Thread: Land Rover prices in Thailand

Is the import duty still more than 400%?

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Is the import duty still more than 400%?

You can look it up... they have a calculator on the net.

It’s not so bad if I want to ship my D4 over - about $25k to take it in. Based on current value and age.

Originally Posted by Tombie

You can look it up... they have a calculator on the net.

It’s not so bad if I want to ship my D4 over - about $25k to take it in. Based on current value and age.

Unfortunately, what is on the internet has nothing to do with it, regardless of what the current value and age may be. With new cars it can be worked out as per the "rules", but with anything else there are too many hands being held out. More so if the car is something more than a Japanese box, and Somchai in Customs takes a shine to it!

I bought my 2 door Range Rover in many years ago, and it ended up costing more in duty than the thing was worth in Australia. Yes, the tax rates are set, but they get around it with the "market value". There has been some recent cases with Lamborghinis imported from the UK with false cost declarations. The Government confiscated the lot of them, after they had been sold, and put them up for auction. At least once a year, sometimes more often, the Customs hold auctions of impounded cars. The reserve put on them is always more than the tax owing! And the owners of confiscated cars are left to sort it out with the importer.

hmmm ,that's why they don't like parts being ordered in privately.

Yes, I heard a story about a rich Thai who tried to privately import a Ferrari. When it landed in Bangkok they tried to slap ridiculous charges on it, so it was cheaper for him to put it back on the ship and send it back to England. He flies over to drive it.
I once had a student whose father was the Ferrari franchise holder in Thailand. Very nice kid. His family also had a gold business and were seriously rich.

Tell me about it, Mario! The dealer opened a huge new complex less than half a Km from me. Up until now I had used various aftermarket shops. Most of them hopeless. The last one reused the one time head bolts, for what turned out to be the second time recently. And the idiot used to be a "service adviser" for a previous Land Rover agent!

The new place has a well qualified English lad working there as "technical advisor", so after discussing the parts issue with his boss, they agreed to service my car. They replaced the gaskets and seals in the transfer case with a kit that I had, no problem. Got them to supply and replace the rear brake pad, and a couple of other small jobs, including the auto trans filter and sump gasket with my parts. The English lad was not there when I picked the car up. A couple of days later I checked the ATF level and there was NIL showing on the dipstick!

They also had the car trying to find out why it was hard to start. Tried all sorts of things, nearly all of them at my suggestion, and because it has no diagnostic OBD plug, ALL of them, including the English lad, CANNOT trouble shoot a blocked crapper!

They tried to argue that the LPG was the problem, and insisted that I take it to the LPG shop, despite my objections, Again, the English lad was not there when I picked it up and it was running like an old chaff cutter! Got it home and had a look and found #3 and #5 plug leads transposed!

It started pulling to the left at speed, so I asked them if they could check the wheel alignment. "No problem, we have the gear". So I took it there and suggested that they check the suspension bushes and tie rod ends before proceeding. Sure enough, it was possible to shake hands with the rear radius arm bushes, plus the a couple of tie rod ends were sloppy. They have had the car on the hoist many times, but nobody noticed.

So I need new bushes, but I prefer poly bushes, so I wanted to supply them. THEN, one of the tie rod ends is ONLY available complete with the drag tube!(it is NOT like the P38 where one of them is part of the tube). Then the English lad got a bollocking because he was going to allow me to supply my own parts! In addition, the price that they were quoting for the parts was 100% more than Rimmer Bros including freight from the UK. (that's when I ordered some from you).

The dealer is ONLY interested in selling new cars and does not want to see them after the warranty expires. Because of the new price of these things they are only used to dealing with toffee-nosed rich snobs that think that paying the equivalent of $60 / hour in a 3rd World country makes them above everybody else!

Needless to say, I have not been back! At one time I had no need of ripoff workshops, as I was able to do it all myself. But now, my bloody walking stick gets in the way! Cheers