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- 6 weeks ago
Buying a car in Thailand becomes a big milestone in Lloyd & Mandy’s expat life as they take on the local car market, paperwork, and all the little challenges that come with making such a major purchase abroad. The vlog follows their first car-buying experience in Thailand and gives a real behind-the-scenes look at what that process feels like in a new country.
Set in Hua Hin, this Thailand travel vlog blends lifestyle, expat living, and practical travel content into one easy watch. Along the way, they also share useful touches from their journey, including a stop at Khajee Cafe Hua Hin and a reference to getting a Thailand driver’s license, making it especially relevant for anyone planning long-term travel or relocation.
If you enjoy Thailand vlog content, expat life in Thailand, car buying abroad, or practical travel and relocation stories, this episode offers a relatable look at everyday life in a new home. It’s a useful watch for viewers interested in Thailand travel vlogs, expat tips, Hua Hin lifestyle, and buying a car in Thailand.
Set in Hua Hin, this Thailand travel vlog blends lifestyle, expat living, and practical travel content into one easy watch. Along the way, they also share useful touches from their journey, including a stop at Khajee Cafe Hua Hin and a reference to getting a Thailand driver’s license, making it especially relevant for anyone planning long-term travel or relocation.
If you enjoy Thailand vlog content, expat life in Thailand, car buying abroad, or practical travel and relocation stories, this episode offers a relatable look at everyday life in a new home. It’s a useful watch for viewers interested in Thailand travel vlogs, expat tips, Hua Hin lifestyle, and buying a car in Thailand.
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TravelTranscript
00:00Alright guys today's an exciting day for us we're just about to go and pick up
00:05our car that we just purchased a couple of weeks ago here in Thailand. So although
00:10we technically bought this car about three weeks ago we had to wait for a
00:15couple of things to be done on the car. We got it serviced and we got everything
00:22checked on it so that the car would be in tip-top shape for us when we actually
00:27got the keys. We also had to wait for the transfer to go through which took about
00:32three weeks. Usually here in Thailand they say it can take up to 30 days for a
00:36car to be transferred into your name but it was a little bit less for us. But so
00:41before we show you the car and go and pick it up we just wanted to share our
00:45experience of buying a car here in Thailand as foreigners. It's definitely
00:51been an interesting experience and there's a few things I think people
00:55should know about buying a car in Thailand as a foreigner because it can
01:01be a little bit daunting and there are a couple of I would say scams to look out
01:07for. So firstly I started looking for a car a couple of months ago because
01:12obviously with Mandy being pregnant I didn't want to keep driving around on a
01:16scooter and we also have our dog Bear. We obviously wanted to have a car to be
01:21able to drive the baby around and also be able to just take our dog to the beach
01:25every morning which is like a luxury. I pretty much looked on Facebook
01:29Marketplace as it's really the easiest place to find cars. You can look on other
01:34websites but Facebook Marketplace seems to be the best. There's a lot of used cars
01:39for sale on Facebook Marketplace that seem to be really undervalued and when I
01:46would message these people they would always respond with a similar message
01:51which was please email this random email address I'm selling this car for
01:58somebody else. So automatically like my ears prick up and I'm starting to see a
02:03few red flags and then I find out that the car isn't even where it's advertised
02:07usually it's advertised in Bangkok and they would always say it's like in Chiang
02:10my province or somewhere really really far away and then they would email back
02:15basically asking for my address so that they could deliver the car and they start
02:21asking for payment and I'm like okay well I haven't seen the car I haven't met
02:26you I'm not going to just buy the car over an email because I've seen a picture
02:31of it. So I experienced that like three or four times and then I realized okay this
02:36is this is like some bullshit scam I'm not gonna fall for this so stop looking at
02:41any of those ads where the cars were undervalued and when I would write back
02:45and say like I'm not ready to buy a car they just wouldn't respond to me so I
02:49believe that was probably a scam I don't know for sure if it was a scam or if it
02:53was just a communication thing but something seemed fishy to me. I think it's
03:01some sort of attempt to get people to pay a deposit and then they'll have a
03:08promise of a delivery of a car and then obviously you're never gonna get your
03:12deposit back and you're probably never gonna get a car. I could be wrong about
03:15that if you've experienced this in Thailand let me know in the comments down
03:19below. Now this one is the biggest red flag to watch out for so there's also a
03:24lot of ads for cars that are even more undervalued I'm talking like they're
03:30asking probably half the price of what the car should be worth and when you
03:34click on these ads you'll notice that the ad usually says something like off
03:40the porn I'll leave that in text down below when I first saw it it seemed
03:44really odd but I kind of gathered that this was probably a car that was bought
