And so the exodus of quality expats begins. This time it's personal

[greytown]

Anyone has any experience or advice regarding long term car rental in Chiang Mai for someone planning a 9 months to 1 year stay in the Chiang Mai surrounding area? Is it a good or bad idea to rent a car at all? Thanks for any input.

[greytown]

I'm also wondering if buying a used car and selling it a year later might not end up being cheaper and a better idea perhaps.

[Greenside]

There has been another thread on this in the past couple of weeks and you'll probably find it answers your questions.

[greytown]

There has been another thread on this in the past couple of weeks and you'll probably find it answers your questions.

I did a search but didn't find a thread that was either Chiang Mai specific or covering whether renting a car in Thailand is actually advisable. I read some stories here before about motorbike rental scams in Chiang Mai. Wondering if similar things might apply to car rentals.

[mccw]

Car or truck rental long term would be around 15 to 25 thousand per month depending what you wanted. So say 10 months at 20,000bht equals 200,000bht.

The depressiation value of a vehicle will always be significantly less than the rental value otherwise no one would be in the rentals business.

I have bought a truck 3 years ago (a ford ranger 4 door pickup) for 250,000bht. I have come back to uk and was going to keep it for when I return but now not planning to go back for some time so am thinking of selling it.

I would accept 150,000bht for it. If you are interested pm me for more details. It's a good truck an served me well. Not 4wd by still great for exploring the surround countryside and longer trips as 4door has space for bags out of the rain and friends to come allong. Brilliant fun for songkran on the back! Before me it had one lady owner and I've had it serviced every six months from when I got it with no troubles.

So if you do the maths buy my truck for 150k and sell in ten months to a year for about 110 so the cost to you would be 40k as oppose to 200k if you rented.

Also you have to realise that often, unlike in the west, in Thailand if renting you are still responsible for anything that goes wrong with the vehicle you are renting it's you who will foot the bill.

Even if your not interested in my car I would still advise you or anyone to buy and sell later over renting long term.

If you do wish to rent however my cousin in law happens to have a rental company I can vouch for.

[mccw]

The price I gave for resale is assuming you are pricing to get rid quick as have to be on your way home or where ever; if u took your time over it could well get more.

[mccw]

If you rent then you might get a more recent model than You would for the outlays for buying in what bracket I'm talking about; if you had double the money to spend then you'd get the same year car or there abouts and the descrease in value per year would be about the same. So still worth buying more than renting but all depends on what kind of capital your prepared to put in.

[garyh]

Used cars hold there value very well, so if you buy and then have to do a fire sale when you leave you will not lose a lot. Over 8 months it probably won't cost you much more than normal running costs. Might help to say what sort of car you want, if you are looking at very late model you may bghe better to rent.

[ignis]

Lots of cars and pickups For Rent.. Just Look at some of the different websites with Classifieds...

One site... 'We have a mitsubishi triton plus 4 door 2.5L turbo desiel Panasonic dvd system with screen all remote controle. Car silver colour full insurance 2009 model. We have a special yearly offer on this car. only 160,000 for the whole year'

Another.. For rent - Nissan Sunny, 4 door, good seat, A/C, economy 7L. drives easy, with 3th party ins. All reparing/services by myself (german mechanic guy) Car is in good condition. 8.000 Bt./ month + Deposit.

Car for rent 4 door, Cd/Mp3 Player, Cold air, very reliable and Very economical, power steering. Manual gear change. Power windows central locking. 1.5ltr engine. Long term prefered rental, prices as 1 week 3500bht 2 weeks 6500bht 1 month 1100bht 3 months - 6 months 10000bht 12 months 9500bht. Including Tax & Insurance unlimited mileage.

Toyota Altis 1.6. PAS. CD. 1st Class Insurance. Full service History. long term monthly 18,000 a month. Ford Ranger 2.9 4 door truck. PAS. Airbags. Full service history. long term monthly 12,000 a month.

If you buy to get any money at the end of a year you will need to buy a Honda or a Toyota as a Tent seller will give you more cash than most other makes, If you buy another make of car for 280 - 300,000 expect to get 140-150,000 back for a cash sale at a tent a year later

[ThaiPauly]

Used cars hold there value very well, so if you buy and then have to do a fire sale when you leave you will not lose a lot. Over 8 months it probably won't cost you much more than normal running costs. Might help to say what sort of car you want, if you are looking at very late model you may bghe better to rent.

I agree that used cars hold their value well if they are Thai produced.

We brought a Jazz new for 465,000B six years ago, sold it 3 years later for 420,000B

But you can pick up a four year old BMW for half of its original price.

[greytown]

Thanks all for the input. Sounds like buying may well be the way to go. Very good result Thaipauly after 3 years. I'd just have to estimate how long the given car might take to sell when the time comes. Those that have sold used cars, how fast would you expect to sell (in Chiang Mai) without lowering the price lower than necessary? I know of course it depends largely on the model etc.

Strange how foreign cars would depreciate more than domestic ones. Not sure I understand why that would be.

Edited September 4, 2010 by greytown

[mccw]

Forieng car is considerably more new due to importtax so maybe the price adjusts to be closer to it's true value. I say this as theory though as I personaly have not seen any half price zimmers but I haven't realy been looking. Another thing could be availability and cost of parts and repairs.

[mccw]

Those are good rental prices ignis found but I'd still say yourbetter off buying.

What kind of Car are you interested in?

