Buying a Car in Thailand

2013 Mitsubishi Mirage GLS Ltd in Pearl White

We thought we would be renting a car for another month, but instead, we drove off a brand new 2013 Mitsubishi Mirage GLS Ltd today!

Arbitrary Rental Car Price Increase Jilted Us into Action

We rented a Honda Brio for a month for about 16,000฿ (~$530). We were supposed to return it tomorrow. We weren’t sure what kind of car we wanted to buy after looking for the past week or so. We were going to rent for another month. Gary called about 3 days ago to see what other rental options we had besides the Brio since he did not like it. We were told that we could upgrade to the Toyota Avanza for about 19,000฿ for another month. The Avanza is bigger and can potentially seat up to 7 people so Gary thought that might work. Yesterday, he called Thai Rent A Car to confirm this, but then the agent on the phone told us that the price would be 22,000฿ (~$730). It made no sense to us that the price should have gone up by 3,000฿ in just a day or two for no particular reason and we said that we wouldn’t be paying the increase. They told us to just return the current car by tomorrow then. Oh well, so much for good customer service. We decided that we’ve better started looking for a car!

Rent vs. Buy

Since we’ll be living in Mae Rim, outside the main city, a car seems to be mandatory for us. A lot of Thais (and some expats) use mopeds/motorcycles, but it is not a practical solution for us. Even driving in a car makes me nervous, so I can’t imagine the three of us riding on a moped together.

In the US, car leases are pretty reasonable. For my Toyota Prius, I had a lease for 3 years for under $250/month. We used to buy cars but then preferred to just do leases the last few years since we could just return the car when we wanted to leave. We liked the freedom and hassle-free approach (though the Mercedes lease ended up causing us quite a bit of money before we left).

We were leaning towards just renting a car in Thailand for a year since we were not really sure what would happen in a year and how long we would be staying here. However, looking into the car rental prices, everything seemed very expensive. The cheapest lease for 6-12 months would be about 16,000฿ for a small car!

We then started thinking about buying. We have been told by multiple people we met in Chiang Mai (as well as online posts/blogs) that buying a car and then selling when you want to leave or get a new one is the most economical solution. The question was what car was right for us?

Identifying the Right Car

Car prices are actually very expensive in Thailand, not just compared to the U.S., but also compared to Singapore, China, Hong Kong etc. Most cars sold in Thailand are manual, which I can’t drive, so an automatic is needed, which also pushes the price higher. Not that I plan to drive much, but not having that option is a bad idea, especially in an emergency (though I think I will need some practice driving in any car, preferably not on the country road as my first practice).

We thought we could live with the Honda Brio since that’s one of the cheapest cars in Thailand. With automatic and some of the safety features, it would cost about 590,000฿. However, Gary really did not like driving the Brio. He kept saying that it was too small and he couldn’t haul a lot of things in it, like buying a bicycle for Samantha. The only thing he liked was that it had pretty good fuel economy, about 14 km/L (33 mpg-US). I personally did not want any big car. It would be more expensive and difficult for me to drive and I did not like to give up on having good fuel economy. It would also be difficult to find parking in the city.

Gary did some more research and found that a lot of people in Thailand buy pickups or small SUVs because they are higher and would work well in floods (which is not uncommon in Thailand). We both agreed that we did not want to pay too much. He searched around on the internet and identified some Chevrolet pickup with 5 seats and cost below 700,000฿. We went to the Chevrolet showroom in town to check it out last week. The price sheet they showed us there had the prices between 100,000-200,000฿ higher than what we saw online. Apparently, they loaded the cars up with different options and did not have any with just automatic and USB, like the one we saw online. Moreover, they only had one pickup for the model we wanted, and it was in BLACK! Why would anyone buy a black car in Thailand? Gary told them to contact him if they had that for 700,000 and in white. He also promised me that he would check the fuel efficiency before committing to anything.

Since then, he talked to Robin (expat who’s managing the Spa Resort rentals) again and thought again about the practicality of buying a pickup. He admitted that men just like pickups, though it was perhaps not most practical. He did some more research and going back to Suzuki Swift. Suzuki Swift is quite popular in Thailand, under 600,000฿. It’s similar to the Honda Brio in size but seems to be built better according to the different reviews. It’s a little more expensive but has better resale value. The problem is that it is so popular they seem to be out of stock! Someone on the internet said that he ordered one in February or April and just got his car now. Gary tried to call the Suzuki dealer to ask them if they had any in stock before going over there but no one answered the phone.

