Best secondhand car for under 300k

[shady86]

I would also recommend Nissan Tiida 2010. It's a small car but interior is very spacious. Price ranges from 100k and good value for money.

[whaleboneman]

On 3/29/2017 at 10:03 AM, Jamestaylor said:

Also I couldn't help but notice some of the ridiculously under priced car in the classifieds section on this site. A 2010 City for 125k, A 2011 Honda Jazz for 175k and a Nissan Tiida for 90k, all of which are half of their current market prices, are they all scams?

These are scams that you will also find on craigslist. I'm sure they are collecting email addresses and they may be trying to swindle cash as well. Prices too good to be true.

[Jamestaylor]

I've narrowed it down to the City or the Civic. I'm frankly torn, the City is newer and has a slightly better exterior but the Civic is bigger, and has a better interior. 

 

I've eliminated the Jazz because, well, as a very large and tall guy driving a Jazz I think it would look as hilarious as it sounds.

[Jamestaylor]

On 3/30/2017 at 8:13 AM, dinsdale said:

OK. Fair enough. Doesn't matter what your looking for. They're all way overpriced. 

That I can agree on. 3 year cars selling for 450k when they only cost 600k new is pretty ridiculous. I suspect many years down the line when we have that eventual inflation of second hand cars prices might start to resemble the west a bit more.

 

On 3/30/2017 at 8:52 AM, mettech said:

Used car are very expensive here because of the way they drive and destroy them so a good second hand car and deal with a farang perhaps you would not get taken for a bad ride

I got one last year mazda 3 protege the older 1.6l enginne manual 5 speed run like a charm and cheap on gas.

The farang that sold me that car was a good man.

Now going back to my country and car will be parked if not sold by mid April.

I've looked at most of the farlang sites, almost all of them are even more overpriced than the Thai sites. I speak fluent Thai and I am bringing with me an Engineering senior who fixes cars for Toyota so I'm not too worried about being taken for any surprises by the car itself, from whoever i end up buying from. 

[bazza73]

On 3/29/2017 at 11:53 PM, Jamestaylor said:

 

 

While I like the current Vios, the one before that (same with the previous Yaris) I find just plain ugly with a dated design. Compare a 2009 Vios to a 2009 City, Jazz or even Civic and I think the Vios just looks completely dated both exterior and interior wise. 

 

If you are the kind of person that buys a vehicle on the basis of looks rather than reliability, engineering or performance, then I'm sorry we have both wasted our time.

[Jamestaylor]

7 minutes ago, bazza73 said:

If you are the kind of person that buys a vehicle on the basis of looks rather than reliability, engineering or performance, then I'm sorry we have both wasted our time.

Well, I factor in everything but like a lot of people looks are in fact important. If you're saying looks doesn't matter to you then you are either lying or you're driving one of those old crap-that-runs-forever cars.

 

Now lets look at your categories

- Reliability: Cant go wrong with Honda, Toyota or Nissan really. They are all easy to service, they are all notable for being reliable and with Thai prices, repairs doesn't cost much.

- Engineering: Was gonna write out a paragraph on this one then I realized, pretty much same as above it comes back to realibility and maintance costs.

- Performance: Now there you might have a point, the Civic is a 1.8L engine so one of the early reasons i singled it out was because of performance. Then again, I'm not gonna be racing or trying to break speed limits, I'm gonna be stuck in traffic for hours around Raminthra in the middle of rush hour so I never figured this to be too much of a point. 

 

Not to get defensive, but I do look on other factors. In fact my original list did in fact have the Vios, as it passed all the other "categories" mentioned above, but alas, looks wise it doesnt quite cut it. And I'm sorry if you still feel like I've wasted your time after this reply. It truly wasn't my intention. Do accept my apologies.

[JaseTheBass]

I've never equated engineering with old tech, but each to their own.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

[canthai55]

Yep - new tech is so good from Ford -

 

[bazza73]

On 4/3/2017 at 6:31 PM, Jamestaylor said:

Well, I factor in everything but like a lot of people looks are in fact important. If you're saying looks doesn't matter to you then you are either lying or you're driving one of those old crap-that-runs-forever cars.

