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New Car Purchase Situation


bangsaenguy

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No doubt that buying a car in Thailand is different than buying in most of the west. It can be stressful and frustrating as cars cost so much, you cannot see the car till after you have paid in most cases, and there are no lemon laws. Toyota is probably the safest purchase in terms of reliability and service, with the Fortuner being the best in terms of holding its value. A buddy purchased a pre owned and 3 years later sold it for the same.

I think all dealers want to sell, but there are good and bad sales people . My opinion after 3 car purchase here is that it comes down to finding a good sales person and that can be done by calling a bunch of dealers. This is how my THAI staff handle this, NOT me.

My Thai staff got pretty turned off by Honda, with no cars to test drive and very little stock on hand. We also found the Honda sales were unapologetic and somewhat unhelpful. With that said, about a month in one Honda sales found us a test drive and was super helpful. Toyota has a lot of stock.. And you can see how their marketing plays out from their home page. Download the sales stats from their home page. Toyota sells heads and shoulders more than Honda who sells heads and shoulders more than Mazda and so on and so forth. Bottom line, Toyota sells a ton more cars than anyone else for a lot of reasons mentioned above and stock available.

My first car was a Lemon, CRV.. Didn't drive straight. Honda couldn't fix it, had to take my case to Honda Japan. Honda Thailand tried to blame it on the Thai roads lol. Eventually got a replacement and it never saw a day in the shop for anything other than scheduled maintenance. Any car from any brand can be a lemon. With that said, hope my new Volvo is reliable.. I'm confident in what I see so far that Volvo will stand by their work in a better way than Honda did.

Do you think Volvo will ever lower themselves into publishing an English language Thai website!!

I also don't see a T5 engine listed as an option on the V60...unless you order the Polestar performance package (and that's from Volvo's Global Website...don't know if it's even available in Thailand).

I don't think if it's a matter of lowering themselves to create a multi-language site but they do need it. I actually found Volvo sales, support, and management to be helpful and cool. On another level compared to Honda and Toyota.. I actually met their Swedish Managing Director at the auto show and she was candid and humble.. Also, they have a global product so you can easily go to Singapore or HK site to get the information you need. For the Thai site, google translate works perfectly. The UK Volvo site actually has unfiltered customer reviews of each model, have never seen that on a automobile site. I think Volvo is pretty transparent, which is hard to find in the auto industry.

You can get the new T5 engine with the XC60, V60, S60, V40.. but there is limited stock as they are new to Thailand as of MY15. The V60 I got was one of only 32 available in 2015 (got the last one, lucky it was Silver). The V40 T5 was available in the cross country, R type, and one other flavor.

The V60 T5 is a special edition, comes with Polestar and nearly every option in the book. Have had it for 2 weeks, it's awesome.

I still have the brochure and price list, here were the prices going into the end of last year.

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Feel like I'm in a buy a new car in Thailand hang over.

Was planning to buy a Van for my office, and with the new tax looming in 2016.. I decided to start shopping in October. Found the van that made the most sense for my companies needs and booked it. In that process my secretary called 20+ dealers. You have to call as many as you can until you find one that's ready to do business.

During the shop for a van process, my partner made me aware that her car was now 10 years old and handed down at this point, so with my car now at 5 years, low miles, and paid off.. I figured I would be a car and give my car to my partner.

During the shopping process I did a deep dive into the Accord and Camry. Both very different but great category leading cars. But boring as hell... And it didn't feel right.

Then my partner told me about some promotions at Volvo, with the V40 being around the same price as the Accord and Camry..

The Volvo is on another planet compared to the Accord and Camry, so is the service and dealer.. Ended up getting the Volvo V60. I highly recommend checking out Volvo, the T5 engine is almost as economical as a hybrid. I also found the prices of Volvo in Thailand vs USA were much closer apples to apples than other brands.

Back to the point, if you didn't buy before Dec 31 2015, you are in for a price increase up to 30%. With that said, I think brands will all manage this differently. You better take your time and shop hard. And if your budget is around 2m, check out Volvo, just don't get the T4F engines, get the T5

Good luck

Great choice and you won't be wanting to top yourself on the drive to work as you would if you'd thrown away your hard-earned on a Camry.