Gary also looked into more Honda and Toyota. He thought that the Honda CR-V would be the perfect small SUV for us but it was too pricy. We thought maybe we could rent a Honda Jazz to try out instead. Toyota as a brand is more popular than Honda in Thailand. He was not particularly thrilled with the Toyota Vios, thinking that it was too small. Maybe the Avanza would work since Thai Rent A Car did not have any Jazz in stock but did have an Avanza. There was also the Mazda 2 or 3 he looked into, which was too expensive for us.

I did not participate much in Gary’s research as I really had very little interest in cars. I just wanted something cheap to buy, cheap to run, and safe. I was grateful that the research had turned towards smaller cars.

Going Out to Buy a Car

Gary saw a Toyota dealer who had a sign of “Certified Used Car” at the front. Once he got off the phone with the car rental company, we decided to hit the road and find a car.

We got to the Toyota dealer about 2pm yesterday. To our dismay, they did not have one single used car for sale, despite what their sign said. We looked at the new cars they had there but they were all either the Vios or pickups, none of which we found attractive.

Feeling like a waste of a trip, we decided to drive a little further on the same road (1001) as we remembered seeing some other car dealers. We drove by a Mitsubishi dealership on the opposite direction so we decided that we would visit that on our way back. We then stopped by the next dealership we saw, which was a Ford.

We looked at the Ford Focus and the Ford Fiesta. Focus seemed a little big but the Fiesta seemed to be good. Gary had his eye on the Fiesta Sport, which was listed for 699,000฿ (~$23,000). He asked me if I would be okay with getting this if he could get it for  600,000฿, which I agreed. He asked the salesperson for a discount and told them that if he could get it for 600,000฿ including 1st year’s car insurance, he would buy the car cash right there. The salesperson told him that the biggest discount they could give would be 80,000฿ (~$2,600) and that wouldn’t include the insurance, which would cost us about 12,000฿ per year. We took a test drive in the Fiesta. It was okay, not bad. Though for a sports model with a 1.5 liter engine, Gary said that the engine did not feel that powerful. The fuel economy was about 15km/l (~35mpg), though none of the people at the dealership seemed quite sure about that figure. So at the end, the best offer we had (the sales manager came over as well) was 619,000฿ with no insurance. Gary told them to give him a call if they changed their mind. For now, we would look around some more. If we did not find anything else we like, then we could come back and get that.

We were getting pretty tired at this point and decided to just take a quick look at Mitsubishi since we would be heading home that way anyway. We quickly narrowed down the choice to be the 5-door hatchback Mirage with just a 1.2 liter engine. It was a bit smaller than Gary wanted, but he actually like the feel of the car when he was test driving it on the road. He told me that it actually felt more powerful than the Ford Fiesta Sport, and it just felt more fun to drive. The price for the top end model was 546,000฿, with an integrated GPS! However, since we wanted the Pearl White color, it would cost us an additional 5,000฿, but all other colors were free! The maximum discount we could get was 18,000฿, but it would include the first year’s insurance, as well as registration cost, and any other accessories that we cared to add. After some brief discussion, we decided that would be the car for us. They had a white one but the door to the warehouse was already locked (it was about 5:20pm). We told the salesperson Riam that we would come back the following day to look at this model, and if everything was alright, we would buy it.

Mitsubishi Dealership Showroom

We did some more research last night once we got home. The Mirage is very popular in Thailand as well and we couldn’t find any used models on sale. The safety reading is 5 our of 5 according to Australian certification agency, even though it only has 2 front airbags. ABS is included in all the models. For a small car, this is the only model that we can see including keyless entry and GPS. All in all, it seems like a very good value. The fuel economy is about 22km/l (~51mpg), which is the best we have seen so far. We shouldn’t have any problem selling it in the future!

Riam called Gary this morning a little before 9 o’clock to let him know that the car was cleaned for him to look at. We left our place at 10am. Once we got there, we looked at the car and it seemed fine. Riam told us that in order for foreigners to own a car, Gary would need some kind of certificate of residence from the US Consulate in order to complete the registration process, though we could drive the car off today if we paid it off.

Riam wrote down everything that would be included with this car that were on top of the standards:

• 1-year warranty (government, accident, and personal)
• free car registration
• rear sensors
• additional films to darken the windows (given the strong sun here, this is really a must. We were advised to do a 40% at the front of the car and 60% on the body and back)
• floor mats
• mats for the trunk space
• rain guards
• 18,000฿ discount (final price of the car is 533,000฿)

If we wanted to change the interior color (all models come with a black interior, same as the Ford models), it would cost us an additional 7,000฿ and the work would take one day. We decided to just take it as is and we could always change it later if we wanted. For a red tag (temporary tag for new cars), we would need to leave a 3,000฿ deposit, which we agreed (we were told that to buy one would cost 1,200฿, which was unnecessary).

