Buying A Car

[Guest]

After living in Pattaya a year, I've decided to purchase a car but unfortunately I only have a tourist visa and I'm told that I need a Type O visa of some sort to put the car in my name. One dealer said that it was common for people to pay and the dealer sign all the paperwork and then process it when the Type O visa was acquired. Also I was wondering how much trouble and money was involved to set up a company and put the car in the company name. Anyone have any experience in this?

[Guest]

One thing I definitely would not do is put it in a dealers name.

Other than that sorry I can't help.

[orion76]

Here's the scoop on owning a car in Thailand:

First of all, any tourist can register a car in his name, what you need for this is a letter from your embassy that you are in Thailand for legal reasons. Meaning you are not a wanted drug trafficker for example.

If you do not want to go through this paper work there's a loop hole in the car registration process. When someone sells his car to a dealer he has to sign a blank car registration transfer form and he has to sign his ownership book. The dealer then keeps this blank form until he knows the name of the buyer and he completes the form and sends it to the authorities for registration. Who ever owns these documents owns the car, especially if there is proof of purchase. If you buy a car insist on doing the registration yourself and take the documents home with you and store them in a safe place until you sell the car. When you sell the car it is transferred from the previous owner directly to the new owner. They call this a "floating transfer". This is perfectly legal and you can even insure the car in your own name. To cover your ass you can put the car in your girlfriends name and have her sign the transfer form, once the registration transfer form is signed there is nothing she can do to reverse that. Or even better, have your maid sign it and don't tell her what it's for.

[Fatbastard]

I like the last one (maid) better, I made the mistake of putting the car in my wifes name and keeping the ownership book and transfer paper hidden ( I Thought) in the same location, bitch knew where they where and after leaving came back with a copy key and lifted them. Car gone

[Guest]

I personally never recommend putting anything under anybodies name except for yours. I'm saying this because I have seen too many sad cases where many unsuspecting expats lost everything through their Thai girlfriends and /or wives.

I heard that many car dealers don't care about having the non-immigration visa to buy a car. Usually they bypass this requirement somehow (bribery?).

You can get more information at www.thailandguru.com .

[orion76]

If you put the car in someone elses name then the trick is to have them sign the car ownership transfer forms immediately, once that is done it is extremely difficult for that person to claim the car back, especially if you make that person write a statement that he/she is giving up ownership of the vehicle. Make sure the invoice and proof payment are in YOUR name though.

The most waterproof method is to shove a bunch of paper work under your maids nose and say "sign here, here and here please" and not even tell her what it's for. I doubt any maid will ask questions if you tip her 100bht.

You will not need her help to sell the car because of course you're smart enough to have her sign all the paper work required to sell the car on the day you purchased the car.

Basically you do what every car dealer does. When they buy a car they don't register it in their name, they have a bunch of paper work signed and then transfer the car from the old owner to the new owner. If the person who sold them the car would be able to claim the car back then obviously there wouldn't be any used car dealers. Personally I would only register the car if the car is new, if it is used just leave it in the previous owners name, the dealer can testify that they bought the car from them and sold it to you so it's as safe as it gets.

Explain the situation to the insurance company and you can insure the car in your name no problem... Tax renewal office doesn't care who owns the car, whoever comes to pay the tax fee and shows the blue book get's the new window sticker.

I own my 3rd car now here in Thailand without any problems. I crashed it once and the insurance company paid the bills, no questions aksed.

And the funny part is I don't even have a drivers license :-)))

[Guest]

quote:

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Originally posted by Tired76:

And the funny part is I don't even have a drivers license :-)))

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NO LICENSE!!!! BRA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

[Guest]

Tired,

Thanks for posting this info. I am looking to buy both a car and a motorbike in the near future. Do you know if the same techniques will work for puchasing new vehicles as well??

Thanks,

Goatscrot

[orion76]

The motorbike process is almost the same and you can use the same technique with no problems.

[Guest]

I'm a bit late picking up this thread - but Tired76 is correct - in fact you can buy and sell real estate in the same way.