Shipping A Car To Thailand?

[thailand49]

I kind of know the answer but nevertheless I will ask it?

I have a 1991 Jeep Cherokee in the United States, it is in good shape particularly the interior and is fully loaded and still running in great condition. I noticed a few similar Jeeps running around in Pattaya so I assume there are shops that can maintain and fix the vehicle. Since I live in Pattaya nearly year round and have been thinking of selling the vehicle which is basically in storage it is worth maximum $3,000. The problem is the vehicle gets bad gas mileage and with gas expensive now no one wants to pay even that price. I don't want to give it away or sell it as junk for its parts so recently I was thinking about shipping it to Thailand? turning it into CNG?

Is it worth all the trouble? the shipping? conversion? Changing the paperwork for ownership to Thai? etc????

Thanks in advance!

[sbk]

moving to motor forum

[raro]

The import of used vehicles into Thailand is not possible. You would need a special permission from the Ministry of Transport, I am not aware of any such permits issued in the last couple of years.

[stevenl]

The import of used vehicles into Thailand is not possible. You would need a special permission from the Ministry of Transport, I am not aware of any such permits issued in the last couple of years.

What, this is BS.

You can import provided you meet the requirements. But it will be expensive, exactly how expensive you won't know till customs tells you.

[WarpSpeed]

Big money and big hassle, the taxes and duty will be calculated on the cars new price or some other random criteria the customs agent comes up with not it's current value so in the end you'll want to give it up entirely to their benefit after you're out of the money to ship it etc..

If you must, I'd consider donating it to one of the charities that receives cars and take a tax write off instead which will make it an asset instead of a liability and do someone else some good too..

[Puccini]

Last year or the year before that, I read a post here from a member saying that he imported a car by dissembling it and shipping the parts declared as used spare parts. As I remember it, it was a convoluted procedure and the member had some expert knowledge about import and customs procedures.

[Puccini]

The import of used vehicles into Thailand is not possible. You would need a special permission from the Ministry of Transport, I am not aware of any such permits issued in the last couple of years.

What, this is BS.

You can import provided you meet the requirements. But it will be expensive, exactly how expensive you won't know till customs tells you.

Do these requirements by any chance include the special permission from the Ministry of Transport mentioned by raro?

[WarpSpeed]

Last year or the year before that, I read a post here from a member saying that he imported a car by dissembling it and shipping the parts declared as used spare parts. As I remember it, it was a convoluted procedure and the member had some expert knowledge about import and customs procedures.

Yes and ironically I just posted a new thread with an article saying this was going to be cracked down on..

[mogandave]

I think you just need a customs card, and a ton of money you don't mind flushing down the toilet on a generic vehicle that has the steering on the wrong side.

[stevenl]

The import of used vehicles into Thailand is not possible. You would need a special permission from the Ministry of Transport, I am not aware of any such permits issued in the last couple of years.

What, this is BS.

You can import provided you meet the requirements. But it will be expensive, exactly how expensive you won't know till customs tells you.

Do these requirements by any chance include the special permission from the Ministry of Transport mentioned by raro?

No. If I recall correctly, did this myself some time ago, the vehicle has to have been in the name of the person importing it for a minimum of 18 months, he/she needs a non-immigrant visa, end I'm sure there are more.

[soi41]

Listprice in Thailand for a 1991 Jeep Cherokee is 200-225.000 baht. If you are lucky, you might even find one with LPG already.

[tombkk]

The import of used vehicles into Thailand is not possible. You would need a special permission from the Ministry of Transport, I am not aware of any such permits issued in the last couple of years.

What, this is BS.

You can import provided you meet the requirements. But it will be expensive, exactly how expensive you won't know till customs tells you.

Do these requirements by any chance include the special permission from the Ministry of Transport mentioned by raro?

No. If I recall correctly, did this myself some time ago, the vehicle has to have been in the name of the person importing it for a minimum of 18 months, he/she needs a non-immigrant visa, end I'm sure there are more.