Thank you! Agree mak mak :D

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This is nothing new, three years ago I wanted to buy a Honda but all the dealers said that it would take 6 months for delivery, bought a Toyota and was driving it within three weeks

My opinion was that if Honda can't keep cars in inventory why should I assume that they will have an adequate stock of parts when I need them

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The 2016 is a refresh/face lift and still same generation 9 as the 2015 which came out in 2012/2013. Some differences between 2015 & 2016 models though US version. However, hard to believe a 2015 version is not available. Also the price as of January 1, 2016 will have jumped due to the new taxes based on CO2 emissions.

nice they slaped the old honda city front pannel on the accord!

Good for status augmentation eh?

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The 2016 is a refresh/face lift and still same generation 9 as the 2015 which came out in 2012/2013. Some differences between 2015 & 2016 models though US version. However, hard to believe a 2015 version is not available. Also the price as of January 1, 2016 will have jumped due to the new taxes based on CO2 emissions.

nice they slaped the old honda city front pannel on the accord!

Good for status augmentation eh?

Yep, Hondas seem to get uglier with each succeeding generation bah.gif

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No doubt that buying a car in Thailand is different than buying in most of the west. It can be stressful and frustrating as cars cost so much, you cannot see the car till after you have paid in most cases, and there are no lemon laws. Toyota is probably the safest purchase in terms of reliability and service, with the Fortuner being the best in terms of holding its value. A buddy purchased a pre owned and 3 years later sold it for the same.

I think all dealers want to sell, but there are good and bad sales people . My opinion after 3 car purchase here is that it comes down to finding a good sales person and that can be done by calling a bunch of dealers. This is how my THAI staff handle this, NOT me.

My Thai staff got pretty turned off by Honda, with no cars to test drive and very little stock on hand. We also found the Honda sales were unapologetic and somewhat unhelpful. With that said, about a month in one Honda sales found us a test drive and was super helpful. Toyota has a lot of stock.. And you can see how their marketing plays out from their home page. Download the sales stats from their home page. Toyota sells heads and shoulders more than Honda who sells heads and shoulders more than Mazda and so on and so forth. Bottom line, Toyota sells a ton more cars than anyone else for a lot of reasons mentioned above and stock available.

My first car was a Lemon, CRV.. Didn't drive straight. Honda couldn't fix it, had to take my case to Honda Japan. Honda Thailand tried to blame it on the Thai roads lol. Eventually got a replacement and it never saw a day in the shop for anything other than scheduled maintenance. Any car from any brand can be a lemon. With that said, hope my new Volvo is reliable.. I'm confident in what I see so far that Volvo will stand by their work in a better way than Honda did.

Do you think Volvo will ever lower themselves into publishing an English language Thai website!!

I also don't see a T5 engine listed as an option on the V60...unless you order the Polestar performance package (and that's from Volvo's Global Website...don't know if it's even available in Thailand).

I don't think if it's a matter of lowering themselves to create a multi-language site but they do need it. I actually found Volvo sales, support, and management to be helpful and cool. On another level compared to Honda and Toyota.. I actually met their Swedish Managing Director at the auto show and she was candid and humble.. Also, they have a global product so you can easily go to Singapore or HK site to get the information you need. For the Thai site, google translate works perfectly. The UK Volvo site actually has unfiltered customer reviews of each model, have never seen that on a automobile site. I think Volvo is pretty transparent, which is hard to find in the auto industry.

You can get the new T5 engine with the XC60, V60, S60, V40.. but there is limited stock as they are new to Thailand as of MY15. The V60 I got was one of only 32 available in 2015 (got the last one, lucky it was Silver). The V40 T5 was available in the cross country, R type, and one other flavor.

The V60 T5 is a special edition, comes with Polestar and nearly every option in the book. Have had it for 2 weeks, it's awesome.

I still have the brochure and price list, here were the prices going into the end of last year.

