Every couple of months, a thread pops up of someone who wants to bring a car with them to Thailand. The answer is always "Don't!" because of the import tax, risk that Customs will take a liking to it, etc.

I was in Central Chidlom at the weekend and saw that SEC are showing a Nissan Murano and a Mini Cooper Convertible (their description, not mine - it's got a pretty solid roof for a convertible ) I noticed that the Mini has a sticker in the back window from a garage in the UK who presumably sold it to SEC for import which got me thinking: how do SEC (and other grey market importers) import their cars? Is it all down to connections in Customs? Are there legitimate ways for companies to import cars that are not available to regular consumers?

I'm not interested in importing a car (though I still mourn my Impreza that I sold in Europe before coming here ) but was just interested to hear how they do it.

SEC more than likely has some very good friends at customs and gets the cars in using some loophole, maybe taxes are paid once the car has been sold etc.