Buying a new car in PH.

bigpearl wrote:

I'm going to maintain the car and service it myself and go to the local auto electrician who probably knows more than the expert Chinese representatives..

Small repairshops are often better than them the brand have, I suppouse by owners work in the small themselves.  (In whole my life I have only used a brand workshop once and that depended f they were the only who had time    when my car didnt start when I were far away from home.   They made it start BUT they hadnt replaced te broken part, so I had to epair same again a few days later, but then I had reached home.

bigpearl wrote:

Chinese representatives..

Filipino franchise, or chinese owned ?

In average chinese (small) PRIVATE businesses seem much better than aveerage Filipino by chinese ANSWER fast, while big part of Filipino anwer never or take weeks or even months!

(omo) Just don't spend/invest too much money on anything here & keep your expectations to a minimum as you are bound to get angry/irritated sooner or later.
However if you like me enjoy
a) cheap that can be made good/reliable with some extra work.
b) having a write of mentality.
You are in for a treat.

Brilliant Idea : hahahaha

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/researchers-t … 22740.html

bigpearl wrote:

You know I have purchased plenty of new cars over the last 40 years of my new car buying existence and in Australia, Ford, Holden (GM), Toyota, Mercedes, Peugeot and Audi  that have always given the 3 years warranty without questions asked or trying it on in any way shape or form for anything unexpected. A bonafide warranty.

Philippines? No sir that only has one year warranty, that part has 2 years warranty,,,,,, but it's a 3 year warranty,,,,,, yes sir but not these components,,,,,,, but your warrant does not state that,,,,,,, yes sir,,,,, it doesn't mention any of your rubbish in the warranty, simply 3 years,,,,,, yes sir but...........

The better half took the car 2 hours south from us to the supplier, where we purchased and to get serviced, spoke to them about the problem on the phone yesterday and the diagnostics that I did, yes sir you need to plug into our computer to analyse the problem, yes sir under warranty.

The problem as mentioned in another thread, flat battery. Jump start car, bring it home, voltage looks good but in the morning 12.4,,,,,,, not good, perhaps a collapsed cell at only 2 years old? New battery after shopping was more than the price i ever paid for my batteries in 4x4 trucks in Oz at half the size,,,, well under half the CCA, you know the bigger the battery the more expensive.

Fully charged 2 days in a row,,,,, park it up, morning test 12.4 volts, 3rd day fully charged disconnect battery, in the morning 12.62 volts.............. problem found, something is running/active in the car after locking it up. Disconnect the 2 dash cams, check all the interior and exterior lights, no problems. disconnect negative terminal and connect multi meter on milli amps between battery and disconnected terminal,,,,, did this twice, while connected pulled one fuse at a time, fuses regular and slow blow and all the relays under the bonnet, nada, in cab fuses ditto,,, nada, still constantly drawing 80 milliamperes instead of the recommended 35 to 50. Disconnect the alternator in case one or two of the diodes gave up the ghost,,,, reconnect to double check while car running to reconfirm diodes in the alternator are fine,,,,, No A/C going to the battery. No leakage through faulty diode.

Ben rings me after they looked at the/received the car telling me every thing is fine the voltage according to them is 12.7........... doh. Yes you just got there, we spoke to the boss about the problem and the proverbial "yes we can fix sir" yesterday. Have they plugged in the diagnostic computer yet? No, they said no need the battery is fine,,,,,,,,, 3 hours and multiple phone calls back and forward with me advising them of testing/elimination proceedures? They still have no idea but a revelation with my last phone call was suddenly "ahh the drainage is now measuring only 38 millivolts" of course my question,,,,, what did they do/change,,,,, no one is sure because 3 guys were playing and as always here the left hand never tells the right hand what's going on. Don't buy a HaimaS5.

You know it's actually a reasonable car but sincerely lacks firstly honouring any form of warranty (typically Chinese) and a backed up service base offering expertise to what appears to be a bunch of monkeys selling this product and simply changing the oil and filter, with no formal training in the service department of what they are foisting on the unwary.

