Archive for the ‘Buy Car Pickup In Thailand’ Category

Collected The Toyota Pickup Yesterday

Just a quick update on buying a car in Thailand.

If you have read an earlier post on this Retiring In Thailand website where I describe how I went about buying a car in Thailand, you will know that we settled on a brand new Toyota Pickup (Toyota Hilux 4WD 2.5 D-4D HL2 Single Cab 2dr) for 550,000 Bhat. That included road tax and one years free insurance.

Well on that day almost a month to the day my wife paid a deposit of 100,000 Baht for the pickup to the Bangkok car dealer, due to be available for collection on the 15th March.

When she called them near to the time to ask about collection they confirmed that yes, the car (pickup) would be ready on the 15th. And so it was. But.

There’s always a but! For some unexplained reason she didn’t go to pick up the car until yesterday, 16th March. When I called her later on the 16th she had taken the pickup home and complained about some problems with the windows and keys!

When I here the word ‘problem’ coming out of Thailand my wallet gives a twitch and snuggles down deeper inside my pocket. ‘Problems’ always need money to sort them out…

Anyway, as she explained, the pickup when she collected it was provided with manual windows (wind up – wind down by hand0 and you had to lock each door with the key. Now when she was talking about locking doors, keys and problems, my first thought was that she had locked the keys inside the pickup.

No, it seems she asked the car dealer to change the windows to electric operation and the door locking to central locking, radio controlled type.

She said all that was done for ‘only 6,900 Baht.

The other thing she mentioned was that it was ‘a lovely colour’.

Explaining this to a friend later I made the comment that I didn’t understand why she hadn’t spotted those things when she first inspected the cars on sale in Bankok paid the deposit. His reply:- “Because she’s a women. She was probably more interested in the colour”. Well I did then tell him that her delight about the colour was one of the things she liked best about the pickup!

Anyway, seems she took possession of the car without too much hassle. I was worried how she was going to pay for the car – I didn’t think the idea of carrying and handing over 450,000 Baht in cash was very safe and asked her to get a debit card form her bank and pay using that. I still have to check with her what she dis in the end. Also she is taking some photo’s today of the car and I’ll post them and some information about the dealers address etc as soon as she emails them through to me.

So that’s a brief update on buying a car in Thailand.

Of course, it’s only about a Thai national buying a car in Bankok, Thailand, not how a farang can buy a car in Thailand.

For more information on why we decided to buy a brand new car in Thailand rather than a second-hand car please read the previous post on buying a car in Thailand.

New! Just Added – Complete Car Information And Photos

Today (18 March 2010) I have just created a new page on the website giving all the details of the Toyota Hilux Viga pickup we bought in Bangkok, Thailand.

There is a mass of information on that web page including a breakdown of the cost for the car itself and the extras, a full list of what was included in the price, the name and address of the car dealer and a few photographs.

This detailed information will be invaluable for anyone thinking about buying a car in Thailand.

Buying A Car And Land In Thailand To Build A Retirement House On

My experience this week has been very eventful in our quest to buy land and build a retirement house in Thailand.

Both my wife and my son flew out to Thailand on the first leg of the journey toward building our retirement home in Thailand.

Here’s what happened this week.

Our Strategy For Buying Land In Thailand

In case you haven’t already discovered from other sections of the website I’m married to a Thai lady and we have a half Thai son, Alex, aged 22 who was born in the UK.

Since a Farang (myself) can’t own land in Thailand I had to come up with another strategy other than to buy the land (upon which to build our retirement house) in my wife’s name.

Why don’t I want to buy the land in Thailand in my wife’s name? Well, it’s not related to whether I trust her or not.

It’s a more practical problem I face and I wonder if other Farangs retiring in Thailand have thought about it.

The issue is this: If the land is in my wife’s name, what happens to ownership of the land and house if she dies before I do?

Under those circumstances:-

A) I don’t know if I would be allowed to continue to live there legally

B) I may not want to continue to live there. I might want to sell up and repatriate myself and the funds back to UK.

So I came up with (what turned out to be not such a…) cunning plan…

Our son, Alex, is eligible to get Thai nationality. So that done, I could buy the land in his name.

That was the strategy. But it didn’t turn out that way. Here’s why…

All Thai Males Aged 20 to 30 Are Eligible For Conscription Into The Thai Military!

They flew out to Bangkok on Sunday 7th February, 2010, and arrived the next day. On Tuesday, they went to the Amphur to undertake the first step of getting Alex’s Thai nationality – registering on the house papers of my wife’s Thai daughter, Daeng.

That day, the Thai computer system was down, so it was a wait until Wednesday.

