Is It Worth 70K For Green Book?

[thaicbr]

I have been riding motorcycles in Thailand for over 6 years including the one in my avatar pic and I have been stopped on numerous occasions and never I have I been ask for the green book. The one I have for the bike in the picture is in someone else's name and yes I had a hard time trying to sell it once when I thought I wanted to so I still have it... So true without the book the bike is worth less but can you make the argument is the bike worth 70K baht more if you had it? Also I have always used a motobike taxi driver to update the registration every year, I just give him the book and the money plus a 100 baht tip and viola I get a new registration which the police do look at every time I get stopped. I see many bikes for sale on the net they state the only have invoice and import papers like the original poster purchased so my question is can you get a yearly registration sticker with just this paperwork?

But even though your book is in someone elses name. You still have a book and plate for your bike.

You can get tax and basic insurance if you have the customs receipt. BUT its still glaringly obvious that there is NO plate.

sent from my Wellcom A90+

[montereyjp]

read my post again... I have the book but it is in someone else's name and the point I was making is I never had a problem getting the yearly registration done...

[jbrain]

read my post again... I have the book but it is in someone else's name and the point I was making is I never had a problem getting the yearly registration done...

I suggest you should read my post again.I said the OP not you.

[montereyjp]

So Thaicbr are you saying all those bikes I see for sale on TV, CL, and Thaibaht that do not have a book also do not have tags or registrations??? I see a lot of these bikes for sale and it seems that some seller have had these bikes for awhile. Cant imagine riding with no tags or registration as the 500 baht underhanders would add up after a while...

[thaicbr]

So Thaicbr are you saying all those bikes I see for sale on TV, CL, and Thaibaht that do not have a book also do not have tags or registrations??? I see a lot of these bikes for sale and it seems that some seller have had these bikes for awhile. Cant imagine riding with no tags or registration as the 500 baht underhanders would add up after a while...

The green book comes with the number plate it is the registration document . So no green book. No number plate.

They can still get tax and basic insurance (not all land transportation offices do it though)

sent from my Wellcom A90+

Edited September 16, 2012 by thaicbr

[montereyjp]

When you say Tax Thaicbr are you referring to the little square piece of paper that has the date and year on it (in Thai) that you are suppose to renew yearly? What I am calling the registration...

[submaniac]

^^

yes. The square piece of paper that has that foil hologram stuff and that you are supposed to attach to your bike to be visible. That is the tax sticker to show that you pay your tax on it. You can pay for the tax without necessarily having the greenbook.

The greenbook is like the title of the motorcycle and the proof of registration. It demonstrates that the bike has been registered in Thailand, is legal to be on the roads, who the registered owner is, and (inherently since it has been registered) all applicable taxes have been paid.

For bikes that are not officially imported (and I am meaning bikes that the manufacturer does not officially sell in Thailand) people have to import the bike, pay the duties, pay for the emissions test, then pay for the registration for the bike to get the official greenbook. People have in the past attempted to avoid import duties by importing the bikes in parts, paying the customs duties on the parts (which are lower than a complete bike), assemble the bike, get the emissions testing, and pay the fee to register the bike with the DLT. Apparently (based on recent news articles) Thailand is prohibiting the registration of vehicles that were imported as parts.

MontereyJP your situation is different than the OP. The OP is in the initial stages where his bike has been brought in. The invoice papers are what is necessary to demonstrate that import taxes have been paid, which needs to be shown before the DLT will even allow registration. Maybe the import duties were paid as a complete bike. Maybe the import duties were paid on parts. Maybe the import duties were not paid and the seller gave falsified invoice papers. I don't know.

Right now it is fairly easy for an unregistered (no green book) bike to slip under the radar. I know of peole (Thais of course) who will take the plate off of something like a Honda wave, put it on a Honda CBR, then (using photoshop or a copy machine with white out) alter the green book to say that it is a Honda CBR. People don't (or shouldn't) carry the original green book because if the bike is stolen the thief would also possess the green book. So I just carry a copy of mine in my storage compartment. Unlike in California where every cop car has a computer in it so they can run the plates of any vehicle through a central database (or at least radio it in to dispatch), in Thailand it's much sloppier where you can get away without registering a bike...at least for now.