True. "Some time ago" it was no problem to import a second-hand car. You just need to apply for the import permit from the Ministry of Commerce, no problem. Once you have that, the Ministry of Transport is easy.

However, I am with raro on this one, I am not aware of any such import permit having been issued by that Ministry of Commerce in the past couple of years.

You can import parts under some conditions, but how do you want to register the car then? If you don't want to register it, feel free to assemble it and drive it only on your own farm without licence plates.

[raro]

on a side note....I work in this business for many years and I am amazed about the rumours spread in this thread. Also amazed how often it comes up again and again. I had long bearded tattooed bikers in my office with tears rolling down their cheeks when they learned that they cannot bring in their 69 custom made Harley....get real guys...it ain't possible. Period.

[damo]

I'm not going to do it but, what about my Thai wife who owns her own Toyota Camry sedan. She is Thai, been in Australia for a while and owned the car for near 2 years. Is it the same story or different.

[necronx99]

I'm not going to do it but, what about my Thai wife who owns her own Toyota Camry sedan. She is Thai, been in Australia for a while and owned the car for near 2 years. Is it the same story or different.

A returning Thai can import their personal car provided they have owned it for one year.

You dodge a lot of taxes but are still up for I think (?) about 30% of the cars value. The value of the car would be somewhat arbitrarily decided by the Excise people. They are not likely to take a shine to an older Camry, but you never know.

Once you look at the cost of shipping, the import duty and then the hassle of paperwork it really doesn't add up.

A nice new 4 door deisel pick up with bells and whitsles will cost you about AUD 25k - 30k in Thailand.

Sell your Camry and buy one of them.

[damo]

I thought the answer would be something along those lines but I thought I'd ask just in case it was different. We are (i am) really keen on a new 4 door vigo anyway. The Camry is an impressive car, hope a vigo is just as impressive. Well probably garage the Camry anyway and If well end up staying for more than a few years in Thailand then we'll sell it in Aus, it's paid for so no issues there.

It would be nice if customs let you bring your forign posessions and come home, they wouldnt place an exice on bringing a million baht into Thailand now would they.

Whats the difference?

Cheers.

[necronx99]

I thought the answer would be something along those lines but I thought I'd ask just in case it was different. We are (i am) really keen on a new 4 door vigo anyway. The Camry is an impressive car, hope a vigo is just as impressive. Well probably garage the Camry anyway and If well end up staying for more than a few years in Thailand then we'll sell it in Aus, it's paid for so no issues there.

It would be nice if customs let you bring your forign posessions and come home, they wouldnt place an exice on bringing a million baht into Thailand now would they.

Whats the difference?

Cheers.

Well, you can bring your houshold possessions tax free, just not motorvehicles. If they had no tax on cars every returning thai student would be bringing back a 1yr old merc on consignment and it would get sold at a 100% profit.

Go and take a look at the new Hilux, that's what a Vigo is.

[wordchild]

it is just comming up to the 3d anniversary of my shipping my car here from the UK. It was certainly possible then and surprisingly hassle free given some of the stuff i read on this forum at that time. I was fortunate in that i knew someone who knew the senior customs people here and that smoothed things out. I am very happy i did it though it was expensive as others have said.

[raro]

I thought the answer would be something along those lines but I thought I'd ask just in case it was different. We are (i am) really keen on a new 4 door vigo anyway. The Camry is an impressive car, hope a vigo is just as impressive. Well probably garage the Camry anyway and If well end up staying for more than a few years in Thailand then we'll sell it in Aus, it's paid for so no issues there.

It would be nice if customs let you bring your forign posessions and come home, they wouldnt place an exice on bringing a million baht into Thailand now would they.

Whats the difference?

Cheers.

Well, you can bring your houshold possessions tax free, just not motorvehicles. If they had no tax on cars every returning thai student would be bringing back a 1yr old merc on consignment and it would get sold at a 100% profit.

