Auto Enthusiasts/gear Heads

[Pepe']

Must be spring fever. I was tearing up the roads yesterday like I haven't in a long time.

Dammmm that car is sweet

[chonabot]

I be in Oxfordshire.....Thai wife and luk krung kids and M5...........

[Pepe']

Ok now thats the right place to be driving that car.

'll be thinking of you when I sell my M3 soon and get my pickup in Bangkok.

Happy motoring...

[taxexile]

Ok now thats the right place to be driving that car

oxfordshire,(although not without its charms) or anywhere in england is not the place to be driving any kind of car these days pepe.

nearly all the cities are in a state of almost constant gridlock,these days you have to pay on a daily basis to drive into the central london zone ,oxford is one big jam,leeds,manchester etc etc are the same.the motorways are more often than not 200 mile long streams of solid traffic at 50mph, that is when they are not being dug up for repairs or closed by the police because of a minor accident.

public transport is expensive,unreliable,overcrowded and smelly.

parking is hard to find and when you can find it it is exhorbitantly expensive,both local government and central government are notoriously car unfriendly, roads are covered with speed bumps,width restrictors,pedestrian controlled traffic lights every 50 or 100 yards to enable pedestrians to cross the roads,masses of parking wardens enforcing parking restrictions with heavy fines for transgressors,clamping and car removal also. getting around in the uk these days is pure torture.

when you get out of the cities and suburbs and on to an open road you are confronted with hundreds upon hundreds of speed cameras whos only purpose is to raise revenue for the police force, they are no different in my opinion from the thai police asking for bribes, except that the amount asked for in the uk is 60 or 100 pounds and they put penalty points on your licence.

there are very few places left in the uk where you can have a "good burn up" these days.in the uk the most best car to have is the one with the smallest engine (for economy,and cheap insurance),the shortest wheelbase (for easy parking),a bit rusty and battered (to make it less attractive to the yobs and thieves who roam the streets unbothered by the police who are too busy writing tickets for drivers).

thats why parcel shelf customisation is a more worthwhile usage of time than exhaust pipe fondling or inlet manifold shaving.

ps. petrol about seven or eight dollars a gallon also.

[chonabot]

Thanks for Cheering me up Tax......

Theres always Santa Pod

[taxexile]

Thanks for Cheering me up Tax......

sorry.

but that is what it is like in the uk now.

i used to have and enjoy decent cars, but they became more trouble than enjoyment and even with 250 hp i was still stuck behind the old lady in the micra with no chance of getting past.

if i ever live there again i will buy an old nissan micra or vauxhall diesel and treat it as the mechanical slave that it is.

[chonabot]

There's a few decent roads still but the speed cameras have changed things forever. Imagine a few hundred of them between Bangkok and Korat..

[Pepe']

Wow I figured outside of the city you'd be able to cut loose.

I retract my earlier statement. I guess you could have more fun with that baby in Thailand just more frequent front end repairs.

One question.

I don't recall ever seeing any pick ups with with a ball hitck for towing trailers.

Do they have trailers in Bangkok? I 've never seen one.

[tutsiwarrior]

whaaat?...you gonna tow a trailer with your monster high performance muscle car???

as I suspected...a thread to entrap the car lads that can't get it up for their ladies no more...

ooooh, but listen to them glasspaks...

[Pepe']

Hahahah, very good. Actually I've decided to go with a pickup. I refuse to pay double for a car. The pickups sound about the same price scale as here and I'm sure would hold up better.

[tutsiwarrior]

I had an Isuzu Panther in Indonesia...comfortable car but under powered, the little 4 cyl diesel unit about as big as a meatloaf. (plenty of room in the engine compartment for calesthenics). Most of what you'll find in the pick up market will be diesel....never seen one towing anything substantial around here other than a jet ski trailer...

[Pepe']

Tutsi,

What would be your first choice for a pickup to run around Bangkok and the suburbs?

[tutsiwarrior]

pepe...I would say an underpowered diesel crewcab with high ground clearance so that if you get broadsided in traffic no one will get hurt. In city traffic you want to drive about in a tank so that your crazed bimmer jockey will all ways sustain the greatest damage. Plus the advantage of good road view that always suits well...

my preference is a company car with a driver on 24 hour call...wet bar, internet connection and 6cd player with 60 speakers...

who the fukc wants to be driving around BKK anyway...I thought about a chopper but the cops would catch me up with their jap bikes and get me without a helmet...just can't win...

