License Plates

[Dakoda]

Can anyone explain the License Plate system here


Some cars have no plates (guess they were just bought, good for a time)

Some cars have Red plates (guess they get these somewhere and are good for 30 days)

Some cars have white plates (permanent, guess these stay with vehicle)


?????????

[laphanphon]

red plates are temporary plates until white ones arrive, which involves a deposit, at toyota, 2000 baht, returned to you. also, i think, red plate, you are not suppose to drive after dark, which, if correct is a strange rule. not mandatory to have red plate.

no plate, i'm guessing, didn't want to deposit money, or lost plate and doesn't want to pay for new one, or, something illegal somewhere.

white plate does stay with the car/registration, when transfered to new owner, plates go with car. if transferred to another province, plates will be replaced with that province name and new number.

registration book, blue, goes with the car and will have running list of all owners. when registering, they do check engine numbers, to make sure car is legit.

[Dakoda]

thanks LA - that sounds like what I was told, thanks for providing the verbs and adverbs to make it understandable

So for 2000 baht deposit, you look ok, but need to remove to drive at night, sounds like a Thai law

This all sounds too much like SC

[Paul]

Isuzu made us pay 400 baht deposit for our red plates. Theres also a book comes with them which you are supposed to fill in EVERY journey you make in that car (to be legal). I waited about 5 months for my white plates - because I asked for special numbers.

With red plates you are not supposed to drive after 6pm and you are not supposed to drive outside of your province!

When I bought my motorbike I had no plate for over 3 months which was because of a delay at the place which makes them - apparently (according to the shop) they had run out of metal !!!

You are allowed 30 days with no plate from purchase according to the police who stopped us - and it took a while to convince him that we would be legal if we could but it wasn't our fault we didn't have a plate.

I guess most people without a plate do it by choice though. Why do they get away with it - coz they can, like everything else.

[JimboPSM]

This all sounds too much like SC

SC

[Dakoda]

[quote]SC

[banpaeng]

In texas must have insurance, Inspection and plates.

Plates hard to get around.

Inspection can get counterfitted easy.

Insurance (this is really bad) can buy a six months policy, pay one month premium, go get plates and inspection, then let insurance laspe with no reprecussion. Seems like f have law then insurance co. would have to notify state so plates could be recinded. Only proves insurance pays our legislators well. It make me buy no insuarnce coverage when by law they are required to have it. Go figure

[Dakoda]

The strange thing here for Americans is that we have always bargined when buying a car/truck, but here the price is fixed no matter where you go, it is the same!

Then in the US when buying after market things for auto's, the price is fixed, (yes, it will be a few dollars difference from shop to shop and of course, we have the internet for real bargins), but here you can bargin for after market stuff. I guess in Thailand, they got there car pricing from the same place as driving on the wrong side of the road! Still not use to everything being on the wrong side. If you see a car changing lanes, with their wippers on, it might be me.

[valentine]

If your all confused by the plates can I tell you a few more tales.If you buy a four door pick up and want to use it for business it will be given white plates with blue writing. This designates it as a passenger carrying vehicle, mini buses as well.This cannot legally be driven on a foreign issued, or international driving license.
If you buy a new pick up, it will have, white plates with green writing. This cannot be used on the roads in Bangkok during rush hour periods, I don't know the current hours restricted, it keeps changing. The best plates to have is white with black script, reserved for cars but still on older pickups.Can do anything!
I personally imported my old mercedes from england which still had my own cherished number which was P1 RON. I drove on this for six months until a new one was issued. You can imagine the fun I had as the Thais read it as pi ron, big brother.

[businessman]

Here we have a lot of big expensive cars(Mercs,Landcruises) with blue letters on the plates and i was told it is a tax dodge to register a car as a passenger carrying vehicle.Is that so?

[JimboPSM]

Valentine,

Can you give us the story behind importing your Mercedes?

Given the various difficulties that most westerners experience with Thai bureaucracy I suspect it was not the easiest thing you have ever done

[valentine]

If they are blue plates, they will be CD corp diplomatic, but if white with blue writing, you are perfectly correct. It doesn't affect the tax on purchase but does reduce the liability for the annual road tax, moreover it alters the ownership status in the event of bankruptcy or confiscation if convicted of crime . I think the latter is the greater incentive, after all whats a couple of thousand baht a year to a man that can run one of these cars.?? TIT

[valentine]

Hi Jimbo, not wishing to bore you with a long story, if I just say two cars left the docks in Uk and I ended up with one.LOL

[businessman]

Jimbo,a lot of the foreign trucks you see on the road come into the country as disassembled "spare parts".

[JimboPSM]

Many of the trucks look like they are a collection of disassembled spare parts running in loose formation

[BangkokButcher]

Hi Jimbo, not wishing to bore you with a long story, if I just say two cars left the docks in Uk and I ended up with one.LOL

Now that does not sounds good valentine, would you care to elaborate on what happened?

[valentine]

Being diplomatic, can I just say, a negotiated settlement.

[BangkokButcher]

Fair comment I guess, I fully understand your viewpoint though

[businessman]

Many of the trucks look like they are a collection of disassembled spare parts running in loose formation

If something falls off the house they use it to repair the truck.

[Garnet]

This doesn't relate to licences on the outside of the vehicle--but the actual paperwork to drive. My wife (Jack) has always ridden a motorbike since long before I ever even imagined Thailand. Last year, or maybe even the year before, she got nicked for going down a one-way street in Udon. The cop took her licence and impounded her bike pending payment of the fine--that's where having ties with a Farang boyfriend came in real dandy! I sent her the loot, and she got her bike back. But...the police station couldn't come up with her actual driver's licence! They admitted that it was somehow lost, and made light of its importance at that point. And she has driven ever since without it! I still sometimes wonder on whom culpability of operating her bike without possession of the licence will fall should the need arise to ever again produce it. You would think that responsibility for replacement would lie with the damn cops, but they removed themselves from having anything to do with her predicament at the time that they admitted it wasn't in their possession.

I can just imagine the delights that lie ahead for me in regards to coping with Thai bureaucracy, once I make LOS my home in something over four years (should I live till then)!!