Buying>new Or Used?

[tuffy]

We will be moving to soon to Thailand and we were thinking about buy a used suv.

Is it advisable to buy a used car or is it really a crap shoot if we will get a decent one or not?

Where is the best palce to buy a used car? Bangkok or outside?

Is financing available to me if i put a large portion down? My wife is a Thai citizen but has been living with me in the US for the last few years.

Thanks for your help!

[tuffy]

Does anyone have any experience with expatmotors.co.th?

[Thaiboxer]

Buying a used car here carries a lot of risks, just as it does in the States. Many people here will drive their vehicles into the dirt and this is especially true for pickups. I would imagine SUV's are not treated much better. Those "tents" you see on the side of the road are full of beat up vehicles waiting for unsuspecting buyers. Better to buy new unless your wife knows somebody who takes good care of their SUV and wants to sell it. Good luck!

[wilko]

We will be moving to soon to Thailand and we were thinking about buy a used suv.

Is it advisable to buy a used car or is it really a crap shoot if we will get a decent one or not?

Where is the best palce to buy a used car? Bangkok or outside?

Is financing available to me if i put a large portion down? My wife is a Thai citizen but has been living with me in the US for the last few years.

Thanks for your help!

If you can afford it why not buy a new vehicle?

Second hand here is actually quite dear.

If you are on a bugdet you can get good 2nd hand vehicles but you or someone needs to know what you are looking at. Don't pay any attention on mileages, cutomer service or guarantees just trust yourself.

I bought privately off an expat and we both got a good deal....he got more than a dealer would pay and I payed less than at a garage. I think you'll have trouble enforcing any guarantee here so dealer or private makes little difference here.

You should also make it clear what you mean by SUV as they range from pickup conversions to purpose built vehicles. The price range is pretty broad. You could get a new Vigo or Fortuner for the price of a 2nd hand SUV import. But they are rather different vehicles.

[Jim's_a_Thai_Fox]

Hi,

I am in Thailand now and am having a similar debate with myself on a daily basis. I am looking for a pick up (although all this talk of the Toyota Fortuner is starting to have an effect that could get me into expensively deep water!)

I've got 400,000 bhat to 'play with' and no Thai guarantor (i'm single with a Thai gf and would really like the vehicle in my name.)

Two options really -

1) buy a used pickup outright. Looking at a Ford ranger for about 350,000b (2.5TD, 4dr, 4*4) off a Brit which is handy for me as I could transfer UK Sterling directly into his account and there is a added value of trust. Of course, the well documented problem of 'is it a potential duffer' comes into it and simply being a farang is by no means a sign of honesty (take my ex back home for example). You pay your money and you take your chance I suppose like any used vehicle.

2) Buy new. The 400,000b deposit can secure me a new vehicle with no guarantor in some places, but not everywhere. For example, my local Toyota dealer is OK to go ahead on a Vigo Prerunner at 738000b, but my Isuzu dealer isn't on a Hi-Lander at 725,000b. For location, buying new from a dealer can be done for similar prices all over Thailand in my experience, though stand to be corrected.

As for finance with a thai partner, the subject is discussed in great length in other sections on this motor forum, so won't rehash it here, but of great value to you I'm sure.

As for an SUV, the Toyota Fortuner seems to get praise heeped on it from every angle. It costs about 1.1m bhat new. I doubt my 400k deposit could get me one on finance with no guarantor. Getting finance to purchase an expensive 2nd hand vehicle, such as a Fortuner, would almost invariably demand a guarantor as it wouldn't be going through a main dealer, but again, if anyone knows differently, please let me know as I would be very tempted by a 2nd hand Fortuner. Not heard one bad thing mentioned about Expatmotors either.

Good luck

James

[Jim's_a_Thai_Fox]

Hi,

spent yesterday in several Isuzu and Toyota dealerships and have now been told that I will need a Thai guarantor to purchase any vehicle on finance...this is despite being assured by the Toyota lassie the other day that I could get a Prerunner with no guarantor with a 50%+ deposit!

Man, what credentials do you need to sell cars in this lovely country? Certainly a knowledge of the product or services on offer doesn't seem a prerequisite!

If your wife can't be a guarantor, though being a Thai citizen should be OK, you'll have to buy outright.

Prices of Fortuner : 1,029,000 manual, 1,200,000 auto.

James

[chanchao]

I bought second hand from a 'tent' and am very, very happy. Definitely not all crap vehicles. With the really old ones you take your chances of course.

While second hand vehicles here cost more than second hand vehicles in the West, keep in mind that maintenance is so much cheaper that the 'risk' involved is also a lot lower, and the 'value' higher.

At this point in time, SUV wise, second hand, the newer model Toyota Sport Riders look very attractive. Big vehicles, with the newer 3.0 liter D4D engine. The older ones are a bit underpowered. They will pretty much run forever, very good vehicles and wouldn't mind to buy one second hand.