03:48from a pawn shop or had been repossessed and I found out that my intuition was
03:55right because I sent a message to the woman who I actually hire my scooter off
04:01and have been since I got here by the way she's awesome if you want a scooter in
04:05Hua Hin highly recommend she's been amazing I'll leave her link down below but I
04:10messaged her and she just wrote back in all capital letters do not buy this car
04:18and so she explained to me that this is a car that somebody has taken a loan out
04:23to purchase and that has more than likely just not kept up to date with the
04:28payments and it's being repossessed or the person is just selling the car
04:32without paying off the total amount that's due for the loan and because of
04:36this they don't have the right paperwork which is known as a red book here in
04:42order to transfer the car into a new owners name legally and so she said most
04:49likely more often than not what they'll do is they will sell you the car without
04:53transferring the car legally into your name and then a couple of weeks later or a
04:58couple of months the police will show up on your door and they will come and
05:03collect the car and probably give you a fine because the owner has reported the
05:08car is being stolen and so you're gonna be left out of pocket however much you
05:13paid for this car and probably a police fine or something like that you could be
05:19getting into some sort of legal troubles and pretty much you're screwed
05:23because you've just bought a car well you've bought a car you've paid somebody
05:28money and they haven't transferred the car into your name legally here in Thailand
05:33and they've probably been able to get away with it because of the language
05:36barrier all the paperwork's in Thai maybe you just think they're doing
05:41everything right and selling you the car and transferring it into your name when
05:45in fact they're actually giving you the keys to a car and then reporting it
05:50stolen while taking cash and I don't know how many people fall for this it seems to
05:56me like you would have to be pretty ignorant to actually do that and not
06:02double-check that everything's in your name but I can imagine a few people
06:05probably do fall for it and that's that's pretty tough so anyone who sees an
06:11ad where it says that the car or motorbike is off the porn stay away stay away
06:18from it don't go near it okay let's go get this car
06:26isn't it the cutest cafe it's really nice it's so beautiful it should be busier it's just a bit out
06:31of the way
06:32good morning guys we've just come to a cafe called Kaji it's just a little bit
06:39outside of Hua Hin to actually pick up something pretty exciting we have just
06:44picked up our new old car we both are pretty excited about it this is going to
06:50be a lot easier for us getting around with bear and getting to the beach and
06:54things so yeah today's this weekend sort of just going to be about the new
07:01freedom that we have with the car
07:21what do you think of it isn't it awesome it's so us I love it so much that
07:28manifested this car ages ago thought it didn't come true randomly we found it on
07:34the side of the road amazing yeah so this is it it's a 1993 Suzuki Caribbean I
07:43know there's going to be people in the comments saying we shouldn't have bought
07:47this or Suzuki's are no good or whatever but I don't know it's just
07:54it's cool isn't it it just looks kind of cool and it's affordable we didn't have to
08:01break the bank buying it and to be honest I think if we keep this for a few years
08:05and then we sell it we're probably not really going to lose much money on it
08:09either because it's like almost getting into vintage car territory instead of
08:16buying like a five-year-old MG or Toyota or Volkswagen or something like that I
08:23feel like this thing is gonna actually hold its value and because we didn't have
08:28to spend too much money on it we might actually put a little bit of money into
08:32like fixing it up and making it even cooler
08:34Lloyd and I prefer to spend our money on things that make us money cars in the past
08:41we've learned just they depreciate it's not the best investment we decided we
08:46want to invest in our business more buying a cheaper car for us was a
08:51smarter financial decision rather than going for that quick dopamine hit of like
08:56buying a new car we learned our lesson when we're back in Australia we both had
09:01pretty new cars and once that dopamine wears off and you're paying your
09:07whatever six seven eight hundred dollars a month on your car bill it's like man is
09:13this really worth it considering the cars like already worth 20% less than what I
09:18bought it for as soon as I drove it out of the lot we're just gonna be using this
09:21to like go to the beach and take bear and the baby and everything so this is
09:25like perfect for us I'm so excited I guess that kind of makes us bad
09:36influencers we're influenced trying to influence people to not spend money and
09:42not buy things a little bit opposite of what everyone else does
09:46I think this is reverse but I don't know
09:51yeah
09:52next one
09:53got it
09:58look at the aircon pumper
10:02okay so I should probably mention if you're gonna buy a car here in Thailand or actually even if
10:08you're going to be driving a car in Thailand you really need to make sure
10:12that you have the correct driver's license that means if you have an
10:17overseas driver's license you need to get an international driving permit or you
10:23can exchange your overseas driver's license for a Thai driver's license I
