My experience owning a used luxury car in Thailand.

[warryor]

About 10 months ago I bought a 2011 Audi TTS in Bangkok for ~1.5m baht. It would've saved me a lot of trouble to know a few things about car repair shops in TH, as well as things specific to Audi here.

For one, my car was previously imported which I was unaware of. Due to this, the Audi dealership absolutely refused to touch my car at all.

Two, there are more bad repair shops than good ones. At one point my car's AC stopped working, shop charged me 15k for the part (not original) and like 3k-6k for labor. Turns out the part was only 7.5k. 🙃

After my car started leaking oil until it hit "minimum", I took it to B-Quik. Nope! They don't work on "foreign cars"! 😆

So I brought it back to the original place which topped up my oil and proudly told me that I had absolutely zero oil leak or problems with my car! By the way, this is the exact place where I bought it from.  Amazing! 😆😆

I kept driving while it was leaking more and more oil until finally I could hardly drive it past 30km/h and it sounded like paper flying around in my engine. This was pretty terrifying and I needed it fixed quick but no good car repair places would come up in Pattaya. Eventually I reached out to a friend who has a lot of local connections and he sent me to a friend's repair shop who fixes cars for him and friends who are in a motorcycle club. This guy made me wait like 3 days to check my car, I drive it there, he brings it over the electric jack and brings it up. Immediately he notices my expensive ass LED under-glow lights that I imported from the US. This guy just grabs them and rips one of them off onto the floor and says "You don't need this shit". I'm guessing he assumed it came with the car, so I told him to not take off more and that I bought them myself. He asks how much I told him roughly 500 USD. Guy seriously tells me they're probably 20 dollars and from China. Okay whatever. So he goes to check out my car and he literally just pulls the mass air flow sensor out, plugs I think an OBDIII reader in, starts car, bunch of lights turn on in the dash of course, and he proceeds to tell me someone has tampered with my car and all kinds of other horse shit. Turbo is leaking oil, going to need a new turbo, 6th gear is shot, going to be super expensive. I told him ok so fix it obviously to which he responds he has no time and he has to work on 4 different American muscle cars for a local motorcycle club. I drive my fucked up car home which it stalls at red lights, thought it was going to die on me.

4 days later this guy still doesn't want to look at it, no idea why, I contact Audi again and they let me know of a good place in Bangkok to get my car repaired so I call them and get them to send a tow truck to my condo. Several days later they fixed it for ~2000b and it was just leaking oil from the bottom of the car, ran perfectly after. They also replaced some rubber pieces for my suspension which was loose.

What is also interesting is a very very wealthy guy I know in Pattaya has a friend who was supposedly repeatedly scammed by the Audi dealership here and told his car had electrical problems which were caused by them and fixed every time by a local mechanic. No idea if it's true.

Since this I've hit things and gotten repairs for a good price at the shop in Bangkok every time. Stuff like check engine light from gas tank vapors, broke rear bumper, etc. No problem getting it repaired.

Moral of the story you can buy a used luxury car, don't be scared, it might have a few problems to fix, you can fix them cheap here. Just don't blindly trust these shops get second opinions, look for the highest rated places. Take the car for a test drive first. Don't let someone scare you into paying a big fee. If the price is high you can always look up the parts to see if you're getting ripped off. Maybe this post seems a bit unhappy but it's not, it's actually pretty hilarious for me that I ran into all these crazy situations.

[LASportsNut]

This is a horrible story but it does not surprise me.

The corruption is horrible.

I am sure they do not have the checks and balances they have in the western world.

[warryor]

Just now, LASportsNut said:

This is a horrible story but it does not surprise me.

The corruption is horrible.

I am sure they do not have the checks and balances they have in the western world.

People scam each other all the time it's not that horrible just cultural 😂

I forgot to write the positive parts. Every girl I've ever met who has seen my car loves it and it's been extremely fun to drive, especially on the tollways between BKK and Pattaya. I've even taken it to Isaan without any problems. My girlfriend won't stop taking pictures with it to this day. Unfortunately even know it adds a bit of value, women do not walk up to my car offering me their bodies. 😂

[PepeLePew]

Surely all Audis are imported, unless you're in Germany/Poland/Brazil etc? I'm guessing its a grey import?

[warryor]

11 minutes ago, PepeLePew said:

Surely all Audis are imported, unless you're in Germany/Poland/Brazil etc? I'm guessing its a grey import?

Nah not a grey import. Imported by someone from the UK with taxes paid instead of the dealership importing it then selling it here.

[PepeLePew]

On 04/08/2022 at 21:22, warryor said:

Nah not a grey import. Imported by someone from the UK with taxes paid instead of the dealership importing it then selling it here.

Yep, a grey import

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_import_vehicle

[warryor]

3 hours ago, PepeLePew said:

Yep, a grey import

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_import_vehicle

Oops. Hopefully the taxes are paid. 🥲

[taylor1975]

Same engine as mine, its the 2.0 ea113. Had mine remapped to 260bhp which is stock power on your TTS.

