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Is This A Thai Trait?


dean
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Thursday is my wife's day off from her minimum wage Thai restaurant job. She tells me that she is going out with her Thai friend about 2. Around 3:30 in the afternoon, my step daughter, who is talking with her on the phone, says my wife wants to know the name of auto insurance company that we use. Not having a good feeling about this, I refuse to give it. Around 5, I get an email from Geico that the additional car, a 2014 Honda Civic, has been added to my account. Because of advise from my sister, I bite my tongue when she gets home. She had a 2003 Honda Odyssey that was in good shape and she had exclusive use of it. Six weeks, ago, I had bought a. 2007 Honda Civic with 80,000 miles on it. It had been involved in a wreck with a car hitting it in the driver's door. A friend of mine does body work and total, I'll have between $6,000-6,500 in it, so I can re sell it for at least what I have into it. What is it about Thais and having to have new cars (not to mention new houses)? Her smart daughter starts college next fall. I already give her a $700 allowance to buy groceries every month (I buy non Thai food items for myself and 6 year old out of pocket). I pay all bills for the house and all bills involving the 2 cars that we had, prior to the addition. She claims poverty every month, but can scrape together enough for a down payment. I don't think that she realizes that she owes property tax and sales tax on a $20,000 car. Fortunately, my name is not on the sales contracts. I'm not going to yell at her for being so stupid but won't lend a dime toward the monthly payments, insurance or upkeep. I will make sure that I'm in front of the house when a collections agency picks up the car, probably in as little as a few months. I'll keep the 2007 Civic for a few months, although I don't know if I will offer it to her after she gets over the loss of her beloved new car.

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A few years ago a friend allowed his Thai wife to buy a car. He figured she'd get a used one, since there are loads of repossessed ones sitting around in car lots. He told her to get a used car, since she didn't even know how to drive yet! But oh no, she came home with a brand new one. :(

 

p.s. My wife's first car was a used Subaru, paid for by me. That was her "learner's car". Since then she's only had new cars, but at least she paid for the last two entirely out of her own salary.

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Between my wife and her 24 year old daughter, who also works at a minimum wage job at a Chinese resturants, they can probably pay the monthly payment and insurance, unless one or both loses their job. I hate to think of the amount that they paid for the car, the interest rate and the number of years it was financed. As to whether they forged my name, unless she has a farang boyfriend, I doubt it. I did call the dealership and enquirer about some of the details, which they wouldn't give me. Hopefully, that means I'm not on the contract. I will confirm that Monday, when I stop by the dealership.

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Ironically, I offered the Civic that is being re built to the same daughter, asking that she only pay the insurance and I would take care of its maintenance. She refused, saying she could not afford it and did not ask for the car. I can guarantee that she will spend more per month, supporting her mother's indulgence.

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I see many Thais that refuse to think out the whole plot.

 

Buy a car.

 

Consider fuel for the car? no.

insurance, no.

oil changes? upkeep? maintenance, no.

 

Good one...the Thai wife wants to start a business so she wants the farang to buy her a new pickup.

 

OK, how is the pickup to be paid for? of course, the farang will pay.

Fuel for the pickup, farang will pay.

 

Profits from the business, to the wife.

 

Great biz plan, where can I sign up :dunno:

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A key belief for Thai people is karma and how deeds and events can pass from one to another.

 

If your wife was aware the car you gifted her had been involved in an accident I'm amazed she would even accept it. To do so would require her to suspend a very strong belief that the badness leading to the accident the car suffered would be visited on her. I'm sure your stepdaughters refusal to accept it might have similar connotations despite what they may tell you. And I am very sure that her Thai friends would be making her feel very bad about having a repaired car.

 

One reason the Thai second hand market is so overstuffed with cars, houses, everything, is the belief that something bad must have happened for the original owner to be no longer in possession. Forget ever about having a Thai stay or live in a house where someone once died.

 

Yes we know and understand that much of this is likely pure nonsense but to enforce such a view would seem hugely disrespectful to a core value that Thai people hold dear. As a husband a key duty of care you have to your wife is to protect her from the vultures, in this case the other Thai people who would deride her, and give her the confidence to feel secure. Were she a well educated woman with greater self confidence this may not be necessary. Without it she will feel humiliated and rejected. The price of a Thai.

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