Buying A New Pickup In Ubon Ratchathani

[Michael Hare]

I didnt realize that buying a new pickup in Ubon could be so difficult with some dealers nowadays.

I came to Ubon in 1994. Bought a new Isuzu Cameo. It was in the show room. Paid cash. Drove it out. In 2002 I bought a new Honda CRV for my late wife. Paid cash but had to wait 4 weeks. Four weeks! I couldnt believe it. In 2004 I bought a new Ford Escape. Paid cash but had to wait three days for the Ford people to put the extras in. That was ok. In 2005, I bought a new Ford Ranger pickup for work. This time it was on finance so had to wait 1 week for this to be arranged. In 2008 bought a second hand Chev pickup for work. Paid cash. No problem. It was in the yard. In 2008 bought a new Chev Captiva. Waited one month for delivery in my selected colour. In 2010 bought a Ford Ranger Wildtrak. Waited 5 weeks for delivery.

Now to 2013. Ordered a new Ford Ranger 4 door automatic pickup on November 28, 2012. Put down 20,000 baht deposit. Saleslady said it would be here in February. In the meantime, one of my workers wants to buy the old Ford Ranger. He is biting at the bit for this old pickup at mates rates.

February comes, Ford sales lady rings up and says sorry not until April. Late April I go in and the sales lady informs me that the pickup in my colour (dark gun metal grey) is not available but they have white and bright red in manual available in June. No automatics. I reply could you try for one more week (last week). In I go again and same story. Not available in my colour and not in automatic until October in other boring colours. By this time I am thinking of buying a Tata.

Instead I ask for my deposit of 20,000 baht back. Yes said Ford that can be done but that will take 4 weeks.

I am highly pissed. I decide to drive down to Chev and see Mrs Nok who I bought my Captiva off 5 years ago. She is there in a higher sales position. I ask, Do you have a four door automatic pickup in these colours. Indeed we do in our yard up the road opposite Spago. And there they were. I call my research team in and let them select the colour they like. We even do a TEST drive. Paper work was sorted out quickly. 25% down and monthly payments thereafter. Chev said I could drive it out the next day but I replied I was tied up and next week (yesterday) would be fine. So yesterday into Chev we go and pay the 25% and out we drive in a new four door automatic Chev pickup.

Goodness me. If I had known that Ford couldnt deliver I wouldnt have bothered them. However, I do really like the new Ford Ranger but to buy one appears to be very difficult.

[transam]

You do not like Toyota stuff. ?

[bealus]

where is the interesting part?

[Mike45]

You do not like Toyota stuff. ?

I like Toyota stuff and when I move to Ubon I intend to buy a 4 door pickup. Is it as difficult to buy a Toyota truck in Ubon?

[mfearon74]

where is the interesting part?

No interesting part..just another GOB who cant wait till next songkran to start moaning...zzzzzzzzzzz

[mfearon74]

You do not like Toyota stuff. ?

I like Toyota stuff and when I move to Ubon I intend to buy a 4 door pickup. Is it as difficult to buy a Toyota truck in Ubon?

No it's very easy to buy a Toyota in Ubon.

[DreamRider]

You do not like Toyota stuff. ?

I like Toyota stuff and when I move to Ubon I intend to buy a 4 door pickup. Is it as difficult to buy a Toyota truck in Ubon?

No it's very easy to buy a Toyota in Ubon.

Agreed; I bought a Vigo from the main dealer in Ubon last year, my name, cash, no problems at all. After sales back up was superb aswell. "Ploy" was the sales girl. New car nicely presented in the showroom, flowers for my wife, photograph etc.

Honda on the other hand were dreadful, or at least the sales girl "Off" was .... useless; because I had my own insurance, paid cash (no credit commission) and I sold my old car - no commission again. Car showed up dirty with plastic still on the seats, film badly applied - and the wrong grade, her fault. "Right; there are the keys, now give us your cash" was the attitude. Hopefully they have fired her 'cos she's a useless, greedy trollope.

