QC there that makes sure nobody left any fun in them.

[pedro01]

1 hour ago, Pilotman said:

Many of us here have the money,  but would never think of spending it on a fast depreciating  'statement of wealth', not a clever thing to do here. Be the 'grey man' and don't draw attention to yourself. You're not in Kansas anymore! 

 

Well - I don't think I am alone here because of the sheer amount of cars targeting that price range. So it seems there's plenty of people paying that amount. I still run my business and it's still growing. I'm not retired, so it's still a growing pot.  It's also about what I save every 2-3 months (but there is some seasonality in my business). 

 

I think that this amount is quite reserved, relatively speaking as it doesn't mean taking on any debt. I know people in Singapore that own cars and pay more. I used to live in Denmark where similar taxes exist. 

 

Perhaps your version of "can afford it" and mine are a bit different. I couldn't afford a Ferarri here but maybe one day I'll be saving 20 million THB a month and that amount will be minor. At that point it's a relatively minor amount. That's where I like to keep the purchases - to the amount I can pay without feeling a pinch. 

 

As for being the "grey man" - I have been here for most of my adult life, I am 50. Business is going well - being one of tens of thousands of cars like this in Bangkok is hardly putting my head above the radar.

[pedro01]

1 hour ago, Kwasaki said:

I like Merc's but give me a 3.0L bi-turbo 140Mi over a Merc.

 

Well - my merc has a 3.0l bi turbo - so I agree!  Not sure they have the M140i here - but the same engine in the Z4 40i - but that's 5 mill and so above budget. 

 

I think the 3.0 isn't available from a BMW dealer here till you get to the 3 series & I don't actually get how they do this.

 

The M340i has the same engine - but they said at BMW yesterday that it's imported. The price is only 3.9M - the price for a 330e M Sport (assembled here) is 2.8M - and I think that's 60% tax, right? So I am not sure how they land an M340i here and sell it for 3.9? Where's all the tax? This is a BMW dealer, not a grey importer.

[pedro01]

1 hour ago, Pilotman said:

you buy a Vios for 600K and drive that around.

In 20 years time you will still have a house, but your Merc/BMW 3569GTIAMGLiGTSZ Big Dick Wally Wagon will be scrap metal and melted down for spoons.

 

Well - we'll always need spoons. I think I am at the max in terms of how many houses I can use. Not sure I can say the same for spoons though.

[pedro01]

20 minutes ago, VYCM said:

Cheap Charlie

 

 

That's what the wife says

[Orinoco]

15 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Secondhand Porsche 911 would be my choice.

 

4 years down Soi 6 would be mine. 

[pedro01]

15 hours ago, 2009 said:

You're asking us?

 

Probably only 0.001% on this forum has the money, and is a big enough <deleted>, to spend 4 million on a car.

 

Well - that's because this is the motor forum and I live in Thailand. It seems like a sensible place to discuss buying a car in LOS.

 

I do this every time I look for a car because I don't follow the trends with cars much, so I always cast the net out first to avoid pitfalls. 

 

You always get people saying "I can't afford that, so you must be over-extending yourself" - but we all look at things from our own perspectives. It shouldn't matter if I'm robbing a bank to buy the car really, should it?

 

It's a car forum, right? If we can only talk about sub $2M Japanese cars, then I stand corrected. But as it is - I have gotten some useful info here, so it's worked for me.

[pedro01]

1 hour ago, ronaldo0 said:

I would spend a little more and get a merc cls , but if not a merc gle or a Volvo. 

 

I like the GLE too - that's where we started out but then - there's rarely more than 2 of us in a car. My Son does his own thing now as he's 18, so having a big car like that will be handy on a drive to Samui or Isaan but that's 1-2 times a year. Even then, it's just so much easier to fly and rent and rentals even out in the Boonies are getting better - so I just don't see us using that much of a car. 

 

Looking @ the Evoque - I started to feel tired at the thought of parking that beastie every trip out - and there's a stretch round the corner from the house which is a real bottleneck 3 evenings a week when it's market day  - all adds up to me thinking there's no point right now in such a big car.

[pedro01]

13 minutes ago, Orinoco said:

 

4 years down Soi 6 would be mine. 

 

You would never last that long.

[PFMills]

Look, you have one of those ‘C’ Class things. Not much bigger than a mini. ‘C’ Class to a Thai means very little. 

