Buying A New Car

[rideswings]

I have been shopping around for a new truck, and finally decided on a new Nissan Navarra. I was ready to make a deal on a nice white one in the showroom, but the salesman told me it was already sold and I would have to order one which would take 4 -6 weeks to arrive. Back in America, dealers usually have anywhere from 100 to 1,000 cars in stock for you to choose from, but all of the dealers I went to had no inventory.

Is this common? I want to buy this truck but dont want to wait for one or two months for it to come in. I have been looking in Udon, do any dealers in BKK or other larger cities have inventories of vehicles?

[eTiMaGo]

From what I see there's always a waiting period, most dealers don't really have any lots, it seems to be all based on demand.

Coincidentally, friend of mine just picked up his white Navara a couple days ago, maybe it was the one you saw Good choice anyway, pretty badass pickup

[rideswings]

Hmmm I guess I will have to order one and wait for it to come in.

Good luck to your friend, if he decides he doesnt want to keep it, drop me a PM...

[mca]

Regarding new vehicles Thailand does seem to operate on the "If you liked the test drive then we'll order one from our supplier."

My neighbour works for the local Isuzu dealer and when I popped to see him at work one day their yard was full of vehicles awaiting PDI for customers. Not one of those was a stock vehicle for sale.

He said customers liked to sit with the salesman and order "their" vehicle to "their" spec.

[eTiMaGo]

He said customers liked to sit with the salesman and order "their" vehicle to "their" spec.

Very true, pick out the optional accessories from the catalog, bargain to get those free (I got free fog lights and leather seats!), etc... just part of the car-buying experience here

As for the Navara, we took a ride in it today, it is very nice! Rides a lil rough maybe, but hey, it's a pickup, not a limo

[SantiSuk]

Usually dealers can sell you a basic stock model within a week or two, but anything higher up the spec or facing popular demand can take several months. Also it is difficult to pin the dealer down to a specific delivery date - they never seem to know what stock they are going to be allocated from Japan or wherever next month.

Shop around - you may have to trawl the relevant Bangkok dealers if you want a quick delivery.

I started looking for a Fortuner TRD in mid July and got it last month, having faced delivery expectations of anything from late August to late December! I gave up on Ubon province and bought in BKK.

God knows what happened to Japan's just-in-time philosphy - it foundered on the rocks of Thailand's mai pen lai philosophy I guess

[rideswings]

Well thanks for the advice, we left a deposit on a Navara today and expect to take delivery some time in December. It was very easy buying the truck, I hope when it is delivered its the right color and options.

The ride is very truck-like compared to the smoother Vigo, but the Vigo was 150,000 baht more, so I will live with it.

[torrenova]

I thought I'd bought a blue D-Max but near collection time, they said that the factory wasn't making any more blue ones and only brown ones. Now even for Thailand this was a stupid excuse but I did get some cash off the black one which I changed to.