Toyota though ... brilliant

[Ace of Pop]

You do not like Toyota stuff. ?

I like Toyota stuff and when I move to Ubon I intend to buy a 4 door pickup. Is it as difficult to buy a Toyota truck in Ubon?

No it's very easy to buy a Toyota in Ubon.

Agreed; I bought a Vigo from the main dealer in Ubon last year, my name, cash, no problems at all. After sales back up was superb aswell. "Ploy" was the sales girl. New car nicely presented in the showroom, flowers for my wife, photograph etc.

Honda on the other hand were dreadful, or at least the sales girl "Off" was .... useless; because I had my own insurance, paid cash (no credit commission) and I sold my old car - no commission again. Car showed up dirty with plastic still on the seats, film badly applied - and the wrong grade, her fault. "Right; there are the keys, now give us your cash" was the attitude. Hopefully they have fired her 'cos she's a useless, greedy trollope.

Toyota though ... brilliant

Right about Honda Ubon Sis in Law had her Accord chucked at her for same reason,no Finance, yet

Honda Phitsanulok did a Flower /Picture Show thing with my Wife's.My Wife goes 200 Klics to their service dept,shes so happy with them.

[DILLIGAD]

You do not like Toyota stuff. ?

I like Toyota stuff and when I move to Ubon I intend to buy a 4 door pickup. Is it as difficult to buy a Toyota truck in Ubon?

No it's very easy to buy a Toyota in Ubon.

Agreed; I bought a Vigo from the main dealer in Ubon last year, my name, cash, no problems at all. After sales back up was superb aswell. "Ploy" was the sales girl. New car nicely presented in the showroom, flowers for my wife, photograph etc.

Honda on the other hand were dreadful, or at least the sales girl "Off" was .... useless; because I had my own insurance, paid cash (no credit commission) and I sold my old car - no commission again. Car showed up dirty with plastic still on the seats, film badly applied - and the wrong grade, her fault. "Right; there are the keys, now give us your cash" was the attitude. Hopefully they have fired her 'cos she's a useless, greedy trollope.

Toyota though ... brilliant

Maybe that wasn"t her name but what most people told her to do??? 555

[sezzo]

Last year when my brother was here in Ubon to search for a car to buy upon retiring in Thailand, we went to most of the new car dealers here to check prices and deals. Most manufacturers except for Toyota were including extras (bin liner, window tinting, registration, insurance etc) in the purchase price. He ended up buying a Mazda BT50 and is more than happy with it. Toyota would not give one thing extra for "free". A friend of mine shortly after bought a Hilux pickup from Toyota and again no freebies offered. Toyota have the nice big showroom with all the trimmings ie. free drinks, free sweets, sexy looking young girls in mini skirts but when it comes to the substance part they are very badly lacking.

[transam]

You do not like Toyota stuff. ?

I like Toyota stuff and when I move to Ubon I intend to buy a 4 door pickup. Is it as difficult to buy a Toyota truck in Ubon?

Ubon has a couple of dealers but the one to go too, which has one of the most advanced workshop and repair shop l have ever seen anywhere is called Toyota Deeyiam.

[sirchai]

You do not like Toyota stuff. ?

Or a red/white classic Mustang near Ubonwittayakhom with a V8?

[sezzo]

Last year when my brother was here in Ubon to search for a car to buy upon retiring in Thailand, we went to most of the new car dealers here to check prices and deals. Most manufacturers except for Toyota were including extras (bin liner, window tinting, registration, insurance etc) in the purchase price. He ended up buying a Mazda BT50 and is more than happy with it. Toyota would not give one thing extra for "free". A friend of mine shortly after bought a Hilux pickup from Toyota and again no freebies offered. Toyota have the nice big showroom with all the trimmings ie. free drinks, free sweets, sexy looking young girls in mini skirts but when it comes to the substance part they are very badly lacking.

