Buying An Import.

[richard_smith237]

Many garages sell imported cars… From Nissan 370z’s to the new Fiat 500, Porsches, Ferrari’s etc… You get the idea.

When purchasing a car from one of these Garages, what paper work should we expect to see?.

i.e. Blue Book (a given), but what about import documentation? how can we prove the correct taxes, i.e. import tax has been paid on the car?.

[Woodsie888]

You can't.

[Tonykalniev]

well, most of the owners of these import companies are polititians' sons. so basically, they skip those import taxes when they bring those cars in the country, but charge it to unaware customers and get 2-3 times the profit...its all about those connections and the ignorance of the rich consumers who say "i have the money so i want to show off and only expensive shit makes me achieve that, whether it is crap or not"

I mean, have you seen some of those import garages? some have 100 imported cars. with the combined "legal" value of all those vehicles, you could build ... central world or something! there is just no feasible way 1 person owns this, especially when the building these cars are sitting in is the value of about 2-3 million baht....

Edited March 5, 2012 by Tonykalniev

[richard_smith237]

You can't.

Can you ellaborate or are you simply guessing ?

[richard_smith237]

Anyone in the know without the usual conspiracy theories ?

I am close friends with a couple of 'Poloticians sons' - If it was that simple, either they or I would have a very impressive car on the drive way !

[Woodsie888]

You can't.

Can you ellaborate or are you simply guessing ?

I do not guess.

The answer to the question is: You can't.

[richard_smith237]

You can't.

Can you ellaborate or are you simply guessing ?

I do not guess.

The answer to the question is: You can't.

If I were to import a car from over seas, I'd have to pay the various taxes (as discussed in many of the 'Can I import my own Car' threads.

Does that mean upon payment of these taxes I would not be issued a receipt or some form of documentation to prove that the tax has been paid.

Perhaps its different for companies importing cars, perhaps their tax is paid in bulk. However there surely has to be some record that the import is legitimate and tax has been paid.

Is it that the 'Blue book' is the sole document identifying the legitimacy of the import ?

I hope you can see what I'm getting at. While I don't wish to question your judgement, 'You can't' is a rather thin comment to what might be a complex question hence the request to ellaborate a little.

[bino]

I am guessing, but I believe that you can obtain documentation for this- proving that the tax was paid. Don't know for sure, because I have always bought legitimate.

However, I read all the time in this forum about guys with bikes that have no blue book, but ride the bike with the tax clearance / import papers. I can't see that there would be any difference in the paperwork.

[Woodsie888]

You can't.

Can you ellaborate or are you simply guessing ?

I do not guess.

The answer to the question is: You can't.

If I were to import a car from over seas, I'd have to pay the various taxes (as discussed in many of the 'Can I import my own Car' threads.

Does that mean upon payment of these taxes I would not be issued a receipt or some form of documentation to prove that the tax has been paid.

Perhaps its different for companies importing cars, perhaps their tax is paid in bulk. However there surely has to be some record that the import is legitimate and tax has been paid.

Is it that the 'Blue book' is the sole document identifying the legitimacy of the import ?

I hope you can see what I'm getting at. While I don't wish to question your judgement, 'You can't' is a rather thin comment to what might be a complex question hence the request to ellaborate a little.

In my experience, no local dealer will divulge any details about taxes paid on their cars. It is a very delicate area for them and they all use different methods and or contacts to facilitate the procedure. The OP asked if there is any way to verify if the correct amount of taxes have been paid. I simply said 'you can't'.

I'm not trying to be difficult, just realistic.

[MJo]

Reported in the "other" paper just this week.

Customs have identified 20 luxury cars that have been imported as used cars by Thai students returning after graduation. The cars were in fact new luxury cars and sold for profit right after import. Customs stated in the paper that they have identified 20 cars so far and will go after them saying their present owners will be contacted and taxes due will be payable by present owners. I'd assume they will just impound them until taxes are paid in full.

Same article also mentioned that they are looking into several big import companies and suspect foul play and corruption. Estimated 1 billion baht worth of taxes been avoided and the investigations are continuing.

It was this week "other" paper so maybe something in nation as well...

[mogandave]

What is the best (cheapest) county in which to buy right hand drive cars?

[MJo]

What is the best (cheapest) county in which to buy right hand drive cars?

India ?

[steveromagnino]

For new, UK is pretty good thanks to the returning student deal; for 2nd hand Japan is about the easiest and cheapest place to pick up 4-5 year old cars when (I believe) there is some sort of tax roll over encouraging owners to sell their cars at relatively low prices. To get around authorised dealers and so on, often there is corruption at the front end or some sort of immediate sale after buying new with the dealer over there not needing to know the car makes its way abroad.

The way grey market imports come in (having just gone through a bit of a look at it) is one of several ways.