Go and take a look at the new Hilux, that's what a Vigo is.

correct. Also returning citizens cannot import vehicles owned abroad.

The only exceptions are holders of a diplomatic passport.

[RAZZELL]

it is just comming up to the 3d anniversary of my shipping my car here from the UK. It was certainly possible then and surprisingly hassle free given some of the stuff i read on this forum at that time. I was fortunate in that i knew someone who knew the senior customs people here and that smoothed things out. I am very happy i did it though it was expensive as others have said.

Can we please hear your story...?

What car and how much?

RAZZ

[wordchild]

i made a couple of fairly detailed posts about my experience in a thread that was running on this forum a couple of years ago, i cant remember the title of the thread but it was a long one, running for ages, and may have been started by a guy called tuk tuk mike talking about his problems importing a car into Thailand A quick search should throw it up. As i think i said in that post, for privacy reasons i am not going to post the car model details , but , otherwise, as i remember, i gave a fairly full account of what happened to me.

[simple1]

a little off topic, but necronx99 mentioned bringing household goods into Thailand tax free. Only tax free if your Thai partner imports under her name. Note that when the local import agent sends you the Customs form it has a field for the name of her foreign partner - do not complete as will then incur import excise. Strongly recommend Asian Tiger as the local import agent as had very good service from them.

[x5david]

I thought the answer would be something along those lines but I thought I'd ask just in case it was different. We are (i am) really keen on a new 4 door vigo anyway. The Camry is an impressive car, hope a vigo is just as impressive. Well probably garage the Camry anyway and If well end up staying for more than a few years in Thailand then we'll sell it in Aus, it's paid for so no issues there.

It would be nice if customs let you bring your forign posessions and come home, they wouldnt place an exice on bringing a million baht into Thailand now would they.

Whats the difference?

Cheers.

Well, you can bring your houshold possessions tax free, just not motorvehicles. If they had no tax on cars every returning thai student would be bringing back a 1yr old merc on consignment and it would get sold at a 100% profit.

Go and take a look at the new Hilux, that's what a Vigo is.

Afraid the hiso Thai students are doing this anyway...grey market autos anyone....

[stevenl]

a little off topic, but necronx99 mentioned bringing household goods into Thailand tax free. Only tax free if your Thai partner imports under her name. Note that when the local import agent sends you the Customs form it has a field for the name of her foreign partner - do not complete as will then incur import excise. Strongly recommend Asian Tiger as the local import agent as had very good service from them.

Also foreigners can import tax free under certain conditions.

[samsiam]

on a side note....I work in this business for many years and I am amazed about the rumours spread in this thread. Also amazed how often it comes up again and again. I had long bearded tattooed bikers in my office with tears rolling down their cheeks when they learned that they cannot bring in their 69 custom made Harley....get real guys...it ain't possible. Period.

It is possible.

Friend in CM brought in his MG.....cost him circa 600/800k in duty though.

[stevenl]

on a side note....I work in this business for many years and I am amazed about the rumours spread in this thread. Also amazed how often it comes up again and again. I had long bearded tattooed bikers in my office with tears rolling down their cheeks when they learned that they cannot bring in their 69 custom made Harley....get real guys...it ain't possible. Period.

It is possible.

Friend in CM brought in his MG.....cost him circa 600/800k in duty though.

I imported a bike as well. Cost me 100% of the estimated value in taxes though.

[HardenedSoul]

I recently got the urge - as I do every 6 months - to enquire about importing my beloved and rare BMW Z1. This time spoke to an import agent who quoted me 3 million baht all in. £62500 to bring in a car the Thai customs couldn't possibly value since it was never sold in Asia.

The whole business of bringing a car in to this country is too open to corruption and, believe me, if, on the day of arrival, the customs people decided to try and screw me on the tax then that would be their and my last days on this earth because there would DEFINITELY be gunplay.