I forgot to add in my original post that the Toyota dealer that we went to was the big new one on the road to Amnat. They proudly drove us around in a golf cart around the whole complex showing us all the service, panel beating etc areas. They showed me a car that we were interested in but they wouldn't unlock it so I could sit inside and get a feel of the car. When I asked to actually take a certain type of pickup for a test drive they baulked and after 30 mins they came up with a pick up with different specs that I wanted to take for a test drive. All show this place is. Wasn't impressed at all.

[Sandgroper1066]

Last year when my brother was here in Ubon to search for a car to buy upon retiring in Thailand, we went to most of the new car dealers here to check prices and deals. Most manufacturers except for Toyota were including extras (bin liner, window tinting, registration, insurance etc) in the purchase price. He ended up buying a Mazda BT50 and is more than happy with it. Toyota would not give one thing extra for "free". A friend of mine shortly after bought a Hilux pickup from Toyota and again no freebies offered. Toyota have the nice big showroom with all the trimmings ie. free drinks, free sweets, sexy looking young girls in mini skirts but when it comes to the substance part they are very badly lacking.

I forgot to add in my original post that the Toyota dealer that we went to was the big new one on the road to Amnat. They proudly drove us around in a golf cart around the whole complex showing us all the service, panel beating etc areas. They showed me a car that we were interested in but they wouldn't unlock it so I could sit inside and get a feel of the car. When I asked to actually take a certain type of pickup for a test drive they baulked and after 30 mins they came up with a pick up with different specs that I wanted to take for a test drive. All show this place is. Wasn't impressed at all.

Interesting! I found the complete opposite.Lots of freebies,including one year free insurance and excellent after sales service.I would recommend Toyota Deeyiam anytime.

Cheers

Edited May 18, 2013 by Sandgroper1066

[DreamRider]

Maybe that wasn"t her name but what most people told her to do??? 555

[Michael Hare]

Thank you Sezzo and Dreamrider for sharing your car buying experiences with informative and intelligent comments.

The main point of my post was that after five months of waiting Ford could not provide me with the pickup that I wanted. Hence the frustration.

Last month when I was back in New Zealand my farmer friends asked me why they had to wait 1 year for their new Ford Ranger Pickups which are made in Thailand. I answered that maybe there is a backlog from the floods.

Little did I know then, that I too would be faced with delay problems.

Back in Ubon, I didn’t go to Toyota because their automatic 4 door pickup was over 900,000 baht and had a 3 litre engine. Whereas the Ford Ranger I choose was a 2.2 litre (big enough for my researchers; I don’t drive it) and 100,000 baht cheaper. Also probably better on fuel economy.

I didn’t go to Tang Park Isuzu for a D-Max, because after 9 years of going to them in 1990s with my Cameo I had had enough. They were very slap dash with servicing; good on oil changes but not much else; always a rush job with lots of vehicles being serviced and again to get an automatic 4 door pickup one had to buy the top-of-the-range model which for work purposes was extravagant.

Yes Sezzo, the Mazda BT50 is a very nice pickup; beautiful driving manners and lots of space inside. The reason I didn’t go to Mazda because a friend in Ubon couldn’t get the automatic pickup he wanted after 2 months of waiting and I don’t like the smiley face front. Reminds of Jack Nicholson as the Joker in Batman.

Most dealers can provide manual driving pickups fairly quickly but not automatics.

So I purchased a Chev Colarado because it was right there in our colour and automatic. But I had to pay 100,000 baht more than the Ford Ranger and its engine is 2.8 litres. However, the good news is that Chev will build a new showroom-service centre on the bypass road going to Warin. So we will not have to drive 30 km to their centre at Kham Yai when it opens in a few months time.

I am also pleased I don’t have a Honda car now in Ubon. Their customer attention and servicing of cars has rapidly declined in recent years. I hear nothing but complaints.

One final point about Ford. The sales lady told me that Ford Thailand just send up to Ubon any pickup they have without even looking at the Ubon order forms. With cars they are okay, but with pickups they just send what is in the yard.