I'm sure the Volvo is a nice ride and I'm glad you're enjoying it but I don't know if I could ever bring myself to pay US$ 100k for one...but I never thought I'd consider paying 50k for an Accord either...TIT blink.png

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i havnt tried the new nissan but i sat into a 6~ year old model of the teana and it was on par with last year's accord.

From a pure driving POV, the L33 Teana really didn't progress the J32 series that much. The biggest differences are styling, tech and the replacing of the V6 with a 4-pot.

There were no major improvements/changes in ride, handling, noise or general driving dynamics. It's not like it needed to improve substantially in any of these areas though, either.

I guess that's what allowed Honda to catch up ;)

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I looked at the Polester V40 at the expo and the S60. Came quite close to choosing one of them but couldn't get over the center console. Aside from looking identical in every single Volvo I've seen over the last five years, I just couldn't get over the Carphone-styled number pad. But if I could delete that feeling I would so be in a Volvo right now!

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This is nothing new, three years ago I wanted to buy a Honda but all the dealers said that it would take 6 months for delivery, bought a Toyota and was driving it within three weeks

My opinion was that if Honda can't keep cars in inventory why should I assume that they will have an adequate stock of parts when I need them

This is very true, a couple of months ago there was furor in the various Thais forum that Honda was revamping their parts ordering system, the result being that Honda had made it harder for parts dealer and garages to buy and stock parts for certain age of new-ish cars, (probably intending to force Honda drivers to visit official dealers instead)

They're only hurting themselves if it becomes harder to service their cars out-of warranty, the resale value would only drop.

Back to the topic, last week I walked into a Ford dealer to inquire about getting either a Ranger or Everest, the sale rep were still reciting lines from last year of 'no deliveries until next year' it's only January <deleted>! I'd already suffered through Ford's service with one car already yet I am happy to get another.... I must be a masochist.

If I had walked through Toyota or Isuzu's dealer I could be driving away with a new car in the afternoon or next day.

Being where all the factories are, you'd expect stock to be of little issue, but Thailand has very little choice when it comes to trim, body colour and factory fitted option... most brands try to keep colour and trim options to a minimum for simplified stockeeping purposes,

yet stocking seem to be a problem at most dealer, often sales reps would have to ring around and barter for cars from another dealer to sell to you...

For imported cars like MINI you could could have specced a car colour and trim and other options, essentially having a 'custom' build specced and shipped from the UK in less time to wait around for one of the Thai cars with standard options and colour to get built.

I understand the factories schedule are probably not flexible enough, having to produce for export as well and the dealers get their allocated cars early.... but it's so boring with all the silver, white and black cars only

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I looked at the Polester V40 at the expo and the S60. Came quite close to choosing one of them but couldn't get over the center console. Aside from looking identical in every single Volvo I've seen over the last five years, I just couldn't get over the Carphone-styled number pad. But if I could delete that feeling I would so be in a Volvo right now!

Agree...that dial-pad front and center on the "floating" center console is butt-ugly! And add to that the fact that the snazzy new dash, with the large tough-screen controls (ala the new XC90) will be migrating to the other vehicles in the near future. Making any car bought now look kinda dated (oh...I mean "classic").

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I see the western arrogance is still alive and kicking, with all the arm chair experts thinking a dealer does not want to sell and they all know better.

Utter nonsense. I've been in dealerships where they see a foreigner and run a mile. I've been in dealerships where their smartphone is far more important than the customer and I've been in dealerships where there's an occasional sales person who actually does care about the customer. I bought my car from her.Western arrogance is your chip.

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I tend you agree with you and that nonchalant behaviour reflects right the way through to supermarkets and banks. I have a good command of Thai, however, I am constantly asked when I visit the bank the whereabouts of my other half, giving the distinct impression that this who they prefer to speak with .... about my business!!

Even the local advice centre computer shop ( I know he speaks English ) tries to avoid me and palms me off with staff who are just not knowledgeable about products and prefer looking at their nails or playing on their phones as opposed to service.

