Buying A Car

[Rob5060]

I am going to buy a car (Toyota Avensa) on my next visit to Chaing Mai and know the list price is nearly 700,000 Bt.

What is the general way to negotiate a price. In the UK cash would proabaly get a 10% discount. What would I expect if anything in Thailand.

Any advice on car buing/tax/insurance would be really useful

Cheers

Rob

[chanchao]

I am going to buy a car (Toyota Avensa) on my next visit to Chaing Mai and know the list price is nearly 700,000 Bt.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry, unrelated, but why on earth would you buy that Avensa.....

Avensa = "Toyota looking at Honda which was the first major manufacturor to realize that the perceived "preference" among Thai consumers for the traditional 'saloon' 3 box style was a load of &lt;deleted&gt;, so they put the Jazz on the market and sold them like hotcakes. Now Toyota panics, thinks 'Fack we need something 2 box sub-Corolla on the market like today, what to we do?' Someone notices the ASEAN reduced duty tariffs and suggests: How about that clunker we make in Indonesia? It's a real third world dog of a car, rear wheel drive fixed axel job, interior made out of cheaper plastic than a Cup Noodles cup, but who knows, we might just sucker in some people, they obviously suddenly like the compact 2 box style!"

And so it went.

But: 700,000 baht!!!!! You do know you buy a Verrrrrrrrrrry nice 4 door pick-up for that money right? And that Toyota released their new Vigo pick-up like last month? With a trade-in value that will be vastly higher than an Avensa.. And with a modern economical diesel engine, vs. petrol for the Avensa... Checked what a liter diesel costs versus petrol lately?

Sorry for the rant.

Oh yes: In Chiang Mai, Toyota means: your dealer is Niyom Phanit / Sahaphanit. That's another pet-peeve of mine worthy of a long rant that I will however spare you for now. Let's just say that negotiating is extremely limited with those fnuckers. It's a monopoly for the North. So erm.. if it makes no difference, why not buy in Bangkok? More competition among Toyota dealers there..

Good night.. shouldn't drink & write.

Cheers,

Chanchao

[Ajarn]

I've never been succesfull in getting the sticker price lowered, but got lots of free stuff like chrome push bumpers, window film, bed liner, reg fees, 1 baht of gold... This was from Isuzu.

[Thetyim]

Max discount I ever got on a Toyota was 30k baht.

I agree with Chao, the avanza is a rebadged daihatsu Xenia and looks

ghastly plus the resale value will make it an expensive choice

[chanchao]

I've never been succesfull in getting the sticker price lowered, but got lots of free stuff like chrome push bumpers, window film, bed liner, reg fees, 1 baht of gold... This was from Isuzu.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Right, list price is fixed, but there is solid negotiating space about the money you get for any trade-in, and the salesman can be made to throw in absolutely any option you can think of, including his daughter.

...okay I made that last thing up, but even a year's worth of first class insurance worth 20K baht is possible, especially for cars that are like totally desperate for an update. (Like, how long has Mitsu's Strada really been with us.. Or the Ford-Mazda twins.. Who would buy those at list prices close to Isuzu/Toyota, unless serious extras were thrown in.

Cheers,

Chanchao

[350torana]

I agree about a pick-up versus the Avensa in regards to the price of diesel. Really noticed the price hike in petrol compared to diesel, driving the Rodeo compared to the aussie gas guzzler .

I am no big fan of the Honda Jazz either, to be frank, a really ugly looking car that the Jetson's would be proud to drive .

But, if u are buying and u have a Thai other half or friends ,bring them with u . I am sure the salesman would have dollar signs in his eyes when seeing a farang come along.

[Ajarn]

I've never been succesfull in getting the sticker price lowered, but got lots of free stuff like chrome push bumpers, window film, bed liner, reg fees, 1 baht of gold... This was from Isuzu.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Right, list price is fixed, but there is solid negotiating space about the money you get for any trade-in, and the salesman can be made to throw in absolutely any option you can think of, including his daughter.

...okay I made that last thing up, but even a year's worth of first class insurance worth 20K baht is possible, especially for cars that are like totally desperate for an update. (Like, how long has Mitsu's Strada really been with us.. Or the Ford-Mazda twins.. Who would buy those at list prices close to Isuzu/Toyota, unless serious extras were thrown in.

Cheers,

Chanchao

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Right, I forgot about the first year's insurance free. I didn't think it was much until I had to pay myself the next year

On my car, they offered peanuts, but it was acceptable... Ended up selling it to a friend at that price- hope we're still friends