Guess what if suddenly the battery drainage disappeared because some fool moved a wire/loom?

I'm going to maintain the car and service it myself and go to the local auto electrician who probably knows more than the expert Chinese representatives.

That was a big whinge and sorry to bore some or many but as said, my newest frustrating experience and it could well be the same with the grease monkeys in Toyota or Nissan etc.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

Sometimes the glove box interior light stays on or trunk light.

I've not had good experience with Pilipino mechanics, I have no experience with Chinese mechanics here. (Not many about where I live.)

My experience is so bad that I have vowed to look after my vehicles myself, even if I have to obtain equipment that is more expensive than the repair.

The worst experience I had was when a service interval replacement cam belt change escalated to a New Piston and Replacement Cylinder Head. First belt balance shaft belt failure after replacement caused no damage. Second repair, caused the main belt to break resulting in bent valves and broken rocker arms. after this repair something small was allowed to get into the inlet manifold and trashed a piston, all four valves and the cylinder head. Still operating on mechanics advice,, I allowed a workshop to weld up the damage to the cylinder head and machine it down. The machine shop trashed the valve seats and took that much metal off that the valves would hit the pistons. Never again will I use a Pilipino mechanic.

Other minor issues include:

a) I needed to get some brake pads.  I have a rare type of pad fitted to my car. The only place that I could get a set quick would only supply if I let them fit. I could hear the mechanic struggling with a large hammer. I had to stop him from destroying  the hub nut, which didn't need to be removed.

b) I needed to replace the belt tensioner bearing. Job appeared to be done well. The replacement bearing was the wrong spec. It only lasted one month.

Having said that I do know of a great paint shop that matched my one off paint colour exactly after the car was trashed when parked up by a being ran into by a tricycle being ridden by a young child.

I will not be wasting my hard earned on a new car. It is very likely to receive at least moderate damage within the first year.

BassMan_720 wrote:

The worst experience I had was when a service interval replacement cam belt change escalated to a New Piston and Replacement Cylinder Head.

I must lived a charmed life when it comes to cars. I bought a used 1990 Toyota Camry with 188,000 miles, at 250,000 it was so rusted out, I bought a used 1997 Camry it had 85,000 miles and gave it away at 313,000 miles. I then bought a Lexus RX-330 and sold it at 170,000 miles before moving to the Philippines.

I changed oil and filter every 3,000 miles (house branded oil from 55 gallon drums) and never replaced a timing belt on any of my cars. Must have received a 100 free full service car washes with my oil changes.

I just received a quote from Tacloban Toyota for a 2021 Hilux. The quote included P123,200 for something called "Safeguard Duty". I asked what that was about and the sales person sent me the following link:

https://toyota.com.ph/news/sgfaq

It is some sort of tariff imposed beginning Feb. 2021 that may or may not be refunded. The way I read it, the customer is supposed to show up at the dealer with government ID and asks to have it refunded.

Also, my Filipino brother in law went to the same dealer on the same day and asked for a quote on the same vehicle and his quote was a little lower. On my quote I was charged P13,700 for 3 year LTO registration and it was free on his quote.

Moon Dog wrote:

I just received a quote from Tacloban Toyota for a 2021 Hilux. The quote included P123,200 for something called "Safeguard Duty". I asked what that was about and the sales person sent me the following link:

https://toyota.com.ph/news/sgfaq

It is some sort of tariff imposed beginning Feb. 2021 that may or may not be refunded. The way I read it, the customer is supposed to show up at the dealer with government ID and asks to have it refunded.

Also, my Filipino brother in law went to the same dealer on the same day and asked for a quote on the same vehicle and his quote was a little lower. On my quote I was charged P13,700 for 3 year LTO registration and it was free on his quote.

Of course you paid the foreigner price. Good luck with the refund. Best to send a Filipino to get it, but it sounds like the ID might be problematic.

