I have been looking at purchasing something different from the norm as a fun vehicle to take up around the great roads around Northern Thailand (Phrae, Nan, Phayao, etc).

The Mazda MX-5 comes highly rated from Europe as an affordable & enjoyable drive but when looking into the price for one here in Thailand i nearly died. 2.35M to 2.5M Baht is what they want They are the equivalent of 1.36M Baht in the UK (one of the most expensive areas in Europe), so how do they get away with charging prices like that here when the MX-5 is only 2000cc maximum and around 158bhp, so shouldn't get hit with as many of the taxes associated with higher rated vehicles.

It's no wonder the roads are so boring with lines of pick-ups, Fortuners (which I already own and like), Honda Jazz's, Vios's, etc. Only the crazy rich would throw away money like that for such a little car. Christ knows what a top of the range BMW, Merc, Audi, etc, would cost!

Has anyone gone for a higher range European model (or Japanese for that matter) only to be scared away by the pricing?

When you come to Thailand forget about driving a decent car, I wanted to buy a second hand Jag, but they are three times the price that they are in the UK. Your right about boring cars, but who wants to buy anything and give 100% of the value to the government? Better something boring!

FIAT PANDA diesel .

a great car (!)and not boring..

I want to know if any (!) any speciel company bring it to thailand?

Its two door coupe, and thus heavily taxed.

I agree with your sentiments completely, but until the government change their outlook, anything other than a pick-up, or Thai built sedan is gonna fetch crazy prices. I wont be holding my breath.

My favourite price difference at the moment is th eMazda RX8. Ove 3 million baht for a used model here. In UK you can pick one up for less than 10000GBP. Thats more than 4 times the price!

Nissan 350z also..

I am told that the massive import duties only came in post 97 currency crisis.. Is that true ??

maximum import duty for cars with engines bigger then 2.4 ltr and /or more then 220 hp is 308%, so a 50,000 euro car is 200,000 euro in thailand. I thought the rates always been like this, the only difference is that during the crisis car prices doubled due to exchange rate. My2c

There again a NEW 'boring car' is a lot cheaper here than in the UK

When i bought my top of the range Honda Jazz, it cost around 8,0000GBP here !!

In UK at the time cost over 12,000GBP

I think this topic had been covered again and again.........................................and again!

I dont want to promote irresponsible driving, but if you buy a good driving car in the UK you (almost) never get to 'really' drive it.

So you might well pay over the odds in Thailand, but you have to weigh that cost up against the ability to be able to give it a good thrash (at the appropriate time and place of course).

Yes the UK has gone backward when it comes to driving, they are now thinking of having 20mph limits in residential areas, not much fun driving there. One would have thought that beind ont he continent would be the best bet? Still having a Jag here wouldn't be that much fun either with the state of the roads.

You're dead right there!!! Bone crunchingly bad in some places.

You guys obviously haven't spent much time in the North, with good quality open roads that are ideal for hitting the gas a little more

Once I get off of Phukets insane congestion theres some great roads to play around on.. Its just the complete lack of predictability of other drivers that is the danger..

Having grown up in the west country with great little twisty lanes I miss hard driving.. Then again I was a kid and drove like a fool !!

How can they ever change the policy drastically ? I go buy a 20m Porsche and then next year they reduce the tax and I lose 10m - no way. Drip drip they could change it over perhaps 10+ years but why bother when they rake in cash from whose who have more money than sense.