I decided to check out the Bangkok Motor Expo here in Thailand. Due to the extremely high import duties new cars are generally 2-3 times more expensive than cars in the West, $250,000 for a BMW X5 anyone?! With the average annual Thai salary being less than $10,000 I was curious as to what type of cars would be on display?
This minivan which looks like a marriage between a Pontiac Aztek and a BMW 7 series is from the Korean car maker SsangYong Motors, formally known as Dong-A Motor.
Ugly and boring seemed to be the popular theme with the Koreans and Hyundai didn’t disappoint with this silver blob.
There was a large number of cars on display from various Malaysian car makers but as Top Gear pointed out there are no good Malaysian cars so I didn’t bother taking any pictures, although the cars seemed quiet popular with the Thais.
The Southern California trend of making your car look as stupid as possible has crossed the ocean and make it’s way to Bangkok. What’s really annoying is to see major manufacturers embrace this crap. Toyota gave prime showroom space to this pink disaster.
Even old school BMW’s could not escape the bad taste of their owners.
3D flames anyone?
Notice that this particular owner decided that it would be more important to have the his stereo deck right in front of him instead of the instrument console. Of course it’s an automatic.
I really wish this trend of speakers sprouting out from every body panel would die. Move on already people, F&F came out 6 years ago!
Even Kia is getting in on the trend.
I did see one E30! Nice clean M-technic body kit, Alpina wheels, poor car probably didn’t know what it was doing at this show.
Next I came across what has got to be the strangest looking super car I have ever seen. Made by Mitsuoka it is called the Orochi. Mitsuoka is a small Japanese company which builds cars to resemble British cars from the 1950s and 1960s. Apparently this car was made to resemble a frog.
26,000,000THB ($848,318.00) for a Lamborghini Gallardo!
Audi had the R8 on display. I’m not a huge fan of VW/Audi because to me their cars feel like cheap parts bin cars. I don’t find anything unique about them, they are just a combination of VW/Audi/Lambo/ bits thrown together. Top Gear raves about the performance of this car, with even Hamster conceding that it’s better than the 911.
Finally I arrived at the one car I had come to see. The Bugatti Veyron! 1001BHP, a top speed of over 400KM/H, 4 turbos, 10 radiators, a price tag of over $1million.
I walked around the car for some time, looking at all the angles but the more I looked the more it looked like, dare I say it, the Audi TT. The design of this car has no WOW to it. I remember the first time I saw a Ferrari F40 I almost shit my pants it looked so amazing! I think the Porsche 997 TT or the Ferrari F430 is a better looking car than the Veyron. The technology in this car is amazing and really only something the Germans with deep pockets could pull off but the design doesn’t signify the technological achievement that this car is. It would be like if the Death Star was the size of a basketball.
So my first Asian car show and what did I see? A marriage between the Aztek and the 7 series, more rice than an Asian supermarket. A frog like supercar and the world most expensive Volkswagen but at least the girls were cute!
March 8, 2009
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