BassMan_720 wrote:

great paint shop that matched my one off paint colour exactly after the car was trashed when parked up by a being ran into by a tricycle being ridden by a young

Yes they do carry out an exceptional cover up job i mean paint job.

FortuneFavorsTheBold wrote:

Of course you paid the foreigner price. Good luck with the refund. Best to send a Filipino to get it, but it sounds like the ID might be problematic.

I'll have my wife and her dad and brother take care of purchasing and retrieving the tariff. I may have to put it in her dad's name.

We changed our minds already on our vehicle needs. I don't really need a new pickup, waste of money. I already have an older Isuzu Trooper, a Honda TMX tricycle and a pedicab. New plan is to buy the wife a new SUV like a Fortuner. The Safeguard Duty is only P71,000 on the Fortuner.

I recently sold my 2016 Chevy Colorado to Carvana for $33,035 which is $7,000 more than I paid for it 5 years ago. That will take some of the bite out of buying a new car in the Philippines.

Moon Dog wrote:

I just received a quote from Tacloban Toyota for a 2021 Hilux. The quote included P123,200 for something called "Safeguard Duty". I asked what that was about and the sales person sent me the following link:

https://toyota.com.ph/news/sgfaq

It is some sort of tariff imposed beginning Feb. 2021 that may or may not be refunded. The way I read it, the customer is supposed to show up at the dealer with government ID and asks to have it refunded.

Also, my Filipino brother in law went to the same dealer on the same day and asked for a quote on the same vehicle and his quote was a little lower. On my quote I was charged P13,700 for 3 year LTO registration and it was free on his quote.

Just a theory 
Is in an uncommon/no other such model in Phils?
If so its perhaps cost for safety test of the model   (perhaps part refunding by there are some more having such model too so the cost  can be splited.)

Looks like it is a tax on imports so the only Toyotas exempt for the tax are the Innova and the Vios "because they're still locally manufactured and assembled in the Toyota factory in Santa Rosa, Laguna."

Moon Dog wrote:

Looks like it is a tax on imports ;

I suppouse have the custom fees ALSO.

I don't see a customs fee. Here is what I was quoted:

2021 HILUX 4X2 G DSL AT
UNIT PRICE P 1,295,000.00
SAGEGUARD DUTY 123,200.00
1 Year Comprehensive Ins. & 3 Years Liability Insurance 41,213.00
3 Years LTO Registration13,700.00
Total Cash Out P 1,473,113.00

Moon Dog wrote:

I don't see a customs fee.

Thats part of purchase cost or retailers,  so natural retailers count such BEFORE tell retail price.

How about the "Chicken Tax", which is actually a 25% tariff (tax) imposed on imported brandy, dextrin, potato starch, and light trucks like the Toyota Hilux.
(I hear they have that requirement is the usa/so maybe here too)

coach53 wrote:

bigpearl wrote:

I'm going to maintain the car and service it myself and go to the local auto electrician who probably knows more than the expert Chinese representatives..

Small repairshops are often better than them the brand have, I suppouse by owners work in the small themselves.  (In whole my life I have only used a brand workshop once and that depended f they were the only who had time    when my car didnt start when I were far away from home.   They made it start BUT they hadnt replaced te broken part, so I had to epair same again a few days later, but then I had reached home.

bigpearl wrote:

Chinese representatives..

Filipino franchise, or chinese owned ?

In average chinese (small) PRIVATE businesses seem much better than aveerage Filipino by chinese ANSWER fast, while big part of Filipino anwer never or take weeks or even months!

My bad coach, Chinese car, franchised dealer, in this case the Laus group. You will be surprised how big they are here.

https://www.lausgroup.com.ph

Cheers, Steve.

Enzyte Bob. "Sometimes the glove box interior light stays on or trunk light."

Read my post, all the easy stuff was the first thing I did.

