Thailand's vehicle sales continue surging in February

BANGKOK, March 10 – The domestic sale of motor vehicles in Thailand surged by 44.2 per cent to 78,039 units in February, with Toyota retaining its predominant market share of 30,592 units, up 44.2 per cent, and Isuzu, ranked second largest with 14,713 units, up 22.2 per cent, an informed source in the automotive industry revealed on Wednesday.

Mazda also enjoyed impressive sales last month with 3,356 units, up 45.4 per cent, partly because Mazda Sale (Thailand) kicked off new promotional advertisements starring popular actors and announced its intention to go ahead with its marketing campaign using social networks.

Surapong Paisitpattanapong, spokesman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI)’s Automobile Industry Club, said although fuel prices would continue surging, auto sales remained sound.

Vehicle sales continue to enjoy a significant increase mainly because consumers in rural areas have more purchasing power to afford pickups, thanks to higher farm product prices.

Simultaneously, urban area residents paid greater attention to buying small and eco-friendly vehicles as the economy continued expanding satisfactorily.

It is expected that total vehicle sales for the whole year would be at least 850,000-870,000 units, up 8-9 per cent year on year, he said. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2011-03-10

Vehicle sales are going up because it is getting easier and easier to get credit. Some vehicles can now be bought with up to 8 years to pay with a paltry down payment. Can you imagine how much the interest would be over 8 years.

Considering the average Thai's salary you have to wonder where they get the money from to buy all of these cars and make the monthly payments.

Nuff said.....

The traffic seems to have gotten much worse in just the 6 years I've been coming here. I've never looked, but wonder what the numbers are for vehicles scrapped vs. new vehicles sold.

At some point, the traffic around most of the Country will be like Bangkok.

Also, yes it would be unthinkable for anyone at home to spend half of their disposable income on a car payment. Much like the bright red "show off" license plates, owning a car here seems to be more about face than it is about transportation.

The traffic seems to have gotten much worse in just the 6 years I've been coming here. I've never looked, but wonder what the numbers are for vehicles scrapped vs. new vehicles sold.

At some point, the traffic around most of the Country will be like Bangkok.

Also, yes it would be unthinkable for anyone at home to spend half of their disposable income on a car payment. Much like the bright red "show off" license plates, owning a car here seems to be more about face than it is about transportation.

and yet second-hand vehicles never seem to get any cheaper.....

The traffic seems to have gotten much worse in just the 6 years I've been coming here. I've never looked, but wonder what the numbers are for vehicles scrapped vs. new vehicles sold.

At some point, the traffic around most of the Country will be like Bangkok.

Also, yes it would be unthinkable for anyone at home to spend half of their disposable income on a car payment. Much like the bright red "show off" license plates, owning a car here seems to be more about face than it is about transportation.

and yet second-hand vehicles never seem to get any cheaper.....

I agree 100% regarding the price of second hand vehicles inThailnd.

Maybe someone out there in Thai Visa land can explain to me why this is the case.............Plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz :jap:

I'd hazard a guess that it's because the cost of ownership is low, Japan is the opposite and after a number of years older cars become very expensive to keep on the roads, the 2nd hand car prices in Japan are very low.