 

Now lets look at your categories

- Reliability: Cant go wrong with Honda, Toyota or Nissan really. They are all easy to service, they are all notable for being reliable and with Thai prices, repairs doesn't cost much.

- Engineering: Was gonna write out a paragraph on this one then I realized, pretty much same as above it comes back to realibility and maintance costs.

- Performance: Now there you might have a point, the Civic is a 1.8L engine so one of the early reasons i singled it out was because of performance. Then again, I'm not gonna be racing or trying to break speed limits, I'm gonna be stuck in traffic for hours around Raminthra in the middle of rush hour so I never figured this to be too much of a point. 

 

Not to get defensive, but I do look on other factors. In fact my original list did in fact have the Vios, as it passed all the other "categories" mentioned above, but alas, looks wise it doesnt quite cut it. And I'm sorry if you still feel like I've wasted your time after this reply. It truly wasn't my intention. Do accept my apologies.

I am somewhat puzzled that someone with a strict budget of 300k baht has style as one of their considerations. At that price level, I would have thought reliability would have been the #1 requirement.

 

This is one of the cars I drive. 2006 Toyota Vios, bought it 4 years ago for 240K. Has done 40,000 km without missing a beat.

 

Below is another car I drive. I think you'll agree it has style to burn, 1989 Mercedes-Benz 300 CE coupe. A modern classic. Bought it a year ago for 300K. Have done 10,000 enjoyable km in it. Please don't call it an old-crap-than-runs forever car, it will be most insulted. Even if it's true. The W124 engine became legendary for durability.

I 'm not lying when I say it's a lot more expensive to run than the Vios. With your budget, you may want to think about that.

 

Edited April 4, 2017 by bazza73
Additional data

[Jamestaylor]

54 minutes ago, bazza73 said:

I am somewhat puzzled that someone with a strict budget of 300k baht has style as one of their considerations. At that price level, I would have thought reliability would have been the #1 requirement.

 

As I said, all the cars I've chosen I've estimated to be equally as reliable and cheap to maintain. Style would be the next factor in choosing which one of them I go for as they have all passed their previous qualifications. (As far as my research was done, one of the points of this thread was of course to see if anyone who has owned any of them have had previous major problems).

 

54 minutes ago, bazza73 said:

IThis is one of the cars I drive. 2006 Toyota Vios, bought it 4 years ago for 240K. Has done 40,000 km without missing a beat.

 

Below is another car I drive. I think you'll agree it has style to burn, 1989 Mercedes-Benz 300 CE coupe. A modern classic. Bought it a year ago for 300K. Have done 10,000 enjoyable km in it. Please don't call it an old-crap-than-runs forever car, it will be most insulted. Even if it's true. The W124 engine became legendary for durability.

I 'm not lying when I say it's a lot more expensive to run than the Vios. With your budget, you may want to think about that.

I do apologize for my poor choice of words, but I felt like i had to make a point above. And yes I do like that Merc, it has that classical feel to it. Although, I dont even want to think what the repair costs would be if it broke down compared to your Vios. 

 

P.S. I'd have gone for old school silver 

Edited April 4, 2017 by Jamestaylor

[bazza73]

4 minutes ago, Jamestaylor said:

 

P.S. I'd have gone for old school silver 

I did think about a repaint in white or silver, but the Havana Bronze has grown on me so I had it redone in that.

An interesting experience - the hole-in -the wall paint shop in Phan matched the colour entirely by eye, nothing measured.

Then a villager who had worked for 30 years in a paint shop in Chiang Rai did the respray, perfect job. 3500 baht total. They'd charge you that much just to open the can in Australia.

[Jamestaylor]

A little update if anyone here wondered whatever i went with, i decided to go for financing a new Honda City by using the money as down payment. 

[Coremouse]

For overall aspect, Civic is indeed best choice. 

 

But for performance to budget, you could get: 

Mitsubishi CK modded to EVO4, in 180k-200k

Mitsubishi CK modded to EVO5/6, in 250-300k range( better brake than 4 )

Toyota ST204 modded to ST205, in 300k range

 

road legal, AWD( full-wheel full-time ). EVOs capable do 0-60 under 5 seconds. ST205 under 6 seconds and less turbo lag. these are very popular conversions without structure issue, and very reliable.