A four hour plus round trip to the dealership, 3 hours in the workshop and yes sir it's fixed, nothing is wrong. I had to coach them through the testing procedures and processes of elimination with multiple phone calls and in the end they said they adjusted the brake pedal switch and that fixed it,,,,,,,, it did? yes sir, so again I asked them have you checked the drainage on the battery as discussed,,,,,, no sir, then please do it because the other fool I spoke to said you already did that, yes sir, the answer was 38 milli amp draw. Perfectly acceptable for a modern day car.

Car home late afternoon. Ben checks the voltage, ah they fixed it he said it's 12.73 volts,,,,,,, yes you just got home and we have been through "batteries need to rest" scenario. 5:30 am I check the voltage. 12.57,,,,, not good, 2 hours later 12.55, really not good.
So disconnect the battery, check the current draw,,,,, same as my earlier tests, 80 m/a.
They fixed nothing and probably couldn't find a girl in a brothel.
I asked Ben "did you see them test the current draw at 38 m/a?" yes I have a picture,,,,, showed me and i looked at a 10 dollar multimeter that was old and had a few cracks in the case, yep it said 38 m/a. I have a 600 buck Fluke multi meter and just checked again and it's up 85/86 m/a. Only an opinion but I think there is a slight short circuit somewhere that if not addressed could cause a fire. (car is insured but good luck with a claim Steve).

The point is there is an obvious fault that appeared 2 weeks ago on a 2 year old car that never had a problem. the "supposed technicians haven't got a clue" and I'm only a dumb plumber but realise my next trick will be examining all the wiring looms and that will be a pain without a hoist as well as hidden looms within the body and chassis.

Ben is going to call the dealers shortly and ask if they can get off their backsides and talk to a decent Haima technician in China. HaHaHa. Wish us luck.
Any serious suggestions from those with auto electrical tech experience will be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for the sob story.

Cheers, Steve.

bigpearl wrote:

coach53 wrote:

[

bigpearl wrote:

Chinese representatives..

Filipino franchise, or chinese owned ?

In average chinese (small) PRIVATE businesses seem much better than aveerage Filipino by chinese ANSWER fast, while big part of Filipino anwer never or take weeks or even months!

My bad coach, Chinese car, franchised dealer, in this case the Laus group. You will be surprised how big they are here.
https://www.lausgroup.com.ph

Im not suprised      
Filipinos love franchises and MLMs, even MLMs which are illegal in many countries.   They make franchises of a lot of suitable and not suitable businesss for franchise.

((I I ever get there, first I will start a  second type of production if test of my idea of prooduction method wil manage to get good quality with that much cheaper prodduction method.
If I  bother after that I will startup an own FRANCHISE for Filipinos to join within service if covid willl be solved before that. If they will manage to get "minimum clients every month, they will earn ok in only 4 days service work per month plus the time they need to organice and get clients.  Much needed, but I suppouse it will be COPIED by many 

I bought a new vehicle here because i did not want any of the issues with a used car. In my home country i can find a good used car. Not so sure here. And being a foreigner you need a dependable, reliable car. So i bought a toyota SUV. A prado to be exact. I only owned them in the USA and never had any problems. Easy to get parts for here as well. I do all my services at dealership. The vehicle is now 5 years old. No warranty now but no problems either. Like i said i do all the 5K schedule maintenance all the time. I used a credit union in my home country to finance it at 3.75.

good choice!

this is the same all over the world.
with everyone  only wanting to go to College,
the supply of good mechanics is at an all time low.
I will never buy any new car again.
These "FACEBOOK" cars with all their electronic crap
are nothing but a headache.
And dont ever go for any of the "electric toy"  cars!  even bigger headache
Stick to anything older than 2005 and just repair them.
Us older folks only have a few cars left anyway!   