This is at awesome GTI in manchester who are one of the best audi/vag group specialists in UK. 

I've done quite a lot of work myself on this car, both mechanical & electrical and i had obdeleven pro for diagnostics. If you have any issues, i can probably help - i'm in pattaya, for now.

My neighbour bought it the day i sold my house and moved here. Loved this car ...gutted to sell it.

[warryor]

1 hour ago, taylor1975 said:

Same engine as mine, its the 2.0 ea113. Had mine remapped to 260bhp which is stock power on your TTS.

This is at awesome GTI in manchester who are one of the best audi/vag group specialists in UK. 

I've done quite a lot of work myself on this car, both mechanical & electrical and i had obdeleven pro for diagnostics. If you have any issues, i can probably help - i'm in pattaya, for now.

My neighbour bought it the day i sold my house and moved here. Loved this car ...gutted to sell it.

Very nice really love the black rims. I had the 3.2l v6 fsi one in Canada missed it for 2 years but this one here made me a lot happier especially after a stage 1 tune. Maybe you should consider picking up one here if you miss yours 😉

Here's a photo of mine

[taylor1975]

9 minutes ago, warryor said:

Very nice really love the black rims. I had the 3.2l v6 fsi one in Canada missed it for 2 years but this one here made me a lot happier especially after a stage 1 tune. Maybe you should consider picking up one here if you miss yours 😉

Here's a photo of mine

Cool!

I've not been in a six pot but i know that owners love the sound. There's a lot of mk3's around here. There's a thai chap in bkk who is in our TT facebook group and he said the import tax is 385% ...wow! 

[taylor1975]

23 minutes ago, warryor said:

Very nice really love the black rims. I had the 3.2l v6 fsi one in Canada missed it for 2 years but this one here made me a lot happier especially after a stage 1 tune. Maybe you should consider picking up one here if you miss yours 😉

Here's a photo of mine

 

Better pic. Only been gone a month. Feels a lot longer lol. Anyone with a TT in thailand ....i'm looking to make friends 555

 

[PepeLePew]

10 minutes ago, taylor1975 said:

Cool!

I've not been in a six pot but i know that owners love the sound. There's a lot of mk3's around here. There's a thai chap in bkk who is in our TT facebook group and he said the import tax is 385% ...wow! 

How do they work it out? % of new value or used? 

[taylor1975]

2 minutes ago, PepeLePew said:

How do they work it out? % of new value or used? 

Not sure, but used prices in thailand are so strong it would either be super expensive or crazy expensive! I saw an R8 drive down soi buakhao the other day. If its £100k in UK, god knows what someone paid for that. 

It definitely isn't based on the used price in the originating country! ...if only!

[momo5]

Having a reliable, trusted mechanic is beyond priceless, even here in the US. Having a solid understanding of the mechanics of your vehicle also helps in avoiding being taken to the cleaners on a repair.  One of the few things of value by old man did for me was having me fix the shit boxes that I drove when I was younger.  I no longer work on my own cars, but that knowledge helps to keep things honest with the mechanic. 

[ChiFlyer]

Just to flap my jaws a little.

I went very practical when I bought a car in Thailand. Someone that the GF and I knew had a low end 2 year old Mazda with less than 30,000 kms on it. The seller had the records showing that she had done the required maint at Mazda. We have been doing the same for the last two years. We paid a little over 400,000 for the car.

The Mazda dealership (on Sukhumvit a little South of Pattaya Nua) is almost a pleasure to deal with. A checkup every 6 months with some parts replacements (oil change, wipers, air filter, etc.) is the varying lineup. I seem to average about 4,000 THB for the visits. I would guess that the same would be true of Toyota and Honda dealerships.

The car is perfect for getting around in Bang Lamung for grocery shopping and what not. Easy to park. No worries about the heartache that can and will come with driving a higher end car in this traffic and construction zones cluttered with various debris. I think we gas up about every 3 weeks at about 1000 THB per fill up, which is double of what it cost a year ago.

I have driven the car up to Isan (Khon Kean area) a couple of times. Other than navigating one's way thru off and on driving rains, no problems. If you do this for the first time, there are some dangerous road conditions, but nothing too terrible.

I am starting to look ahead to a replacement vehicle. I think I may go with a new Toyota for that. I would guess the cost for that will be about 1.5 M. I drove a Toyota Solara back in the US. The damn thing lasted 16 years. A buddy of mine referred to it as CF's "lamb in wolf's clothing". I gave it to the ex-wife as part of a divorce settlement. I wasn't going to be able to drive it to Thailand.

 

[warryor]

1 hour ago, ChiFlyer said:

Just to flap my jaws a little.