MontereyJP, you have a different situation. Your bike is legitimate on the road. It doesn't matter that the greenbook is in someone else's name. It's the same as if you borrowed a car from a friend. So long as the car is registered, it doesn't matter who is the driver. Have you tried to change the greenbook into your name? I don't know what the situation is with why it was not changed originally, but if you have the greenbook that is the most important thing. I am assuming the seller had to leave the country or something like that. The hard part would be that you need a copy of the owner's Thai ID to transfer; but if it is a foreigner they don't have a Thai ID, so you may be able to get away with that part. You should talk to DLT to see what they say.

Edited September 16, 2012 by submaniac

[KRS1]

There are 2x types of green book, pricing is vastly different for both types

60-70k baht is the correct price for a genuine original book that has been created for a new unregistered bike

30-40k baht is the usual price for a book that has been doctored from another vehicle were the registration number is changed but will not have matching engine.frame numbers etc, some unscrupulous dealers will try and con you with this and charge 70k baht for the "transfer" book, this almost happened to me until I disclosed to the falang bike dealer that I'd be checking the book when it arrived and let him know I knew what to look for, unknown to him I also knew the Thai guy he had given all my doccuments to for the book application - he quickly called him an hour after our conversation to order an original genuine book, the prices for the 2x versions are vastly different, having a transfered book and not an original can cause the same problems as having no book at all - strictly speaking the transferred book is illegal and if a proper inspection of the book and bike numbers are done you will have a problem

Truly speaking there is only one kind of legal green book worth having and that is the original issued by the Department of Land Transport.

Any other type IS illegal and worse than no book at all.

If you take your bike and a hookey bool to the DLT and they spot the problem YOU then have a big problem.

With no book of course that particular problem doesn't exist but others do.

When I ride my bike around there is always a photocopy of my green book with it and on a longer trip I take the original too.

The is a Thai guy around here who rides a Honda Steed 600cc with bald tyres, no tax and probably no insurance and the plare looks as though it came of an old 2 stroke many years ago but the cops don't bother him at all probably because he IS a cop but I am not willing to take a chance.

didn't I just say that ?

the point I was making is that there are 2x green books - one is legal and original and the other is basically a fake and illegal, some dealers and I know of two falangs will try and charge you 60-70k for a fake if they think you don't know how to check, my book for a 1100cc bike was 60k baht, the Thai guy charged 50k baht to the falang dealer and he added 10k baht, I knew exactly what was going on because I knew the Thai guy and he tipped me off about the original falang trying to con me with a transfered book from another bike which at the time was 30k baht

The moral of the story is - make sure you do your homework before proceeding with a bike purchase here

PS there are also a lot of imported bikes around that don't have the excise paperwork which means you have no chance getting a book

Also I have never heard of the green book being cc related - who dreamed that one up ?

There's actually 3 types of green books,

1) The one issued for your bike at transportation office

2) Fake

3) A book taken off of a wrecked bike and serials tranferred. In this case the model designation has to correlate to your bike to appear legit: NCXXXXXXX

some people cut the serials from wrecked bikes and weld them on, others rent the letter punches and restamp the frame.

[barefoot1988]

how do we see the difference between a legal green box and a doctored one?

[pichus]

Hey GUYS

I really wanna sit with you guys and talk about this.