[Mike45]

Michael I wish you good luck with the Chevy. I'm sure they are probably very good vehicles. I personally drove Chevy for half my driving life and have completely given up on them.

The only good vehicle I ever had was my last one. A Toyota Camry. I'm willing to stay with Toyota now for the reliability.

Let us know how your Chevy does over the longer term.

[Michael Hare]

Michael I wish you good luck with the Chevy. I'm sure they are probably very good vehicles. I personally drove Chevy for half my driving life and have completely given up on them.

The only good vehicle I ever had was my last one. A Toyota Camry. I'm willing to stay with Toyota now for the reliability.

Let us know how your Chevy does over the longer term.

Thank you Mike45 for your wishing me good luck with my new Chevy pickup. I will not be driving it as it is for staff but I am hoping for at least 20 years and 500,000 km on the clock.

I am sorry to hear that you have given up on driving Chevys. I currently drive a Chev Captiva for personal use and have had no problems with it. It is 6 years old and has done 71,000 km. A beautiful vehicle to drive. We also have a 8 year Chev space-cab pickup at work which has done 250,000 km and is going well.

I don't know where you are writing from but as a guess perhaps the USA? Here in Thailand I have a feeling that the quality of the Thailand manufactured Chev vehicles may be a little better. I say this because a friend in NZ has driven the Holden Captiva there (GM Australia manufactured) and says it is not a patch on the Thai Chev Captiva in style, colours and engine performance. Perhaps that is why the Holden Captiva is not very highly rated in Australia.

[Ace of Pop]

Poor Old Nissan. No one mentioned them.

[Mike45]

Michael I wish you good luck with the Chevy. I'm sure they are probably very good vehicles. I personally drove Chevy for half my driving life and have completely given up on them.

The only good vehicle I ever had was my last one. A Toyota Camry. I'm willing to stay with Toyota now for the reliability.

Let us know how your Chevy does over the longer term.

Thank you Mike45 for your wishing me good luck with my new Chevy pickup. I will not be driving it as it is for staff but I am hoping for at least 20 years and 500,000 km on the clock.

I am sorry to hear that you have given up on driving Chevys. I currently drive a Chev Captiva for personal use and have had no problems with it. It is 6 years old and has done 71,000 km. A beautiful vehicle to drive. We also have a 8 year Chev space-cab pickup at work which has done 250,000 km and is going well.

I don't know where you are writing from but as a guess perhaps the USA? Here in Thailand I have a feeling that the quality of the Thailand manufactured Chev vehicles may be a little better. I say this because a friend in NZ has driven the Holden Captiva there (GM Australia manufactured) and says it is not a patch on the Thai Chev Captiva in style, colours and engine performance. Perhaps that is why the Holden Captiva is not very highly rated in Australia.

Michael Hare you maybe correct about the new Chevys. I believe that all the automobile manufacturers are designing and building to a higher quality standard than in the past. My experience was indeed in the USA. Now living in Taipei. In the process of building a house in Ubon.

I hope that you get the experience you expect from your new Chevy.

I'm not very aware of the prices and model differences of the vehicles in Thailand. I think you said in your post that you had to pay more for the Chevy and get a 2.8L. Does that mean that in the end it was almost the same price and engine size as the Toyota?

[Michael Hare]

Michael I wish you good luck with the Chevy. I'm sure they are probably very good vehicles. I personally drove Chevy for half my driving life and have completely given up on them.

The only good vehicle I ever had was my last one. A Toyota Camry. I'm willing to stay with Toyota now for the reliability.

Let us know how your Chevy does over the longer term.

Thank you Mike45 for your wishing me good luck with my new Chevy pickup. I will not be driving it as it is for staff but I am hoping for at least 20 years and 500,000 km on the clock.

I am sorry to hear that you have given up on driving Chevys. I currently drive a Chev Captiva for personal use and have had no problems with it. It is 6 years old and has done 71,000 km. A beautiful vehicle to drive. We also have a 8 year Chev space-cab pickup at work which has done 250,000 km and is going well.