We called the US Consulate to see if we could go in today for the certificate but the voicemail message informed us that we would need to make an appointment online, for either Tuesdays or Thursdays.

So we left a 5,000฿ deposit so that they could start installing the sensors etc. We drove off to get some lunch, then went to our bank near the airport to get a cashier check and some cash (per Riam’s instructions). After that, we went to the airport to return our rental car. Riam came to the airport to pick us up to get back to the dealership. We waited there for another 30 minutes or so, handed the money over, signed some more paperwork, and waited a little longer. Finally our car was ready!

We went over to see our car, and the salespeople were still cleaning it (apparently that’s the job of the salespeople in Thailand, not the service department). We tried to set the GPS but it couldn’t find our address in English, so we gave up for now in order not to keep the people working too late. We finally drove out of the dealership and got back home at around 5:30pm! It has been a long day dealing with the car, but at least it’s mostly done for now. It seems like a sweet little car. We think that’s the right car for us in Thailand.

Paradise Found?

It has been 4 days since we’ve settled into our new environment here in the resort. It is a very beautiful place, full of trees, streams, and views. So is this the paradise that we’ve been looking for?

Not quite. To begin with, the 1-bedroom townhouse we are renting is far from ideal. We wanted to rent a 2-bedroom but they didn’t have anything available for this time. So we thought it would be okay for just a month. Well, to begin with, the resort is quite far away from anything. It is very close to the International School (PTIS) that Samantha is going to, which was the main reason why we wanted to rent a place in the resort to check it out. Mr. Li actually came here to visit when he was in Chiang Mai last time to check it out for us. When we asked what he thought of the place, he just said, “It’s very quiet.” Well, we thought that was not too bad. It actually is a great place if you want to get away from it all! It’s great for meditating and inner-searching. However, our minds are currently not on a vacation mood and we are thinking about making it work for the long term. Very quickly, Gary and I both came to the same conclusion that it would not be practical. Besides being remote, the 1-bedrooms have other issues: the stairs to the bedroom are very slippery. I slipped once the very first night, no bones broken but a few bruises. The kitchen is extremely small and difficult to cook with. The kitchen sink doesn’t drain because somehow they use this flex-pipe thing instead of proper plumbing. There are gaps in the doors and screens so bugs are welcome visitors. The hot water runs out pretty quickly so luke warm showers are the best you can hope for, which I guess is not a problem for Thailand. Since we are up in the mountain, there are more mosquitoes and more rain. For whatever reason, I am very popular with mosquitoes and my entire body is decorated with mosquito bites. Sammy gets a few and Gary gets the least. It has been raining here almost every day for a little while and then it clears up. The property manager Robin has been very nice. He’s getting some of these issues fixed. Just today, someone came to fix the kitchen sink pipe so that I am looking forward to a fast draining sink tomorrow morning.

Samantha has been enjoying the place though. When I asked her today if she were happy, she said yes. Here is her list of reasons to be happy: oil massage (which we had yesterday), fruit smoothies (which she had several), deserts (we had a very good raw zen chocolate the first night, and a not so great raw goji bar today), and swimming pool.

Even though we have a lot more time on our hands at the moment, I’ve found it difficult to relax. There are still so many loose ends to tie up, such as closing some U.S. accounts, arranging for money transfer etc., and most of all, our shipment through FedEx is still stuck in Customs in the Bangkok airport. Somehow they thought we were importing some medical instruments (probably related to the biofeedback monitor in the box) and wanted a personal Tax ID and medical license for import. The FedEx agent we talked to in Thailand was not very helpful. I emailed them some more information. They were supposed to call us today but didn’t. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.

There has been a bright spot today though. We rented a car from the airport! We paid 800 Baht (about $26) to have a driver take us to the airport to pick up the car. Car rentals in Thailand are quite expensive. For the cheapest Honda Brio, we paid 16,050 Baht ($516) for a one-month rental, which also includes auto insurance. We’ve been told over and over that if you have the money, you should buy a car and then sell it when you want to leave or get another model. Cars don’t depreciate much here. Well, that’s our plan and we think that we are going to buy a Honda Brio, a small and cheap car perfect for getting around the city. We are doing a one-month rental to see how we like it. So far so good.

Amazingly, we did not get lost at all and found our way back from the airport to the resort with Google Map. I was quite worried about the iPhone running out of power before we got back but the battery did not run out until shortly after we’d reached the resort. We all felt that this was a major achievement of the day! From tomorrow on, we are no longer bound to the Resort. Tomorrow, we are going to go out and explore!