I'm sorry you've gone through such strife. I must admit, you were a brave soul to purchase a Chinese Haima S5, in the Philippines. I feel your pain, and I'm taking your recommendation to heart. My wife has been asking about getting a car, so, since we live on a farm, we purchased a third-hand multi-cab. I kept telling my wife, we don't need a car, you don't want a car there. We won't use it enough. Well, buying the multi-cab for 50k pesos broke her of that desire. First, her father ran into a concrete barrier, and busted the light, then someone ran over a board with nails going out to the farmland, and that had to be repaired. Then a window fell and shattered, and that needed replacement, then the battery died…and that was just the first week. Then she had to fill it up with fuel, she never realized it was so expensive. Needless to say, she agrees that we don't need a car there. She's waiting until we get back to the States. Then, she said she wants a Texas sized pickup truck…one battle at a time. I feel your pain…

I have this figured out, I think. We ordered a new white Toyota Fortuner G from Tacloban Toyota. I was told wait time was 4 to 6 weeks but I got an email a week later that it had arrived. We worked out that since I couldn't pick it up until Aug. 5th at the earliest they could sell it and order me another one if necessary. It didn't sell so they invoiced it to me to meet their monthly quota. I think it's a good deal, especially since the government's P78,400 "Safeguard Duty" tax was dropped. I put P30,000 down, they discounted it P35,000 and they threw in 3 years registration and 3 years insurance, balance is P1,658,000. Now to pay for it.

While I was still in the states I had my brother in law open a BDO account and I wired 2 million pesos to his account, but it never showed up! Turns out he opened an account at a BDO Network bank and I wired it to a BDO Unibank, whoops! There were a few nervous days but Wells Fargo recalled it and one day it showed up again in my account. I even made $14 on the deal.

My brother in law then opened a PNB account but Jovy was pretty adamant about no more wiring money so it looked like a whole lot of remittances. I flew to the Philippines 9 days ago and hotel quarantine provided me ample time to think of a better way, and it worked! I totally forgot about Fidelity! Fidelity handles our IRAs and I even have a small non-IRA account with them. I called them to make sure I can wire $35,000 to a Toyota account and they said no problem, just a phone call. So I added some funds to the non-IRA account. It took a couple days to settle but now I'm all set. I'll call and wire the money Monday and likely pick it up Thursday after the 4 day home quarantine.

MoonDog - Just don't tell Fidelity you are going to be resident outside the USA   We always buy used cars from expats as in NCR to there is a steady flow of people leaving and selling  -  though good to hear your approach on the new car and you happy with it - Fortuner is a good car.

PhilRes wrote:

MoonDog - Just don't tell Fidelity you are going to be resident outside the USA   We always buy used cars from expats as in NCR to there is a steady flow of people leaving and selling  -  though good to hear  your approach on the new car and you happy with it - Fortuner is a good car.

Fidelity is aware that I moved to the Philippines. I had a couple conversations with them on how it works. I can no longer have a managed account so I had to sell everything since it was all managed and I can't buy mutual funds although I can keep any mutual funds I already owned. I can still buy and sell most stocks and EFTs. They monitor IP addresses so you can't hide it forever. I doesn't affect the funds transfer so it's all good. Thanks

Hi all,

I didn't buy a new car but a bank repo 2019 Nissan Terra with less than 12Km on it. That was 5 months ago, so far so good. I was thinking about taking the SUV to the Nissan dealership for the 15km oil change but some of the comments in this thread is making me have second thoughts on taking it to the dealership here in Davao City.  Thoughts?

Thanks, Jeff A

MoonDog - you then fully briefed on Fidelity - yes if retiring why add a bunch of complexity.

Fidelity gave me some grief on wiring the money last night but they relented and the lady at the dealership emailed me today that the money was there, but short about P26K. Fidelity doesn't do Philippine pesos so I had to guess at the dollar amount and Metrobank didn't give me the best exchange rate.

I always changed my own oil in the states. I may do it here also but I would like to cash in on any free oil changes offered by the dealership.

I been here 6 years now and ordinated this. I have since paid off my suv. It's in great condition. Have it serviced at regular schedule times. It's the right type vehicle to own here living in province. Happy with my purchased.

PhilRes wrote:

MoonDog - you then fully briefed on Fidelity - yes if retiring why add a bunch of complexity.

What is the catch in informing  Fidelity of one's retirement abroad?