[mccw]

Sell time 2 weeks to 1 month for best price maybe more if only selling to farang market; or accept a discount if in a hurry an sell same day to a dealer.

[neverdie]

The advantages of the rental car being, the day you want to leave Thailand you just leave it at the airport (rental shop) and leave. All Services and vehicle repairs are not your problem, neither is insurance, registration and soforth.

Everyone talks about cash sales of cars and everything, which is fine but theres a huge amount of second hand cars everywhere and when push comes to shove, if your leaving in a hurry or whatever you might be forced to sell at a much reduced price.

Thai rent a car have some good options from time to time & if you look online with a site such as Atlas Choice car rentals you may surprise yourself. There are also some discount codes for both of those companies which can give reasonable discounts to their advertised prices.

Edited September 4, 2010 by neverdie

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Forieng car is considerably more new due to importtax so maybe the price adjusts to be closer to it's true value. I say this as theory though as I personaly have not seen any half price zimmers but I haven't realy been looking. Another thing could be availability and cost of parts and repairs.

BMW's (as well as Mercedes Benz) are assembled locally in Thailand, just like Hondas and Toyotas. So no difference there. I'd say percentage wise they depreciate about the same? (Subject to economic conditions of course; in a downturn you'd expect affordable small cars to be in higher demand than expensive cars.)

[greytown]

What kind of Car are you interested in?

I'd be looking at Toyota or Honda maybe as Ignis suggested. Any decent cheap-ish but reliable car could do though.

[greytown]

Sell time 2 weeks to 1 month for best price maybe more if only selling to farang market; or accept a discount if in a hurry an sell same day to a dealer.

Thanks for the tip.

[greytown]

The advantages of the rental car being, the day you want to leave Thailand you just leave it at the airport (rental shop) and leave. All Services and vehicle repairs are not your problem, neither is insurance, registration and soforth.

Everyone talks about cash sales of cars and everything, which is fine but theres a huge amount of second hand cars everywhere and when push comes to shove, if your leaving in a hurry or whatever you might be forced to sell at a much reduced price.

Pros and cons on both sides. All to be considered certainly.

[CMX]

I suppose that is too obvious to mention, so I will. The buy-sell picture in particular will be influenced by the exchange rates if you bring in and are taking out the money. The rate of increase of the baht in the coming year, of course, is a matter of conjecture, as is inflation, relatively.

But basically, had I purchased a used vehicle a year ago and sold it during the last month, I'd gain (assuming no costs of money transfer) almost 9% on the money received when I used it at home, if inflation here included vehicles, but above 6% in any case.

Also, it is obvious that if you try to sell carefully over a month's time, avoiding the problems that neverdie suggests, there still will be some hassle plus negotiating a rental car for a short term, easy but a cost factor.

Edited September 4, 2010 by CMX

[jackr]

Also you have to realise that often, unlike in the west, in Thailand if renting you are still responsible for anything that goes wrong with the vehicle you are renting it's you who will foot the bill.

Bit if BS here. You may get shafted by a naff, local rental place if the engine blows, for example, but stick with the likes of Budget (who have comprehensive first class insurance as standard) and you're covered.

Yes, 2nd hand cars do hold their value, but do you really want to be tyre-kicking, pissing about with big sums of money, insuring, then advertising and (hopefully) selling all for the sake of a year or less? Do yourself a favour and pop down to Budget near the airport?

[mccw]

True if you stick to the big companies , but if he's looking for cheapest deal he might try the smaller companies. I'm just warning him to be careful.

I'd still go for buying over renting; though your right it's more hassle; personally i'm the kind of guy to take a little hassle and save a grand (gbp) or more, but if you've got the money to blow for the sake of alittle hassle then fair enough.

A year is long enough he could put it up for sale in the last month of his stay and get a decent price and then rent for the remainder of his stay.

Another option could be to get a bike for around town (10k ish to buy and much easier for parking) and then just rent a car when you want to go on a mission.

[mccw]

BMW's (as well as Mercedes Benz) are assembled locally in Thailand, just like Hondas and Toyotas. So no difference there. I'd say percentage wise they depreciate about the same? (Subject to economic conditions of course; in a downturn you'd expect affordable small cars to be in higher demand than expensive cars.)

I didn't know that, but eitherway Yeah I would have thought depressiation would of been simmilar aswell.

cars hold value more in Thailand than the west because there are less of them in circulation?

[jackr]

Yep, if you know the basics and don't mind driving a very overpriced thing around and are on a budget, have a look at classifieds. When it comes to sell it, anything you get will be a bonus. Although it pains me to see vehicles here for hundreds of thousands that I could pick up for less than a hundred squid in Blighty. Old Mercs, Beamers, Jags that are the dogs doodahs here that nobody wants over there notwithstanding.

[garyh]

Yep, if you know the basics and don't mind driving a very overpriced thing around and are on a budget, have a look at classifieds. When it comes to sell it, anything you get will be a bonus. Although it pains me to see vehicles here for hundreds of thousands that I could pick up for less than a hundred squid in Blighty. Old Mercs, Beamers, Jags that are the dogs doodahs here that nobody wants over there notwithstanding.

If you buy a jag you need 2, one to drive while the other is being fixed.

[slapout]

You might contact Gonzo the face at Pun Pun (TV advertiser) He keeps an ear to the ground for good deals.

[mccw]

Just for the sake of reference; I just sold my truck for 160,000bht after four days to a Thai guy through a fam freind (cost me 250k 3 years ago) (four door ford ranger)