I don't know where you are writing from but as a guess perhaps the USA? Here in Thailand I have a feeling that the quality of the Thailand manufactured Chev vehicles may be a little better. I say this because a friend in NZ has driven the Holden Captiva there (GM Australia manufactured) and says it is not a patch on the Thai Chev Captiva in style, colours and engine performance. Perhaps that is why the Holden Captiva is not very highly rated in Australia.

Michael Hare you maybe correct about the new Chevys. I believe that all the automobile manufacturers are designing and building to a higher quality standard than in the past. My experience was indeed in the USA. Now living in Taipei. In the process of building a house in Ubon.

I hope that you get the experience you expect from your new Chevy.

I'm not very aware of the prices and model differences of the vehicles in Thailand. I think you said in your post that you had to pay more for the Chevy and get a 2.8L. Does that mean that in the end it was almost the same price and engine size as the Toyota?

Yes indeed Mike45, I did pay almost the same as if I had purchased a Toyota Pickup, but I am informed I would have had to wait several weeks for a Toyota whereas the Chev Colorado was in the yard ready to go. With my order for a Ford Ranger falling down I was in a rush.

You are correct in saying the Chevs have improved. I have never driven a petrol Chev car so I have no idea of there performance.

In Thailand as far as I know there are no petrol pickups. Diesel is cheaper and the engines in many instances outlast the body work.

In Thailand I have driven the Cruze diesel which is a mid-sized sedan with a 2.0 liter VCDi VM Motori turbocharged common rail diesel. Wonderful car to drive with so much punch.

My own Chev Capitiva was developed by GM Daewoo (now GM Korea) and has a four cylinder VCDi common rail tubo diesel engine with a 6-speed automatic. The latest model (2011) as a similar engine but developed with VM Motori and not Daewoo.

The Chev Colorado pickups were originally an Isuzu D-Max clone. However, the one I just bought on Thursday is not. It has an all-new 2.8-liter Duramax diesel engine producing 177.53 horsepower, a monstrous 470 Newton-Meters of torque fit for a small-block V8, mated to a 6-speed automatic.

Good luck with your house building. Please keep all your receipts of purchases and documents of money transferred into Thailand for this house-building project. Hopefully you will never have to have the need to produce such documents but it is better to be prepared for anything in Thailand.

[Michael Hare]

Poor Old Nissan. No one mentioned them.

I apologize Ace of Pop for not mentioning Nissan. After my cancelling the Ford Ranger we were on our way firstly to Chev, then Nissan and then Isuzu. As you have read, the pickup we wanted was in the Chev yards. I was fed up and tired so the Chev was purchased.

The Nissan Navara is a very strong and safe pickup. We could have purchased a 4 door automatic in 2.5 l cheaper than at Chev, but I am not such how long we would have had to wait.

Unfortunately for Nissan in Thailand they lack a good image. Most of their designs lack panache. Their logo is uninspiring. Thais like logos. Hence in the pickups they like the logos of Toyota, Ford, and Chev (they like the big bowtie). Isuzu”s logo however, doesn’t fit this picture, as it is really nothing, only a straight name with no style at all like the Ford name. Yet Isuzu sells because of reliability.

Fortunately for Nissan their March cars are really selling well because of their price and fuel economy.

The Teana should sell better, because in my opinion, it is a superior car in every way to both the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.

When I lived in Khon Kaen from 1976 – 1980 I drove a Datsun 260Z. I must have been nuts. Great car for 2 only. Petrol was cheap then. 3 baht/litre. Most of the taxis in Bangkok in those days were Datsun Bluebirds. They just kept on running even if the body work was all rusted up. But really too small for a taxi. Six Thais could fit in but only 1 American!

I believe Nissan has to be more creative in its designs and get an eye-catching logo before it can make serious inroads into the Thai auto market.