The thread ref battery life revealed the reality in Thailand and now I feel better knowing the facts and I was not " just me " so my next subject is Punctures .

Driving multitdes of cars trucks all over the world on and off road I can honestly say I can remember every flat tyre I have had ie not that many in 35 years of driving ....That is till I came to live in BKK ...I am now on drinking and cigarette sharing terms with the local tyre repair shop , I was invited to their New Year party , Left back rear tyre 9 punctures in 12 months ...right front 4 punctures in 12 months right rear only 1 puncture ...left front 2 punctures in 12 months .

That is my jazz , then I find the shop also knows my wife as she has had the Jazz Punctures repaired so even more than I thought . My new Wish the first week of ownership being new car carefull driving from Tesco Rama 3 carpark to work (1 kilometer) with no curbing or obvious road works I gashed a tyre with a 2 inch hole across the face and side wall no idea how ..the tyre was a right off ... again in discussion with Thai collegues my experiences were normal ... any body else been deflated like this ?????

same happened to me, loads of punctures in LOS, I blame the amount of debris on the roads

I have been working, visiting and living in Thailand for nearly 13 years and I have only had 1 puncture in all that time, and that was in my friends Volvo 940 that I borrowed.

It is also when you find out that the wheel brace comes from Mickey Mouses car and you can't get the wheel off.

I called the Tourist Police and explained that we were in a Jet station on the route 32 to Bangkok. They sent a normal police patrol who couldn't fix it either, but they called the bigger recovery vehicle.

That team changed the wheel in 5 minutes. The police wouldn't take even 1 baht so I gave the recovery crew 200 baht and the normal police guys some pomelos and pineapples we were bringing back from up country.

It took about an hour and everybody was satisfied.

Thais are very nice people and I usually contribute to the police benefit fund every time I get asked which isn't that often.

Nice story, lucky for me I never had to change the wheel, always limped to one of the numerous tire places and get it done there, but so many punctures

rcalsop,

I just don't get it, so many punctures on new tyres!

It reminds me of an old ad for a windscreen company with a bloke sitting down the road with a sling shot...

It can only be road debris. Trucks are notorious for this, they offload cargo and disassemble crates, dropping nails and screws all over the bed then drive off with all the rubbish bouncing off the back at every bump.

I narrowly missed getting cleaned up on my motorcycle by a piece of steel pipe used to keep the load off the bed so a forklift could get under it.

Surely your luck must change. Maybe you should discuss it with a monk, there must be some sort of amulet for this type of thing?

I hate to say it because I will probably get a punture tomorrow, but in 9 years of driving my old Series Land Rover here I have had one puncture, which I discovered when I returned to the parking lot. Thought I would change it in 5 minutes--Ha. One of the wheel studs was loose in the hub so I had to remove the entire wheel/tire along with wheel bearing/hub and brake drum! Then it started raining. Fortunately found a small shop nearby that was able to tack-weld the stud back on once it I had it all disassembled, so I got out of there in about two hours, wet and greasy!

In 14 years I had a few. Most of them during construction of the MRT on Sukhumvit.

Knock on wood, for a couple of years now, nothing.

Actually there are rumors of roadside garages employing people to throw rocks at incoming cars and then offering to repair them.

First you wouldn't know what hit you, then a friendly motorcycle guy stops by offers you to show the nearest garage.

Had 3 punctures in 2.5 years of driving around Bangkok versus none in many years of driving in the UK and US. After the first flat I bought an air compressor from Emporium which came in handy so I could re-inflate and drive to the nearest garage.