What are the Thai BMW's like?

[Sateeb]

When I come to LOS next year to settle down I was going to buy a Toyota pick up, but now I seen that there's a Beemer factory in Thailand, I prefer to get an X3 which would be good for the floods, potholes, dirt roads etc as well as your normal roads and conditions. My wife has one here and it's great. So I thought I might spend 900K  Baht on a second hand one. I considered a Benz saloon too but thought that impractical in the rural areas. Anyone had any experience with the Thai built X3 ?

[billywillyjones]

Probably okay but worries me in Thailand is the lack of maintenance.  I wouldn't buy anything without seeing full service records from a legitimate dealer and I would have it inspected for possible flood damage and odometer roll back.  

[Pinetree]

Prior to  coming to LOS I owned a number of BMWs over the years. I sold my last before I came here and I would certainly not buy one here. Not they are not great cars,  but they can be quite fragile and especially the suspension and the engine  electronics  need some care and attention, unlike Mercs. I very much doubt the ability of engineers here  to do the necessary. I may be wrong, but i would avoid them myself. 

[KaptainRob]

12 minutes ago, Pinetree said:

Prior to  coming to LOS I owned a number of BMWs over the years. I sold my last before I came here and I would certainly not buy one here. Not they are not great cars,  but they can be quite fragile and especially the suspension and the engine  electronics  need some care and attention, unlike Mercs. I very much doubt the ability of engineers here  to do the necessary. I may be wrong, but i would avoid them myself. 

I'm of a similar opinion re maintenance in that one must entrust your 'exotic' import (even though assembled here), to a Dealer, rather than a good local service workshop.  Dealers are only as good as the staff who are usually well trained in 'by the book' servicing but no good with any major diagnostics such as intermittent electronic faults. Swapping out suspect parts for new can be hit and miss and very expensive.  I worked as Spares Manager for an Aussie BMW dealer at one time and I know how even the best mechanics operate.  

As a side note, due to shipping delays and aluminium shortages, a lot of CKD imports are in short supply, both new cars and parts.  Our local MBenz dealer here in CM has had an empty showroom for several months already.

[Changnam43]

In this country stick with your original plan to buy a Toyota truck.

The BMW will just be a world of pain.

[billywillyjones]

If this vehicle is used only for occasional journeys around town then why not embrace the future and get an electric.  Internal combustion will be dead in less than a decade.

[KaptainRob]

18 hours ago, Sateeb said:

When I come to LOS next year to settle down I was going to buy a Toyota pick up, but now I seen that there's a Beemer factory in Thailand, I prefer to get an X3 which would be good for the floods, potholes, dirt roads etc as well as your normal roads and conditions. My wife has one here and it's great. So I thought I might spend 900K  Baht on a second hand one. I considered a Benz saloon too but thought that impractical in the rural areas. Anyone had any experience with the Thai built X3 ?

Depends where you'll be living and whether building, landscaping etc, but I'd recommend a locally built pickup for reliability and versatility.  Our last vehicle was a 12 year old DMax Hilander, 4 door D3.0

Purchased 2nd hand and owned for 8 trouble-free years, we did numerous x-country trips and used it for carting goods during 2 house builds.  Servicing was by a local business and the only breakdown was when the Auto-shift cable came adrift ... local Mech came to us on his scooter and did a temp repair so we drive to the workshop for the full repair @ a cost of 900 bt incl. cable.

I'd suggest a Ford Ranger or Isuzu pickup, good 2nd hand ok if you know what to check to verify odometer is consistent with condition.  I don't like the recent Toyota styling nor handling characteristics.

[gazmo16]

A Toyota Legender or Fortuner will do all the X3 can at less cost and much easier servicing country wide. 

Your 900K in Baht maybe a little optimistic as even a 3 year old Toyota Fortuner will set you back in the region of 1.1 million Baht on a dealer forecourt as I've just found out if you want all the servicing stamps included. Guess it depends if you want a town car like the X3 or something rural to throw things in the open back.

Edited December 9, 2021 by gazmo16
Grammar

[gummy]

And this has exactly what to do with the OP's original topic which was

" What are the Thai BMW's like?"

Of all people I would have hoped that you stay on topic !

Now back to that topic, in 2014 I bought my wife an X3 and at that time it was a CBU, the reason I bought it.  Not sure if X3's are now CKD in Thailand or still CBU, but it is worth enquiring , more so when it comes to choice of colours as at least a CBU vehicle gives you the choice of something other than the Thai boring blacks/whites/silvers etc.

