Testcar

[pal78]

Hi,

TestCar is a company in Bangkok doing car testing, mostly for used cars. Anybody tried them yet?

There is a write up about them here.

Problem I see is that dealers are not likely to be happy with the idea of having to bring one of their cars there to have faults found with it.

[Scenium11]

This doesn't make much sense to me.

Have you ever try to buy a 2nd hand car from any of these dealers around bkk?

You hardly can test drive the car unless you are very interested and i don't see how you could bring this car to this testing shop and spend all the time there.

It could make sense for private sales.

"Be aware that the whole facility is covered by video and voice recording systems" is quoted on testcar website. This place sounds scary.

[teej]

Agree it's good for private sales, sure would add transparency to the whole process... if the seller isn't willing to go, red flag... I may take a car in just to see what they have going on there...

2nd hard car "Tents" would never let you take the car to a place like this... as said before, they barely let you test drive the thing unless you're sure about buying it (how idiotic, how are you supposed to know you want it unless you've driven it?).

Honest private sellers should be willing to allow their cars to be checked out... although 3200 baht is more expensive than having the dealer check it out, i think. I once bought a used Saab from a friend, and had my mechanic at Saab check the car out for free (i'm a regular customer so free, but i think inspection runs 1000baht at most), about 30K worth of work needed to be done, so we hacked 30K off the price and it was done.

I like the warranty idea suggested. Having cars under warranty checked out and then fixing under warranty. That seems to be the most useful option.

[Berty]

"Be aware that the whole facility is covered by video and voice recording systems" is quoted on testcar website. This place sounds scary.

This struck me as odd!!! Drove past there the other day, didn't see any cars in there!

[sg1]

I try it and its works fine they run some check with very high-tech equipment and than they make a visual check, in the end they supply me report and explain the car dealer whats wrong with the car its took the car dealer 10 days to fix the problem than i go back and recheck it with them and saw that the car dealer try to save money on 2 parts and told us that he fix it. however after the second visit he replace it and i bought a nice car in 450,000 baht that i know its perfect now.

its very common to use car inspection where i come from and i am happy that at last someone open a place like this in bkk. i for sure will recommend any one to use this kind of service.

and all the car mechanic with the ultra hearing are waste of money as they not really check the car and to go to the garage and see that the owner change oil on time not tell you anything if he have a son that drive 200 kph on the highway at night and kill the engine.

Edited December 14, 2006 by sg1

[Berty]

Out of interest did you see many other cars there when you went in. Did you have to queue?

[Gary A]

If I were buying a used vehicle, I'd sure give it a try. If the dealer refuses to take you and the car to the shop for testing, this is a good hint to move on and keep looking. The dealer should be satisfied if you promise to buy the car if it passes the tests.

[Gary A]

Duplicate post ! Sorry.

Edited December 14, 2006 by Gary A

[sg1]

I was there twice the first time i was alone the second time there were 2 cars before of me.

i think they are more than OK and basically for us its very easy to use car inspection as we are all familiar with this service for the Thai it will take some time to use service like this

however all the Thai people i talked about this told me that all the car dealer are the same and its good that they can check the car before they buy it.

[g00dgirl]

I went on a Monday afternoon and there was no wait, the facility is very new and nice with many test stations for various tests. 4 - 5 people were inspecting the car carefully and they can prepare the report in Thai or English. They also give a short warranty on their findings, the conditions are inside the folder that you get that includes the report. You can also be in the testing area and watch the process they even give you earplugs for that purpose.

[stingray]

Most of the used car tents don't give any attention, because teir vehicles are parket as "consigment cars" by finance companies, so the dealer get a sales comission if he sales the car. So he can't invest any money to fix the car, which not belongs to him, and specially if it's a marked car like Toyota or Honda he will not go 30'000 Baht down in the price or spend money to fix the car. So no dealers will let you go to Testcar, in theyr opinion it will be a waste of time. Used cars are not perfect, therefore they are used cars and therefore they are cheaper than new ones.

[torrenova]

Sure you can go get a classified advertised car to the test centre and when Mr Thai seller talks with Somchai there is a report with nothing wrong. Somchai gets his drink afterwards.

Do you think that couldn't happen here ?

[g00dgirl]

I think it could happen and I had the same thought,

but it would be very unlikely because Testcar gives a warranty and if they give out a report with nothing wrong and the owner finds something wrong they are liable for it. Also my guess is that there is some foreign involvement in setting up this company and they would stress to take care their image is not ruined if something like this came to light.

On their website they explain that they are independent and they don't even make a comment on whether somebody should buy a car or not, they don't offer advice on where to take cars to get them fixed. They do their report and they don't comment on anything else at all whatsoever.

And the surveillance in the center might also serve that purpose, so avoid or catch any employee making any deals with a car dealer or seller I would say?