10:28wasn't able to do that because my Australian license was expiring and I needed to go
10:34home and take a new photo because I haven't taken one in like 10 years so it
10:37wasn't an option for me I had to go and get a brand new Thai driver's license made
10:41a full video about it I'll leave the link down below in the description but as
10:45well as a driver's license you need to make sure you have insurance and we use
10:51safety wing no man insurance and we have done for the last three years we've
10:55unfortunately had to use them a couple of times we used them why we were in
11:00Bali and we both got dengue fever and also in Mexico when both of us got sick
11:04Mandy also had to use them when she lost her luggage flying from Canada to Bangkok on her
11:10own last year as well and I can't say enough about how easy it is to make a
11:14claim with safety wing no man insurance so safety wing will cover you for any
11:19accidents if you're driving a car or a scooter but as long as you have the
11:24correct license and you're also wearing a helmet if you're driving a scooter or a car
11:30for instance like this you need to be wearing a seat belt and obviously you
11:35cannot be drink driving so as long as you're following all the rules safety
11:40wing will cover you for any road accidents and that coverage will be up to
11:45two hundred and fifty thousand US dollars so a quarter of a million dollars
11:49which is absolutely amazing but aside from road accidents they will also cover
11:53you for things like lost luggage up to five hundred dollars and also if you get
11:57sick or injured in any other way while you're traveling up to a quarter of a
12:01million dollars and they'll even cover you in your home country for up to 30
12:06days so if you go home to visit family for Christmas or the holidays or whatever
12:10you're still covered for up to a month while you're traveling home as I said we've
12:14been using safety wing nomad insurance for almost three years now and I can't
12:19say enough good things about them so if you want to buy a car drive a car in
12:23Thailand make sure you have the right insurance make sure you have the right
12:27license and you will be covered for up to a quarter of a million dollars for any
12:31road accidents we will leave a link down below in the description for safety wing
12:54see how much is supposed to fill up moment of truth
13:19okay we're gonna go take this thing to get clean we saw this like kebab car wash it's just
13:28opened recently so we're gonna go there and get a kebab while our car gets
13:32cleaned sounds pretty fun and the kebabs look awesome so we have to try it
13:39see how much time to go there we have to go there so we have to take it just up
13:53there actually
13:53just a wash no the back yeah okay
13:57can we do wash outside? only outside yeah we'll eat lunch while we wait
14:03They'll come back to get out later.
14:05Yeah, we'll just...
14:06Out here?
14:07Yeah.
14:07Okay.
14:08We leave it here?
14:09Yeah.
14:29Oh, this looks so good.
14:50Looks pretty good.
14:56So clean.
14:57Oh, I'm so excited to show Bear.
14:59Let's go get him.
15:01Oh, I'm so excited to show Bear.
15:03Oh, I'm so excited to show Bear.
15:12Hi Bear.
15:14Hi.
15:15Hi.
15:16Hi.
15:19What did you bring me?
15:21We got a new car.
15:23We're going to go to the beach.
15:35In the back.
15:35How do you know that's ours?
15:41Do you like it?
15:49in the back
15:51is it good bear?
15:55are we all ready?
15:58thanks
15:58alright to the beach
16:20this is awesome
16:33okay we've made it to Kautakyeb
16:36this is actually our first time coming to this beach
16:39and it's a completely different experience than
16:41Hua Hin main beach
16:43it's pretty cool
16:44you can see little islands actually
16:47out on the water
16:48which you can't see from Hua Hin Bing
16:50and this incredible mountain
16:52I think that's Monkey Mountain behind us isn't it?
16:55yeah Monkey Hill
16:57Monkey Mountain we've been up there
16:58there's a really beautiful Buddha
17:01temple and meditation center up there
17:04but there's some really awesome
17:05really busy restaurants down here too
17:08I had no idea
17:09and so far we haven't gotten in trouble for Bear
17:11so
17:13maybe he's allowed
17:14we're just gonna go for a little walk away from all the people
17:18find a spot to set up
17:19I think for a while
17:29so we'll have to wait and see
17:31but apparently
17:32between
17:34November and March
17:35which is like
17:38I guess their winter here
17:40you can surf at this beach
17:41so I've been told
17:42I don't know if I fully believe it
17:44but there is a restaurant back there
17:47called Pineapple Surf Club
17:48and they hire out surfboards
17:49and yeah like a couple of locals
17:52have told me you can surf here
17:55between November and March
17:57so I'm looking forward to seeing if that's actually true
17:59something tells me
18:01it'd be very small waves
18:03but it could be pretty fun actually
18:15you're going into labour?
18:17yeah
18:19it's feeling close
18:24we're on
18:25any day watch at the moment
18:28good thing we get a car
18:29because
18:32something tells me getting a taxi
18:33to the hospital
18:35not ideal
18:35where Mandy's water's just broken
18:37might not be ideal
18:53what a cool beach
18:54this is the difference between
18:56having a car and not having a car
18:57you can just do a lot more exploring
18:59especially when Mandy's pregnant
19:27I shot
19:28I smile
19:35I thought
19:38Oh
19:45you close
19:48She's normal
19:50they should
20:03Run away, run away, run away
20:06Until you're escaping
20:09Run away, run away, run away
20:12You're never too far to run
20:15Run away, run away