Back to the thread in hand, I am on my third new Toyota, I have looked at other models, and been given the runaround similar to many of the comments here regards Fords etc. I found the most interested and helpful for me and who responded quickly were the dealerships in Bangkok which pisses me off a bit when I live up in the top of Isaarn.

I maybe am boring, but I those the Toyota for reliability, parts, serviceability and minimal wait times.

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I see the western arrogance is still alive and kicking, with all the arm chair experts thinking a dealer does not want to sell and they all know better.

Utter nonsense. I've been in dealerships where they see a foreigner and run a mile. I've been in dealerships where their smartphone is far more important than the customer and I've been in dealerships where there's an occasional sales person who actually does care about the customer. I bought my car from her.Western arrogance is your chip.
Which was not my point

Have a good day.

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There you go, good advice.....skip the Honda and go for the Nissan......never mind what the missus says its your brass thumbsup.gif

I can make suggestions. Her money, not mine. I drive a Wildtrak. Will take a look at the Nissan this week. How long has the current model been out?

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There you go, good advice.....skip the Honda and go for the Nissan......never mind what the missus says its your brass thumbsup.gif

I can make suggestions. Her money, not mine. I drive a Wildtrak. Will take a look at the Nissan this week. How long has the current model been out?

Current Teana (L33) was introduced here end of 2013, if I am correct.

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I see the western arrogance is still alive and kicking, with all the arm chair experts thinking a dealer does not want to sell and they all know better.

Utter nonsense. I've been in dealerships where they see a foreigner and run a mile. I've been in dealerships where their smartphone is far more important than the customer and I've been in dealerships where there's an occasional sales person who actually does care about the customer. I bought my car from her.Western arrogance is your chip.
Which was not my point

Have a good day.

Precisely....your post was pointless. And thank you, my days been great

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The 2016 is a refresh/face lift and still same generation 9 as the 2015 which came out in 2012/2013. Some differences between 2015 & 2016 models though US version. However, hard to believe a 2015 version is not available. Also the price as of January 1, 2016 will have jumped due to the new taxes based on CO2 emissions.

nice they slaped the old honda city front pannel on the accord!

Good for status augmentation eh?

Yep, Hondas seem to get uglier with each succeeding generation bah.gif

Yep........ the 1st Honda Accord to be made in Thailand was a lot smaller all the present day Honda look like blown up Whales

post-42643-0-24394800-1453040028_thumb.j

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There you go, good advice.....skip the Honda and go for the Nissan......never mind what the missus says its your brass thumbsup.gif

I can make suggestions. Her money, not mine. I drive a Wildtrak. Will take a look at the Nissan this week. How long has the current model been out?

Current Teana (L33) was introduced here end of 2013, if I am correct.

2016 has a new facelift, to me looks better

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No doubt that buying a car in Thailand is different than buying in most of the west. It can be stressful and frustrating as cars cost so much, you cannot see the car till after you have paid in most cases, and there are no lemon laws. Toyota is probably the safest purchase in terms of reliability and service, with the Fortuner being the best in terms of holding its value. A buddy purchased a pre owned and 3 years later sold it for the same.

I think all dealers want to sell, but there are good and bad sales people . My opinion after 3 car purchase here is that it comes down to finding a good sales person and that can be done by calling a bunch of dealers. This is how my THAI staff handle this, NOT me.

My Thai staff got pretty turned off by Honda, with no cars to test drive and very little stock on hand. We also found the Honda sales were unapologetic and somewhat unhelpful. With that said, about a month in one Honda sales found us a test drive and was super helpful. Toyota has a lot of stock.. And you can see how their marketing plays out from their home page. Download the sales stats from their home page. Toyota sells heads and shoulders more than Honda who sells heads and shoulders more than Mazda and so on and so forth. Bottom line, Toyota sells a ton more cars than anyone else for a lot of reasons mentioned above and stock available.

My first car was a Lemon, CRV.. Didn't drive straight. Honda couldn't fix it, had to take my case to Honda Japan. Honda Thailand tried to blame it on the Thai roads lol. Eventually got a replacement and it never saw a day in the shop for anything other than scheduled maintenance. Any car from any brand can be a lemon. With that said, hope my new Volvo is reliable.. I'm confident in what I see so far that Volvo will stand by their work in a better way than Honda did.