For 400,000, you can get a very recent, full spec pick-up (2-door extra cab most common).

Cheers,

Chanchao

[chanchao]

BTW I'm not a huge fan of the Ford 2.5TD truck (because I have one but it IS a very reliable, good car and 350,000 is a great price for it. (Wish it was higher, again because I have one.

[mickmac]

I have to agree with Chanchao re: the "tent" vendors. I bought a 4 door Toyota pick up for 450,000

just a couple of years old, and am very happy with it. I'm sure that you can pick up something very decent for the 400,000. Yes the Fortuner do look very nice, but how nice will it be after you finish driving around in traffic in Thailand?

[Jim's_a_Thai_Fox]

To change topic ever so slightly, I was wondering about how to actually pay for a vehicle once you've chosen it... what is the recommended method of getting money from the UK (or anywhere for that matter) sent over to one's LOS bank account?

My Thai bank (Bkk bank) are not overly forthcoming with any answers (mainly 'mai dai') and emailing HSBC in the UK is long-winded.

Any advice?

Ta

[Jim's_a_Thai_Fox]

re: tents for 2nd hand vehicles

any advice on places where they can be found. I know there' lots, but I don't live in Bkk but can get in for a weekend trip, hence being armed with knowledge of where to go would save me loads of time. (west is best : Thon buri, Pin Klao...)

cheers

[chanchao]

> My Thai bank (Bkk bank) are not overly forthcoming with any answers

> (mainly 'mai dai') and emailing HSBC in the UK is long-winded.

Doesn't HSBC have an office in Bangkok you could call? ANyway, the usual way is just an international transfer. You need the bank's (swift?) code, account name and number, branch.. that's about it.

Cheers,

Chanchao

[grahamb]

> My Thai bank (Bkk bank) are not overly forthcoming with any answers

> (mainly 'mai dai') and emailing HSBC in the UK is long-winded.

Doesn't HSBC have an office in Bangkok you could call? ANyway, the usual way is just an international transfer. You need the bank's (swift?) code, account name and number, branch.. that's about it.

Cheers,

Chanchao

If you email HSBC, they'll tell you to get the information that Chanchao mentioned. Have you checked Bangkok Bank's website for the details or a contact number? I've just set up a BKK bank account to transfer out to HSBC and found that the website had much more information than my local branch (who admitted I was the first person in that branch to set up an internet transfer overseas so they didn't know how to do it!)

I don't know if their central call centre will be much help but it's worth a try. HSBC won't be able to help much until you have the SWIFT code.

When I first transferred money into Thailand, asking specifically for the SWIFT code helped - in Kasikornbank, they knew that name even if they didn't seem to really understand what the number was for!

[tuffy]

I am looking it to that as well ( tranfering $$ from the US to a thai bank while in Thailand seems to be much more complicated than it should be. Apparently Citibank and HSBC will allow you to do wire transfers online. I haven't been able to verify this myself yet though.

[teej]

I don't see why you should run into any problems transferring money from abroad into your thai bank account (i assume you have one here in thailand)... I did it this week, 25K usd, easy transaction. I called my banker back home, gave swift code, acct number, name, and it's done. Though i think it takes 3 days for a TT transfer to clear, but it took all of 10 minutes.

As for car 'tents'... u can find a good car, it's just a combination of luck and smarts. i've bought 2 off the tent lot so far here and no problems at all. but some people to get royaly effed as well, so bring someone who knows their cars if you don't... and as a general rule, you get what you pay for on the cheap side, and you may get much worse than you paid for on the high side... in other words, don't spend your life savings on a used car.....

[wilko]

Certainly worth bearing in mind that the re-sale value of 2nd hand here is very good. The advantage of buying off a farrang is that there is less of a language and culture gap when doing a deal. I suspect that a lot of problems that arise are simply down to misunderstanding.

Pickups and their variants are strong and simple, the cost of repairs here is low, as is the cost of labor.

The Ford/Masda seem to be the least popular when it comes to re-sale.

[otherstuff1957]

I think one big question you have to ask yourself is: would you buy a used car back home? If not, then definitly don't buy one here. If you do, it's interesting to note that cars don't seem to depreciate here as quickly as they do in most western countries. Looking at some older cars, I'm always amazed at how expensive they are compared to what they would cost bak in the states.

[Gary A]

A friend of mine had a used car business. I asked him to find me a nice second hand pickup truck and he told me that the only ones he could get decent price on were the Fords. Then he told me that he didn't like to work on Fords. He told me that the resale on pickups was so high that I would be better off to buy a new one. That's what I did.

He DID say that there were some quite good deals on second hand cars and that if I could use a car that he would be happy to sell me one.

Since I have been in Thailand I have bought three new vehicles and three second hand vehicles. I was lucky with all three second hand and had no problem with any of them. Even if you do have problems the repair here is very cheap. The only thing you really have to be careful of is to make sure they have not been wrecked. They are never the same after a bad accident.