How Can I Buy A Minibus For My Hotel?

[simon43]

This is the scenario:

Me and my partner have a successful small hotel near to Phuket airport. The hotel is on long-term rented land, (so we cannot offer the business as security against a loan).

We own 2 cars right now. 1 is a pickup and 1 is a Toyota Wish. Burt what we really need to also buy is a small, secondhand minibus, such as a Toyota commuter or Hiace.

However, we cannot get credit to buy this third vehicle. (My partner's credit rating is not good because she has previously been a month or 2 late with repayments on our existing cars - although we are fully up-to-date with repayments right now).

We don't have enough savings to buy the car outright.

Now might the following help?

A few months ago, her sister purchased a new Toyota Camry via hire purchase, and this was all approved ok. But now her sister is unable to afford the monthly repayments (primarily because I sacked her from the hotel, but that's another story).

Me and my partner CAN afford the Camry monthly repayment of about 13,000 baht, and the finance company is ok for us to take over the car ownership and repayments. But we need a minibus, not a Camry!!

Is there any financial juggling/devious scheme whereby this Camry could be somehow used/swapped to purchase the minibus??

I can't get my head around this, but I'm just trying to see if there is a possible solution here...

Thanks for any advice

Simon

[torrenova]

Obviously you have to work out the value of the two vehicles and if using a garage, ofer him something as an incentive.

Semi privately, find someone that wants the Camry. He pays cash but you get the finance (Toyota I presume) to internally swap the paperwork for a Toyota Commuter. The net result to them is negligible as Camry and Commuter are about the same price.

Or go to the finance company themselves and say you need the swap or you won't take over the repayments and they'll have to offload the camry.

Have you got a mate who can buy you the Commuter and you pay him ?

What about deposit in your name ? It can be done in Pattaya at around 40% down. No need for WP or other crap and can be done for less down if you have a Thai guarantor - your landlord perhaps ?

Approach your landlord ? is that an option. He buys you want you want and factors it into the rent ?

Rent the Camry out long term (1 year plus) and use that cash as deposit on the van ?

[monty]

Hi Simon,

Not sure how much cash you have on your hands, but not much more then the cash needed for the down payment on a new van could buy you a second hand one.

I recently bought a Volkswagen Caravelle, paid about 350,000 Baht for it. Very happy with it, professional transport companies don't like it since it has a petrol engine and most of them are automatics.

Not much of a worry if you do short trips with it, or as in my case, I put in LPG so the thing now runs for less then 2 Baht/km (until they will up the price of LPG of course, nobody knows when that'll be).

In short a 350,000 Baht Caravelle will look quite classy and upmarket, while a 350,000 Baht Toyota van will look old and outdated and will probably have run a million miles!

[Cuban]

Is there any financial juggling/devious scheme whereby this Camry could be somehow used/swapped to purchase the minibus?

As you don't hold the blue book for the Camry you can't sell it, (held by the finance company) find out the value of the Camry (from one-2-car etc.) and compare that with the outstanding loan amount - there will be a percentage 'cost' for the finance deal and one option might be give the keys back and to walk away from the deal. As the car is in the sisters name this might be best left as her problem, although there might be an element of a family problem because of her family relationship and former employment etc.

Getting third parties involved will cause headaches and be difficult because the blue book will not be released until the money (plus interest) is paid to the finance Co. Talking to Toyota about a swap is much easier and reduces the number of people that need to make a profit along the chain.

[kartman]

simon another S/H minibus you could look at KIA Pregio, deisel ,modern looking you can buy 3 year old one under 350,000 baht price of a approx 12/14 year old Hiace i would have thought ideal for a small hotel on a budget good for short runs to Airport etc easy to drive e/wndows, c/locking, front seat in rear swivels 180 degrees to face backwards ,reasonable headroom presentable for somebody booking a small hotel not the Grand Hyatt.