Do you think Volvo will ever lower themselves into publishing an English language Thai website!!

I also don't see a T5 engine listed as an option on the V60...unless you order the Polestar performance package (and that's from Volvo's Global Website...don't know if it's even available in Thailand).

I don't think if it's a matter of lowering themselves to create a multi-language site but they do need it. I actually found Volvo sales, support, and management to be helpful and cool. On another level compared to Honda and Toyota.. I actually met their Swedish Managing Director at the auto show and she was candid and humble.. Also, they have a global product so you can easily go to Singapore or HK site to get the information you need. For the Thai site, google translate works perfectly. The UK Volvo site actually has unfiltered customer reviews of each model, have never seen that on a automobile site. I think Volvo is pretty transparent, which is hard to find in the auto industry.

You can get the new T5 engine with the XC60, V60, S60, V40.. but there is limited stock as they are new to Thailand as of MY15. The V60 I got was one of only 32 available in 2015 (got the last one, lucky it was Silver). The V40 T5 was available in the cross country, R type, and one other flavor.

The V60 T5 is a special edition, comes with Polestar and nearly every option in the book. Have had it for 2 weeks, it's awesome.

I still have the brochure and price list, here were the prices going into the end of last year.

I like the T5 version of the S60 and V60 too.

I could live with the floating console, and the great seats that go with it.

Note that the T5 engine in the S60 and V60 is the 4 cylinder engine.

The V40 T5 is the old 5 cylinder with a different trans and worse fuel consumption.

Volvo seem to import and sell very few of the T5 V60 & S60 while they discount the T4F versions like crazy.

With the old 220hp tax limit gone, Volvo should drop the 220hp charade and sell them as 240hp like elsewhere.

While I like the cars, biggest problem with Volvo for me is the lack of dealers outside BKK and the poor resale value of the S60.

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Guys,

Please assist as I am no petrol-head nor highly knowledgeable on cars except buying them.

Example..I have a 3.0DL Toyota pick up. Now, everyone is talking about these CO2 emissions and taxes etc. OK, What if I change my pick up and upgrade to a Toyota Fortuner 3.0DL.

Am I in this bracket of 200,000 baht extra? If so, why? ....If not, why not?

Honest, the question is asked through genuine lack of knowledge. I went on google last night but am none the wiser.

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Guys,

Please assist as I am no petrol-head nor highly knowledgeable on cars except buying them.

Example..I have a 3.0DL Toyota pick up. Now, everyone is talking about these CO2 emissions and taxes etc. OK, What if I change my pick up and upgrade to a Toyota Fortuner 3.0DL.

Am I in this bracket of 200,000 baht extra? If so, why? ....If not, why not?

Honest, the question is asked through genuine lack of knowledge. I went on google last night but am none the wiser.

Talked about a lot already. But to quickly summarise, the government have moved to a new way of assess car taxes in terms of CO2 emissions instead of purely by engine size. It also depends on what type of vehicle you are buying. Check out the table I found via Google for you.

The tax is added to the factory price and not the retail price, which could cause some increases to do differ between brands. Also, some car brands have chosen to accept reducing their margins and not pass on so much of the cost to the end customer.

BTW the Toyota Fortuner now tops out at 2.8l not 3.0l. The top spec Fortuner has gone up from 1,599,000 to 1,629,000, a 30k increase (based on the pricing info I got from a Toyota dealer), so it's not as bad as I was expecting an 80k increase. TBH I think it's because the 2015 pricing for the Fortuner was too high and the moderate price increase takes into account it's lower status when compared to the features of its rivals.

post-241826-0-12687200-1453097602_thumb.

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I see the western arrogance is still alive and kicking, with all the arm chair experts thinking a dealer does not want to sell and they all know better.

Your posts are usually good ones but this one needs clarification for me.

Would you be so kind as to explain, expound or elaborate?

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