[oldschooler]

1 hour ago, billywillyjones said:

Probably okay but worries me in Thailand is the lack of maintenance.  I wouldn't buy anything without seeing full service records from a legitimate dealer and I would have it inspected for possible flood damage and odometer roll back.  

clearly OP is considering buying new…….

[billywillyjones]

12 minutes ago, oldschooler said:

clearly OP is considering buying new…….

thus the suggestion to consider electrics and your point is?

[gummy]

25 minutes ago, billywillyjones said:

thus the suggestion to consider electrics and your point is?

So you are another that do not understand that the OP's question was "what-are-the-thai-bmws-like", or perhaps , well never mind, most of us can guess your posting motive that has nothing to do with the thread.

[Shark]

simple answer don't do it.
Stick to stuff that has enough spares and parts on the market (and dealers): Toyota, Isuzu. Thank me later.

[Sateeb]

4 hours ago, KaptainRob said:

Depends where you'll be living and whether building, landscaping etc, but I'd recommend a locally built pickup for reliability and versatility.  Our last vehicle was a 12 year old DMax Hilander, 4 door D3.0

Purchased 2nd hand and owned for 8 trouble-free years, we did numerous x-country trips and used it for carting goods during 2 house builds.  Servicing was by a local business and the only breakdown was when the Auto-shift cable came adrift ... local Mech came to us on his scooter and did a temp repair so we drive to the workshop for the full repair @ a cost of 900 bt incl. cable.

I'd suggest a Ford Ranger or Isuzu pickup, good 2nd hand ok if you know what to check to verify odometer is consistent with condition.  I don't like the recent Toyota styling nor handling characteristics.

Yeah, Thanks for that. I've already had 2 pick ups in Thailand and don't want to be doing any work or anything like that...I'm retired now. Hence the drift into the SUV market. I'm interested to know how the Thai built BM's are.

[JamesE]

14 hours ago, KaptainRob said:

I don't like the recent Toyota styling

All of the recent Japanese designs look like the water cooler has been spiked with LSD.

[JamesE]

14 hours ago, billywillyjones said:

If this vehicle is used only for occasional journeys around town then why not embrace the future and get an electric.  Internal combustion will be dead in less than a decade.

A couple of weeks ago BMW had a display at Siam Paragon in BKK. They are selling the X5 pluggable hybrid now. Might be a good intermediate stop until the EV infrastructure is built out. Not sure if they are built in-country or not. Probably a step or three up in price-point from the X3.

[KaptainRob]

5 hours ago, JamesE said:

All of the recent Japanese designs look like the water cooler has been spiked with LSD.

Ain't that the truth.    I look at them and see a panel beaters nightmare but then  realise these days the panels are simply replaced.

[gazmo16]

7 hours ago, JamesE said:

A couple of weeks ago BMW had a display at Siam Paragon in BKK. They are selling the X5 pluggable hybrid now. Might be a good intermediate stop until the EV infrastructure is built out. Not sure if they are built in-country or not. Probably a step or three up in price-point from the X3.

I was at Central World, around the corner from SP where they were showing off a collection of electrics for sale. The prices were frightening with even the smallest Honda being 2.1 million Baht so heaven knows what a BMW would be even if Thailand made one. 

And for anyone in the market an electric Bentley will set you back 5.3 million Baht 

[Sateeb]

On 12/9/2021 at 4:26 AM, KaptainRob said:

I'm of a similar opinion re maintenance in that one must entrust your 'exotic' import (even though assembled here), to a Dealer, rather than a good local service workshop.  Dealers are only as good as the staff who are usually well trained in 'by the book' servicing but no good with any major diagnostics such as intermittent electronic faults. Swapping out suspect parts for new can be hit and miss and very expensive.  I worked as Spares Manager for an Aussie BMW dealer at one time and I know how even the best mechanics operate.  

As a side note, due to shipping delays and aluminium shortages, a lot of CKD imports are in short supply, both new cars and parts.  Our local MBenz dealer here in CM has had an empty showroom for several months already.

Thanks for your input. We have a shortage of new cars here in the UK too. Second Hand car prices have gone up and are responsible for maintaining our fragile covid economy, according to BBC website this am (Friday 10th Dec)