[Pepe']

Tutsi,

OK we're narrowing it down.

Underpowered diesel? Seriously? Why?

What make?

I do like the company car idea.

Most of our driving will be between Samutsakorn where we are building apartments and Sattahip where we are building a vacation home for weekends etc.

Did you ever consider doing stand up comedy?

[tutsiwarrior]

pepe...given your documented predilection for horrible misuse of public thoroghfare an underpowered Isuzu or Toyota would be appropriate...high specification...leather and walnut dashboard, but not able to exceed the speed limit. For frequent commuting then slot in a budget for the company car arrangement described above. I find that I perform better in meetings after a restful snooze on the way in than after fighting traffic.

Standup comedy?...hardly becoming to a Nobel laureate in figurative literature...

[Pepe']

More specifically, do you prefer Isuzu over Toyota?

What make or model?

Figurative literature, is that writing about nud_e peoples shapes?

[Pepe']

Sadly this thread is pretty much dead but before we bury it...

I have asked before and I must ask again.

Are there really no gas/electric hybrid cars on the road in Thailand.

Others have said that they don't hold up well and there is no interest.

Gas prices are going through the roof and pollution is choking us.

What will it take, really to see hybrids on the road in Thailand?

R.I.P.

[taxexile]

most(well, quite a few) of the taxis in bangkok run on gas,thats gas as in gas, not gasoline (petrol),but i doubt if there are any electrically powered cars here.

i dont think there are any hybrid cars here.

like the americans,the thais are not big on energy conservation,unless you count the widespread use of 40 watt lightbulbs conservation.

once the government remove the subsidy on petrol prices and the pump prices start to rise significantly, then perhaps hybrid cars and cars less than 1500cc will become popular here.

[Pepe']

taxguy, Thanks for the info again. I just don't want to believe it's true.

Even if for air quality sake only. Am I missing something here?

The only worse pollution I've seen was in Rio di Janero and that was back in 1980!

[taxexile]

bangkok and chiang mai have pretty filthy atmospheres , but there do seem to be less and less of the smoke belching buses and trucks around these days, still a few though. these things take time and i suppose the authorities have other priorities.

[Pepe']

I'm glad it appears that there is progress being made...

[Pepe']

Is true that pickup trucks are priced at about the same as here in the states and not grossly over taxed.

I thought I remembered some one saying that...

[chonabot]

Pepe , heres a pic of my beast ( taken from the trader website I bought her from)

Before any mods , which are def on the way!

m5

Better pics when I sort me camera out.

[Crash999]

Pepe , heres a pic of my beast ( taken from the trader website I bought her from)

Before any mods , which are def on the way!

Nice ride!!!! Wish I could afford something like that here in Thailand. At a guess I'd estimate around 4-5 million baht for a 2000 model.

[chonabot]

Cheers Crash , <deleted> photo though. Yes I still can't get to grips with the prices in Los. When I finally move, I imagine even a 316 will be out of my league.

[taxexile]

looks like your house could do with a few mods too.

[Pepe']

Very nice. It is the E36 body style right? How do you attach a picture to your post?

Oh yeah the price of pickup trucks are they priced "normally" in Thailand?

Comparable to US or UK?

Man they are giving vehicles away here in the US. Well not really but I've seen deals on Chevy, Dodge and even some rice burners that are unbelievable.

Many with 0% interest and up to $4000 cash bach on some models.

Selling a used car here is tough now. They are not worth anything and people have to get minimum 3% loans.

Hows the market in Thailand same BS?

[chonabot]

m5

Lol , yes that was an E36 Pepe, wrong picture! That was a 4 door M3, heres the pic I meant to post , D'oh!

I couldn't tell you much about the Thai market , but my Father-in-law bought a Mazda pickup in Kalasin a few months back at a good deal. Anything German though will cost the earth , even 10 year old Mercs are fetching over a millipn baht, when they wouldn't get £1000 in UK. Christ alone knows what the service costs are.

[Pepe']

Now that is sweet!!! Nice color. I'm wondering if shipping German cars into Thailand can be profitable?

Someone must have thought of this before?

Even the market on used German cars is very soft here right now. There are deals galore...

Hey how do you attach photos to your post...

[chonabot]

Pepe' to attach a picture as per my post , click on image , add the address , ie route/website et al, then edit the name when in your post and hey presto!

As for importing German Cars, there must be a better way than just shippinmg them over and paying premium import tax.

( Thinking cap on)