Cars!

And not the movie.

OK, so a little background about cars in Thailand. There are 3 categories: pick ups, expensive, and taxed to all hell. Here is a bit of the layout:

"Cars sold in Thailand have long been taxed on the basis of engine size and horsepower, with passenger cars taxed from 30% for cars with engines under 2,000cc and less than 220 hp to 50% for cars with engines over 3,000cc and over 220 hp. Pickup trucks are taxed significantly less, starting at 3%, under policies aimed at supporting development of the light pickup market."

But in reality it's crazier than that. This is for cars made in the country or countries they have deals with and even then it's only certain models. A new BMW 3 series might run you $70,000. Like that new Mustang 5.0? Only $140,000! On a smaller scale a Honda fit might run you 3-5K more than the US, while a Mini and a Nissan cube are 3x more expensive. It makes no damn sense, but hey, whatever... Also don't ever try to import your car or motorcycle here, they will tax it based on what they deem it's value is and then try to make sure you mess up the process so they can steal it from you and sell it at a private (corrupt) government auction. Knew a guy on an Expat forum who lost his Supra this way...

 Soooo, when you see a nice car here, and there are quite a few (LOTS of corruption here, the people who are rich are insanely rich and often are high powered enough to have the taxes waived) you tend to take notice.

SO here are some pics, I left them the original size.

 So here we have a scoobi, not really digging the shopping cart wing though, but the two 240's sitting behind it are nice.

Next we have what seems to be a normal BMW with a bit of a rake, only to find it's FMIC. Most likely it has had a SR20DET swap from a Nissan or a 1jzgte swap from a Toyota, unless the owner has the $ for a 2jz

 What's that hiding under the plastic? A nice Audi R8 you say? Probably $200k!

If I were to live here again I would try to build a 1980's BMW e30 with a Toyota 1UZ-FE, surprisingly this V8 has slipped through all the taxation problems but are in low demand due to the high gas consumption. Gas here is about $4/gallon, but you have to remember that most people only make $300-600USD/month

I'll keep posting more. I was at a wedding all day yesterday so I had no time. I ended up meeting the couple last week through a mutual friend and went with them when the wedding pictures were taken. Over a couple of beers that night I got invited and was the only Farang (white person) at the wedding haha, had a blast. I didn't bother taking pictures since I had like 3-4 friends with nice DSLR's and my little cannon just didn't cut it.