This is 2 Type of BIGBIKE's Green Book

1. Real green book 100% regal pay more than 75,000 to 100k up to yours bike's brand.. wait more than 3 months BUT Now the situation Law in Thailand not allow any old secondhand bike import to registered and make regal on the road anymore , So Even today you give 80,000 bahts to Bigbike shop with heaps of connection , Nothing will guarantee you will get regist. You may get chance but may be not . You may loose your money for free.....But the corruptness never die after this Gov. end of term may be you can do it again.(they will do it again for sure) So to answer this Topic is not Worth anymore (for this time only)

2. Grey Book or Doctored book ( In Thai we call Covered book) 50%-90% regal depend on how well the people would do to the bike or book. If 90 % you can't even tell anything because every single detail in book and the bike is correct even on data base . The police can not touch you with that. and still you can now do it ..If not in Bkk, or Chaingmai will be easier. BUT whenever you wanna sell and change name of owner(or even change color) .Don't ever take your bike into the transportation department . just pay people outside to do it so the cost will be not less than 4500-5000 bahts for changing name only.

Well, for me fake book is a grey book with less than 50 % , easy to recognize.

And about Paying Tax....Don't worry , When ever you got money to pay them they don't care anything.

I am just a Thai biker in Lardphao area.(near Honda Bigwing) , Bangkok...anything I could help you can contact me.

Pich.

Edited September 21, 2012 by pichus

[therealmrbrightside]

Hey GUYS

I really wanna sit with you guys and talk about this.

This is 2 Type of BIGBIKE's Green Book

1. Real green book 100% regal pay more than 75,000 to 100k up to yours bike's brand.. wait more than 3 months BUT Now the situation Law in Thailand not allow any old secondhand bike import to registered and make regal on the road anymore , So Even today you give 80,000 bahts to Bigbike shop with heaps of connection , Nothing will guarantee you will get regist. You may get chance but may be not . You may loose your money for free.....But the corruptness never die after this Gov. end of term may be you can do it again.(they will do it again for sure) So to answer this Topic is not Worth anymore (for this time only)

2. Grey Book or Doctored book ( In Thai we call Covered book) 50%-90% regal depend on how well the people would do to the bike or book. If 90 % you can't even tell anything because every single detail in book and the bike is correct even on data base . The police can not touch you with that. and still you can now do it ..If not in Bkk, or Chaingmai will be easier. BUT whenever you wanna sell and change name of owner(or even change color) .Don't ever take your bike into the transportation department . just pay people outside to do it so the cost will be not less than 4500-5000 bahts for changing name only.

Well, for me fake book is a grey book with less than 50 % , easy to recognize.

And about Paying Tax....Don't worry , When ever you got money to pay them they don't care anything.

I am just a Thai biker in Lardphao area.(near Honda Bigwing) , Bangkok...anything I could help you can contact me.

Pich.

Thanks for that info...

[Richard-BKK]

Hey GUYS

I really wanna sit with you guys and talk about this.

This is 2 Type of BIGBIKE's Green Book

1. Real green book 100% regal pay more than 75,000 to 100k up to yours bike's brand.. wait more than 3 months BUT Now the situation Law in Thailand not allow any old secondhand bike import to registered and make regal on the road anymore , So Even today you give 80,000 bahts to Bigbike shop with heaps of connection , Nothing will guarantee you will get regist. You may get chance but may be not . You may loose your money for free.....But the corruptness never die after this Gov. end of term may be you can do it again.(they will do it again for sure) So to answer this Topic is not Worth anymore (for this time only)

2. Grey Book or Doctored book ( In Thai we call Covered book) 50%-90% regal depend on how well the people would do to the bike or book. If 90 % you can't even tell anything because every single detail in book and the bike is correct even on data base . The police can not touch you with that. and still you can now do it ..If not in Bkk, or Chaingmai will be easier. BUT whenever you wanna sell and change name of owner(or even change color) .Don't ever take your bike into the transportation department . just pay people outside to do it so the cost will be not less than 4500-5000 bahts for changing name only.

Well, for me fake book is a grey book with less than 50 % , easy to recognize.

And about Paying Tax....Don't worry , When ever you got money to pay them they don't care anything.

I am just a Thai biker in Lardphao area.(near Honda Bigwing) , Bangkok...anything I could help you can contact me.

Pich.

Thanks for that info...

One small and extra detail is, that when they catch you with an illegal/fake greenbook you often in more problems than not having a greenbook.

Edited October 27, 2012 by Richard-BKK