Minor panel repairs - how long+ selling trade in or private

[Bluetongue]

I think I am going to sell my car a 2009 4 door Vigo and upgrade to a new model.

Firstly I took it to the Toyota dealer who have a Toyota Insurance Broker and panel shop on site to have a few (5) small dings and scratches taken care of. I mean these are really small jobs. They said 18 days, and I thought they were just saying that in order to keep me off their back. It's been 16 days now, is that normal?

Secondly to sell the car I intend to approach them when I pick it up to see what they can offer on a trade. I also have an offer from a family member. My experience with selling cars overseas is zilch but I would hazard a guess that you would nearly always get more on a private sale. As used car prices seem high here I obviously want to get the most for it. Apart from the Thai Visa classifieds and the various second hand car dealers are there any other options?

[IMHO]

If they said 18 days, then yes, 16 days so far is normal. A sign of a good body shop, is a busy body shop

Logically, you should be able to get more selling private, because there's no middle man taking their cut. Whether or not you can find the right buyer is another question though (that's not a personal dig).

[WarpSpeed]

Yeah and I would have worked out something with the dealer before I spent the extra money on the minor repairs and paint to get an idea of what kind of trade in value you might get? It may have worked out better for you in the long run, one example is you might be driving your new truck already and secondly you wouldn't have to be worrying about any deadlines on it's return or the quality of the work.

BTW if they told me 18 days then I'd have considered 20 or so before thinking it's late, remember, you're on Thai time..

[Ace of Pop]

Small dings and scratches in various regions are more trouble than one good bash,to match professional.

[Bluetongue]

If they said 18 days, then yes, 16 days so far is normal. A sign of a good body shop, is a busy body shop

Logically, you should be able to get more selling private, because there's no middle man taking their cut. Whether or not you can find the right buyer is another question though (that's not a personal dig).

Well it's certainly busy. I'm still not certain about buying new, this one is in good nick. The prices for similar on

this forum are in the 500+ range but you can't tell whether they're getting any interest. As I'm remote from Bangkok (4 hrs) I'd probably be wasting time advertising here. As the offer I have is 400 which seems low, I'll see what Toyota say but I'll

probably keep it for another year

[Bluetongue]

Yeah and I would have worked out something with the dealer before I spent the extra money on the minor repairs and paint to get

an idea of what kind of trade in value you might get? It may have worked out better for you in the long run, one example is you

might be driving your new truck already and secondly you wouldn't have to be worrying about any deadlines on it's return or the

quality of the work.

BTW if they told me 18 days then I'd have considered 20 or so before thinking it's late, remember, you're on Thai time..

Well it is an insurance job so it's not costing me any coin currently may incur an increased premium later. I'm not

really worried about the deadlines, I have another car. And just to clarify I wasn't keen to buy right then and there, there's

some money coming in around mid Jan, to buy two weeks ago would have stretched me a bit thin.

[WarpSpeed]

Yeah but having them consider it prior to repairs would have given you some idea of what deal you may be offered without repairs so in essence giving you a baseline. You're having the dings fixed with insurance? I'd never bother with Insurance that's another deal altogether and another reason you're probably still waiting while payment is/was sorted.

[Bluetongue]

Yeah but having them consider it prior to repairs would have given you some idea of what deal you may be offered without repairs so in essence giving you a baseline. You're having the dings fixed with insurance? I'd never bother with Insurance that's another deal altogether and another reason you're probably still waiting while payment is/was sorted.

Sorry but that's not how it works. I took it in there, they photographed the dings, submitted the claim, once it was approved,

they phoned and got me to bring the car in. I don't know from your post whether you mean you don't have insurance or you wouldn't bother them with a minor repair. Firstly having insurance here as a farang is a must in my opinion. If you have an accident it

takes out all of that instant Thai angst for a speedy resolution of who pays, do you want to be standing by the side of the road with a horde of Thai's jabbering at you. From experience I know it works. Secondly using the policy to make a claim at the end of one's ownership of the car makes sense.

[Ace of Pop]

Yep, good insurance also saves buying one of those Kiddy Dash Cams that no one looks at either, except the buyer and his mates... .

[WarpSpeed]

Yeah but having them consider it prior to repairs would have given you some idea of what deal you may be offered without repairs so in essence giving you a baseline. You're having the dings fixed with insurance? I'd never bother with Insurance that's another deal altogether and another reason you're probably still waiting while payment is/was sorted.

Sorry but that's not how it works. I took it in there, they photographed the dings, submitted the claim, once it was approved,

they phoned and got me to bring the car in. I don't know from your post whether you mean you don't have insurance or you wouldn't bother them with a minor repair. Firstly having insurance here as a farang is a must in my opinion. If you have an accident it

takes out all of that instant Thai angst for a speedy resolution of who pays, do you want to be standing by the side of the road with a horde of Thai's jabbering at you. From experience I know it works. Secondly using the policy to make a claim at the end of one's ownership of the car makes sense.

I had insurance while I was there, but didn't need full coverage nor could I get it as I had an older car, but even still I just wouldn't bother making a claim unless it was serious as that tends to drive up costs. I have insurance here too, BTW it does work that way too..

[Ace of Pop]

I should have said Cams are useless in Thailand. Usefull in the U.S. or U.K.. or any other hair splitting nanny state.Here its just Bang/Pay out.

[WarpSpeed]

Actually Ace I wouldn't use one here, too great a possibility it can be used against you. There it is kind of voluntary and you can just gloss over having it, but here it'd be confiscated immediately as evidence and reviewed as part of an investigation, you would likely not even have the time to see it for yourself and if there is the slightest opportunity to screw you with it, they will and you wouldn't even know what they saw or how it was perceived until the court date.

[Ace of Pop]

Ive noticed that if one puts one on a Mo Cy here it ends up on You Tube speeding or crashed.Like its Trophy Win to the Idiot.