Can I Buy A Car

[jodoobe1]

stopping in los for 12 months on multiple entry tourist visa.

i wanted to buy a car but have been told by a few people that as a tourist i can't.

is this right and is there any way round the problem

with thanks

jo

[thedude]

to my understanding, you Can buy a car, but you'll have to pay cash since you can't borrow money if you are not a permanent resident or thai national.

[Yohan]

I got the same information from a car dealer last year in Pattaya. Everybody can buy a car, but as a foreigner, you have to pay it in cash. No credit possible.

Johann

[chanchao]

stopping in los for 12 months on multiple entry tourist visa.

i wanted to buy a car but have been told by a few people that as a tourist i can't.

is this right and is there any way round the problem

with thanks

jo

Err.. first two replies: Sure you can buy a car, but to own it you need to be on a non-immigrant visa. (Any type).

Not that you would even want to own it of course if you're selling it again after 12 monhts. What you do typically is get the signed ownership transfer documents and signed copies of the previours owners ID card. This is all you need to sell it again, to a dealer or to anyone else. I'm sure you can find info on this on this site. Do make sure that the seller's ID card is valid beyond those 12 months when you plant to sell it again.

Second hand cars are expensive in Thailand, but you'll be getting most of that back when selling it again. To own a new car for 12 months and then sell it doesn't make a whole lot of sense of course. Get something that's popular. Like a Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic for passenger cars, or any flavour of pick-up truck.

Cheers,

Chanchao

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Get an international drivers license before you come or else you'll need a Thai drivers license and that takes a Non-Immigrant visa.

[Yohan]

This is a question, which is really interesting also me: Do you need now a non immigrant visa to buy and drive your own car registered on your own name?

Or do you need the non-immigrant visa only for the Thai driving licence?

You can buy a condominium even without any visa (30 days tourist stamp at entry) and transfer the ownership.

But you cannot buy a car?

My friend has a car, bought during the period where he used the 30 days tourist-visa, just stamped in the passport at arrival.

Even banks told me, for a bank account I need a non-immigrant visa and working permit, but I have now a bank account in Thailand and I am still only on 30 days tourist visa.....

What is correct? or is it just pure luck.... is there or is there not any rule for that, or is there any relationship with nationalities of the foreigner....???? It should be a rule, but we are talking about Thailand....

Any difference maybe between the provinces? I am talking about Songkhla/Hadyai, next to Malaysian border... everything very easy there.....

Johann

[NedKelly]

So will a dealer give me finance if I have a work permit and according visa ? Or will the bank loan me the money ?

[chanchao]

So will a dealer give me finance if I have a work permit and according visa ? Or will the bank loan me the money ?

> So will a dealer give me finance if I have a work permit and according

> visa ? Or will the bank loan me the money ?

No. ;-) As usual with loans, you need to show you don't really need the money. ;-) So you have to show some kind of deposit, and in Thailand there is no deposit that comes close to a plot of land somewhere. ;-) So assuming you don't own land, you will need some person who does own land to guarantee the loan. .. . . . yup, you guessed it......

So needless to say if someone is guaranteeing the loan with his/her land, then that person might as well get the loan himself/herself from some agricultural state loan thingy with the land as deposit and sub-loan the money to you.

For my car I borrowed the money from my gf's mother. But as a rule of thumb, if you don't have more than enough money to live here then ask yourself why you are here. ;-) (I did) (And found several reasons) (but regardless, I'm staying anyway.. ;-)

Cheers,

Chanchao

[dr_Pat_Pong]

This is a question, which is really interesting also me: Do you need now a non immigrant visa to buy and drive your own car registered on your own name?

Or do you need the non-immigrant visa only for the Thai driving licence?

You can buy a condominium even without any visa (30 days tourist stamp at entry) and transfer the ownership.

But you cannot buy a car?

My friend has a car, bought during the period where he used the 30 days tourist-visa, just stamped in the passport at arrival.

Even banks told me, for a bank account I need a non-immigrant visa and working permit, but I have now a bank account in Thailand and I am still only on 30 days tourist visa.....

What is correct? or is it just pure luck.... is there or is there not any rule for that, or is there any relationship with nationalities of the foreigner....???? It should be a rule, but we are talking about Thailand....

Any difference maybe between the provinces? I am talking about Songkhla/Hadyai, next to Malaysian border... everything very easy there.....

Johann

When did you get the bank account ?

What will you use for a driving license ?

[Yohan]

Question 1:

I opened the bank account in 1995 in Songkhla, just with the 30 days tourist stamp received at the border, and said something, that I am related to the off shore drilling oil companies when they asked me about where I am living or what I am doing in Thailand. I did not give them any address (except my hotel and room-number in Songkhla)

Question 2:

I was always using my Japanese driving licence together with the International Driving licence of Japan. I wonder, if the Thai need a driving licence when buying a car, as I have seen them driving without one, and totally drunken....

Again back to subject: Can I buy and register a car just with a 30 days visa stamp, which I receive at the border?

If they register a car, do they really ask for the driving licence of everybody, or only because a foreigner wants to register? How do they know, it is a foreigner? just because of the name?

All what I read here at this forum, I often feel, some procedures are easier in the South bordering Malaysia, as many foreigners from Malaysia and Singapore are just coming into Thailand, often with their own cars....

Would like to read some comments about other reader's experience...

Thank you!

Johann