Picking up my new car after songkran and will be stuck with the red plates for a while. I understand you're not supposed to drive outside the province with them (chon buri). However I need to drive up to Isaan and the dealer has said that's fine, although from my understanding I may attract a small fine if the police pull me over.. My main question to those of you in the know is.. Will my insurance still be valid should I have an accident???

And while I'm at it.. Anyone advise on getting the white plates ASAP??

Cheers

I had a similar question some time ago so contacted the insurance company. They confirmed to me in writing there would be coverage.

Thanks Steven.. Appreciate the feedback.. Will do the same

Make sure that you fill in the Log Book Provided by the Dealer when you pick up the car when you are travelling out of your Province. Then the Police should have no problem about the Red Plates, although I don't think you are supposed to drive at night anywhere.

It took 3 weeks for Nissan to get my white plates. I had no problems driving out of province or at night on the red ones.

A note for the OP, just make sure you get real red plates and not fake ones Some dealers have a limited number of red plates and they may keep those for some higher valued customers, if you know what I mean.

Edit: Forgot to add that this was a problem mostly during the car tax-rebate scheme when dealers were selling cars like hotcakes, I guess it shouldn't be a problem these days.

The thing you have to watch out here for is dealers that do not pay for the vehicle and hence cannot register it for months or until they actually pay for it, I had this problem when I bought my Pajero, drove around for about 6 months with no plates, chased the dealer regularly, finally chased up direct to Mitsubishi in Bangkok, they had no record of the sale and said it was still on dealer allocation, this was soon resolved by Mitsubishi. Only stopped once on a trip to Bangkok 1000 baht T money, which I reclaimed from dealer in Udon Thani, after a good set to.

You can drive and will be insured but you need to update the brown book daily as to the provinces you will be traveling through. The fine for not filling out the brown book is 2000 baht. I was stopped 3 times a day last month when I drove down south and they looked at the brown book each time. They eventually ticketed me for driving a red plated truck with a motorbike in the bed of the truck... go figure.

Kurt

You also need to take the log book into the Transportation office and have them fill out the car information for log entry you are going to have. We filled it out each day we were driving into another province.

AaronLV,

You only need to visit the land office if you want special permission to drive at night.

Kurt

AaronLV,

You only need to visit the land office if you want special permission to drive at night.

Kurt

Interesting, not what the dealer or the land office told us.

AaronLV,

You only need to visit the land office if you want special permission to drive at night.

Kurt

Interesting, not what the dealer or the land office told us.

Aaron,

My suggestion.. open the brown book and read the instructions. The instructions are very simple and spell out EXACTLY what is required.

Kurt

AaronLV,

You only need to visit the land office if you want special permission to drive at night.

Kurt

Interesting, not what the dealer or the land office told us.

Aaron,

My suggestion.. open the brown book and read the instructions. The instructions are very simple and spell out EXACTLY what is required.

Kurt

So the log book is in English these days, and what has the land office to do with a car registration?

The BiB recognise the inefficiencies of the system and tend not to make a issue of out of province & night time driving.

I've had 5 new cars in the last 10 years... Thus lots of red plate driving both in Bkk and up towards the central & north east, mostly night driving though.

Never any hassle at all... Not one 'red plate' stop (not to suggest it doesn't happen).

First class insurance insures the chassis number (and also named driver if looking for a cut in premium).

It is a wise question to ask though.

AaronLV,

You only need to visit the land office if you want special permission to drive at night.

Kurt

Interesting, not what the dealer or the land office told us.

Aaron,

My suggestion.. open the brown book and read the instructions. The instructions are very simple and spell out EXACTLY what is required.

Kurt

So the log book is in English these days, and what has the land office to do with a car registration?

Department of Land Transport....

AaronLV,

You only need to visit the land office if you want special permission to drive at night.

Kurt

Interesting, not what the dealer or the land office told us.

Aaron,

My suggestion.. open the brown book and read the instructions. The instructions are very simple and spell out EXACTLY what is required.

Kurt

So the log book is in English these days, and what has the land office to do with a car registration?

I never implied it was in English. You might ask your missus to translate it if you can't read Thai.

All I am trying to say is the Brown book has a very nice set of instructions on how to use said Brown book and there is no requirement to visit the DLT unless you want to drive the vehicle after dark; this is all laid out on the inside cover of the brown book.

Kurt