 

Give it to your wife and buy something that a Thai can aspire to for yourself.

[Kwasaki]

19 minutes ago, pedro01 said:

 

Well - my merc has a 3.0l bi turbo - so I agree!  Not sure they have the M140i here - but the same engine in the Z4 40i - but that's 5 mill and so above budget. 

 

I think the 3.0 isn't available from a BMW dealer here till you get to the 3 series & I don't actually get how they do this.

 

The M340i has the same engine - but they said at BMW yesterday that it's imported. The price is only 3.9M - the price for a 330e M Sport (assembled here) is 2.8M - and I think that's 60% tax, right? So I am not sure how they land an M340i here and sell it for 3.9? Where's all the tax? This is a BMW dealer, not a grey importer.

I thought the 340 was a 4 pot dunno for sure. 

I would buy neither makes in Thailand even if I had spare money enough to do so. 

At my age if I was given one I'd take it but still keep my truck for the farmland. ????

My youngest son in UK has a M140i and luv's it but it was no where near the price that it would cost here I believe. 

[richard_smith237]

2 hours ago, Pilotman said:

Many of us here have the money,  but would never think of spending it on a fast depreciating  'statement of wealth', not a clever thing to do here. Be the 'grey man' and don't draw attention to yourself. You're not in Kansas anymore! 

 

Also be careful not to look down at your own shadow, it may make you jump !!!...  ????

[richard_smith237]

Someone mentioned Volvo earlier on in this thread...  The XC60 with the T8 powertrain - Inscription Pro trim for the highest interior quality or R Design for a sportier look.

 

Obviously choosing a vehicle is very subjective, however, IMO, if living in Bangkok with access to service centres Volvo would be my preference - XC60 or XC90

[Kwasaki]

14 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Actually this might just be up your alley to run to 7-11 in,

MG Shows Off Electric Cyberster Sportscar Concept for Shanghai Show (motortrend.com)

Very nice but those rims are gross.

[sencelebi]

19 hours ago, Excel said:

Out to impress the friends are we. Well for 4 million there is no better way than buying 7 Toyota Yaris's.,  one for every day of the week. Not many can match that sort of status. ????

Yaris and status? I wanna believe that you are kidding.

[ronaldo0]

24 minutes ago, pedro01 said:

 

I like the GLE too - that's where we started out but then - there's rarely more than 2 of us in a car. My Son does his own thing now as he's 18, so having a big car like that will be handy on a drive to Samui or Isaan but that's 1-2 times a year. Even then, it's just so much easier to fly and rent and rentals even out in the Boonies are getting better - so I just don't see us using that much of a car. 

 

Looking @ the Evoque - I started to feel tired at the thought of parking that beastie every trip out - and there's a stretch round the corner from the house which is a real bottleneck 3 evenings a week when it's market day  - all adds up to me thinking there's no point right now in such a big car.

Was the gle coupe I meant , although both versions are good cars .

I think the coupe is similar to a x4 but far better looking .

Also the new x3 is meant to be a great car but haven’t seen one yet close up . 
Friend had an evoque and got rid of it after 2 months as said it just felt far too small inside .

[pedro01]

12 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

I thought the 340 was a 4 pot dunno for sure. 

I would buy neither makes in Thailand even if I had spare money enough to do so. 

At my age if I was given one I'd take it but still keep my truck for the farmland. ????

My youngest son in UK has a M140i and luv's it but it was no where near the price that it would cost here I believe. 

 

M340i is a 6 cylinder 3.0 - 387 HP - basically almost the same as the 3.0 in the C43 AMG. I presume to compete with each other. 

[sencelebi]

I would recommend Volvo XC40 recharge, a lots of bells and whistles for 2.5 millions and quality interior. 

[pedro01]

5 minutes ago, ronaldo0 said:

Was the gle coupe I meant , although both versions are good cars .

I think the coupe is similar to a x4 but far better looking .

Also the new x3 is meant to be a great car but haven’t seen one yet close up . 
Friend had an evoque and got rid of it after 2 months as said it just felt far too small inside .

 

 

4.7M - so over budget - this is a hard budget. I'm not too keen on setting a budget and then going over it for something nicer.  After all - where do you stop?

 

I also like to get under budget, so anything at 3.99  I am going to be looking for 200k off - so potentially up to 4.2M sticker price I should be able to squeeze under. 

[ThailandRyan]

Sporty,parkable and a sexy car