They returned to the Amphur on Wednesday and Alex phoned me “Dad, there’s a hitch” he said. “They are telling me that if I put my name on the Thai house papers I am eligible to be consripted into the Thai Army”.

So I did some research on the ‘net and it seems to be true.

I even posted the question on a Thai Forum and received the answer, as follows:-

Hi, I’m a half Thai male aged 22 and want to get a Thai passport so that I can buy land in Thailand. My mother is Thai, my father is English (UK), I was born in the UK.

If I get a Thai ID Card and am put on the house papers am I then eligible to be conscripted into the Thai Military?

Or can I be exempt as a naturalized citizen?

Even if liable to be drafted I doubt if the Thai army would want me because I’m not ‘Thai’ like the Thais. I can’t speak Thai, I’m not a Bhudist, and know nothing about Thai culture.

You are eligible for draft Military service if you get yourself a Thai ID/passport.

I understand after age 30 they will not bother you…

Being a dual national does not exempt you from Military Service have a look at your British passport says exactly this.

You have to make a choice, get yourself your Thai citizen and take your chance with the call up or wait till your 30…

you are not a naturalised Thai citizen. Rather, you are a Thai citizen by birth who is only just getting around to getting his paperwork in order.

If you were born in the UK, you’ll need to approach the Thai embassy to get your Thai birth certificate issued. At the same time, you’ll can apply for a Thai passport.

I am unsure if purchasing land requires you to be in Thailand personally. However, if not, you could get someone to take power of attoerny and they can process the transaction on your behalf without having even to go to Thailand. Should be possible as power of attoerney is available for most things.

Alternatively, if you are a little worried about it all, your mum can purchase the land on your behalf.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Thai-Thai-Pp-Eligible-Conscrip-t338232.html

Here are some more links on the subject of conscription into the Thai military:-

http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9471

http://isaanstyle.blogspot.com/2008/04/army-conscription-in-thailand.html

Anyway, that’s the first clever idea blown out of the water!

Bearing in mind that the main reason for sending Alex to Thailand was to get his Thai ID then it’s been an expensive and time-wasting trip for him.

And things weren’t getting any better…

Buying A Car (Pickup) In Bangkok, Thailand

You can buy pretty decent motors (cars, pickups etc) here in Uk for a few thousand pounds.

Daeng (and my wife) warned me not to expect the same thing in Thailand.

I wanted a second hand pickup (preferably Japanese) for about $6,000. (Say 200,000 Baht). I was ready to accept a diesel vehicle with 100,000 miles on the clock.

Not to be. It appears that the Thai’s run their vehicles into the ground. Often the mileage isn’t given and if it is how true is it?

So may forums warn “buyer beware” when it comes to buying a used car in Thailand.

Examples of second hand cars (Toyota pickups) for sale in Bangkok:-

2008 Pickup TOYOTA HILUX VIGO D4D 2.5 [E] D4D (Mileage not given)

Price ::  410,000 Thai Baht

Pickup  TOYOTA  HILUX VIGO D4D  2.5[J] (Milaege not given)

Price ::  375,000 Thai Baht

2007 TOYOTA HILUX VIGO 3 l Diesel (Mileage 102,087 km)

Price ::  $20,909 US, about 693,000 Thai Baht

These are just afew exanples of the prices you’ll pay to get a second hand Toyota pickup in Thailand. My research on the Internet indicated that there was not much available below $10,000 (330,000 Baht) and with milages of around 200,000+ km.

Alex and his Mum in Bangkok found a brand new Toyota Hilux 2.5 l diesel for 550,000 Bhat. That included road tax and one years free insurance.

The price in UK for this model (Toyota Hilux 4WD 2.5 D-4D HL2 Single Cab 2dr) is £17,753 (905,403 Bhat)

The pickup comes complete with ABS, driver and passenger airbags, power steering, electric windows, air conditioning, tilt adjust steering column, remote central locking and an audio system with CD player with MP3/CD-R compatibility. The engine is the latest development of the Toyota 2.5-litre D-4D diesel engine.

This is an excellent website to review the technical details and prices of the Toyota Hilux range.

So we paid our deposit and take delivery on 15th March 2010.

That’s all for this post. Next time I’ll be running through the trials and tribulations of our experience of buying land in Thailand.

Update On Buying A Car In Thailand

On 16th March 2010 my wife collected the car we had ordered from the dealer in Bangkok. It was a day late (not sure why) and she had problems with central door locking and electric windows. it took an exchange of money to sort that out, but finally we have the car.

Go to the new update called “collected the Toyota pickup yesterday” to read about collecting the car and the expensive problems on a brand new car that we had to pay to sort out.