Checking out the second hand car dealers

With the Motor Expo starting at the end of this week, I thought it would be a great idea to go and check out the local used car dealerships and see how the prices stack up.

For me, I still haven’t worked out how the new and used car market actually works in Thailand. Considering the average income of a Thai is barely over 15,000 baht per month, I am given to wonder how they can even consider affording a new or used car from a car yard like we saw here today. In Australia, a Mazda 2 base model costs around $15,000 AUS, but what I’ve seen here in Thailand, that same model (or closest to it) costs over $20,000 AUD. With the average Thai wage being 1/3 to 1/4 of Australian income, how can the Thai’s afford these luxuries?

From what I saw today at the 2 car yards here, the second-hand market is also overpriced and not much in the way of savings to be made. I’ll need to do more exploration on this subject I guess.

As mentioned, here’s the google pin location for the second place we stopped at.