1. car brought in as parts, assembled locally possibly as new or rebuilding an existing destroyed car

2. car brought in new with correct paperwork and tax paid correctly but possibly changed immediately after importation (e.g. vans have seats added)

3. car brought in new with correct paperwork and tax paid correctly but tighter margin because no need to provide servicing or dealer support after sale

4. car bought in new with paperwork for a similar but not identical car (e.g. a Mini cooper but not a cooper S) and so gets a different tax rate

5. car brought in new and assessed value noticeably lower for no real reason other than the importer uses a port with a connection to customs, since customs is calculated on recognised value rather than cost price and so is subjective (usually port of entry is a private smaller port by container)

6. car brought in 2nd hand and assessed value noticeably lower for no real reason other than the importer uses a port with a connection to customs, since customs is calculated on recognised value rather than cost price and so is subjective (usually port of entry is a private smaller port by container)

7. variant of car brought in different to regularly available and thus above 1.-6. may or may not apply

8. car brought in using some allowance of overseas students, embassy, etc

My understanding is 1 is sometimes completely legal (the old axe with 4 new handles and 3 new blades), although questionable if you would want such a car and depends on how much is rebuilt, as long as you could show it was an existing car rebuilt from parts you are ok. There may be some exclusion for locally assembled too that I don't know

2 and 3 are ok, although I question how many of the 3. type are around; 2 is clearly used by legit importers also especially for exec vans. 2 can be picked up on the car registration you can see how it was brought in, not necessarily a problem if you modified it after (same as pick up 2 doors with the dog seat). 3 I really don't know if lack of servicing is the kind of cost saving I would want to make on a 2m+ baht car but YEMV

4 from what i know is quite common on the turbo/supercharged cars or cars with modifications (such as Evos, Cooper S etc) brought in as the standard variants with lower value and can be picked up on the rego; if you get caught on this one.....you will have to pay...maybe....porsche, ferrari etc or whatever is the flavour of the month would have me trembling a bit on this one if you have a popular model grey market import. This is probably (IMHO) the most common way to get new cars in cheap

5/6 not sure how you might get picked up, but customs can track the car and the perp has long gone (seller and customs official), leaving the current owner held to ransom by the customs dept who might seize the car and then return when either an unofficial payment or legitimate payment is made to their satisfaction; because it is subjective; note that in theory you cannot bring in 2nd hand vehicles I am told, but there are a glut of them now so who knows how true that is

7 not sure this has an effect; this was the approach 10 years ago in the SEC days; nowadays seems less common as the parallel imports seem to be much the same cars just parallel imported and running around 15-20% cheaper

8 a few legit ones come up; obviously if it is a scam then the perps are gone, and new owner is left in a similar position to 5/6 making the customs dept satisfied.

BTW lest you think that nothing ever happens a few years ago a ton of the minis driving around were picked up imported as parts and without legit regos; most of them seem now to have vanished into thin air.

If customs get hold of the car, you can pretty much give up any idea of reasonableness; not that I am cynical or anythign but I would guess perhaps they will keep pricing you out until you cannot get the car back, when they will auction it to their connections at a seized goods auction (rigged)and then effectively will have a free car with everyone up the chain doing ok....except you.

Sure you save 15-20%. But when you come to sell it you are going to get 15-20% less, so is it really worth it unless it's a speciality car as per case 7 or the existing dealer is really pants as per case 3? In which case.....you need to be sure you can get servicing. There's a reason some cars are worthless 2nd hand....and it often ends up back at dealer support.

So....best thing is to check the blue book which I think near the back summarises the car model year etc; you can also sometimes use the VIN with some manufacturers to reconfirm the spec of the car; if all the numbers line up then you at least have prima facie evidence you have a legit car.

If you have a Mini Cooper S R56 which supposedly on the paperwork says it is a Mini One....well then obviously you are taking a risk. How much risk will dictate how much discount you demand when you buy.

FWIW the Japanese imports in NZ are notorious for clocking back the miles and often have relatively hard lives from the thrashings they receive there. Slight differences in models between countries for deisel and other things are in some other threads. And at the end of the day you save 15-20% when you buy....and lose 15-20% when you sell.

Easier to be legal.

Unless you are a politician's son in which case you can even murder someone in full view and it's ok because your dad will happily get you out of trouble.

Or cheat at university. Twice. And still secure the rights to media in the underground train system despite a valid contract having already been secured by another party.

Being a politician's son is not so bad. Except you have to be a spineless idiotic nitwit with no brain. But loads of skirt is not bad compensation. (or Levi 501s and manly aroma as the case may be)

Edited March 8, 2012 by steveromagnino

[Semper]

Anyone in the know without the usual conspiracy theories ?

I am close friends with a couple of 'Poloticians sons' - If it was that simple, either they or I would have a very impressive car on the drive way !

Well, maybe they don't want to show off with a "very impressive" car.

[richard_smith237]

Anyone in the know without the usual conspiracy theories ?

I am close friends with a couple of 'Poloticians sons' - If it was that simple, either they or I would have a very impressive car on the drive way !

Well, maybe they don't want to show off with a "very impressive" car.

Keep your irrelavent one-liners in the general topics please Semper...