I went very practical when I bought a car in Thailand. Someone that the GF and I knew had a low end 2 year old Mazda with less than 30,000 kms on it. The seller had the records showing that she had done the required maint at Mazda. We have been doing the same for the last two years. We paid a little over 400,000 for the car.

The Mazda dealership (on Sukhumvit a little South of Pattaya Nua) is almost a pleasure to deal with. A checkup every 6 months with some parts replacements (oil change, wipers, air filter, etc.) is the varying lineup. I seem to average about 4,000 THB for the visits. I would guess that the same would be true of Toyota and Honda dealerships.

The car is perfect for getting around in Bang Lamung for grocery shopping and what not. Easy to park. No worries about the heartache that can and will come with driving a higher end car in this traffic and construction zones cluttered with various debris. I think we gas up about every 3 weeks at about 1000 THB per fill up, which is double of what it cost a year ago.

I have driven the car up to Isan (Khon Kean area) a couple of times. Other than navigating one's way thru off and on driving rains, no problems. If you do this for the first time, there are some dangerous road conditions, but nothing too terrible.

I am starting to look ahead to a replacement vehicle. I think I may go with a new Toyota for that. I would guess the cost for that will be about 1.5 M. I drove a Toyota Solara back in the US. The damn thing lasted 16 years. A buddy of mine referred to it as CF's "lamb in wolf's clothing". I gave it to the ex-wife as part of a divorce settlement. I wasn't going to be able to drive it to Thailand.

 

Yea Mazda is good in Thailand. If you want to replace it with a Toyota maybe get a Camry they're really comfortable.

[warryor]

2 hours ago, taylor1975 said:

Not sure, but used prices in thailand are so strong it would either be super expensive or crazy expensive! I saw an R8 drive down soi buakhao the other day. If its £100k in UK, god knows what someone paid for that. 

It definitely isn't based on the used price in the originating country! ...if only!

The R8s are crazy expensive here. ~5m baht for a 2010 and 19m for a new one. I'd love to own one some day but I don't know if that day will ever come. 🥲 Really makes me wonder what kind of business someone got into here to afford one of those. 🤔

[warryor]

2 hours ago, taylor1975 said:

Better pic. Only been gone a month. Feels a lot longer lol. Anyone with a TT in thailand ....i'm looking to make friends 555

 

The newer style front grille is really nice, did yours come with that or you changed it?

[warryor]

2 hours ago, taylor1975 said:

Cool!

I've not been in a six pot but i know that owners love the sound. There's a lot of mk3's around here. There's a thai chap in bkk who is in our TT facebook group and he said the import tax is 385% ...wow! 

Mine's not an MK3 unfortunately. The 385% is robbery but worth it if you're not going to live anywhere else.

[taylor1975]

9 hours ago, warryor said:

The newer style front grille is really nice, did yours come with that or you changed it?

Changed it myself to the RS style. Its a bumper off job, of course. This car has had it all, including 4 new injectors and the valves walnut blasted.

I changed everything i could get to: low & high pressure fuel pumps, starter motor, plugs, coils, PCV system, countless sensors...and much more

A few good tips: remove the clutch restrictor valve for better pedal feedback if you have a manual drive (not auto). And relocate the Bose amp into the bootspace - you will be very screwed if the amp packs in.

 

[Petesie]

My TT Roadster I had in Saudi, bloody loved that car. 🙂

[Pumpuynarak]

 

1 hour ago, Petesie said:

My TT Roadster I had in Saudi, bloody loved that car. 🙂

and so did i 👍 Here's my 98 model, they were difficult to get when they were first launched, everyone wanted one lol, something like a 4/5 month waiting list IMMSMC

Apologies for the TF

 

 

Edited August 7, 2022 by Pumpuynarak

[PepeLePew]

5 hours ago, Pumpuynarak said:

 

and so did i 👍 Here's my 98 model, they were difficult to get when they were first launched, everyone wanted one lol, something like a 4/5 month waiting list IMMSMC

 

People would be biting your hand off for a 4/5 month lead time now on any car. I know people who have been waiting for over a year, even basic Fords can be 6 to 8 months.

[warryor]

11 hours ago, taylor1975 said:

Changed it myself to the RS style. Its a bumper off job, of course. This car has had it all, including 4 new injectors and the valves walnut blasted.

I changed everything i could get to: low & high pressure fuel pumps, starter motor, plugs, coils, PCV system, countless sensors...and much more

A few good tips: remove the clutch restrictor valve for better pedal feedback if you have a manual drive (not auto). And relocate the Bose amp into the bootspace - you will be very screwed if the amp packs in.

 

I was actually going to get the mesh style grille too but I wasn't sure about how to put the plate on the front after so I gave up 🤔😂

Why did you change so much stuff?

[warryor]

11 hours ago, Petesie said:

My TT Roadster I had in Saudi, bloody loved that car. 🙂

Wowww looks really nice must have been fun as a convertible