Hi You Guys,
It is me again,
With an important thread, this time....

Why are the Benz you see in Chiang Mai mostly older models?
The ones I see, when I see them are anything from about 8 years old to 30 years old.

Now in Taipei, where I have spent some time, there are about 20 times more Benz driving around the city, and most are recent models of about 4 years old or newer.

I do not think it is because the Benz buyers in Taipei are any richer that they have new ones and Thai buyers have old ones.

I guess I really do not know why, and I only have a suggestion.


I think it may have something to do with the people in Taipei being fiercely status conscious, much more so than people in Chiang Mai. If true, then this is a very good thing which speaks to the overall healthier social environment that I do see here.

In Taipei, I see a great deal of people taking a key and scratching many long marks in the paint of the cars which are late model and expensive. Jealousy may be one reason, and frustration with a lack of opportunity and mobility may be another.

For me, I am perfectly happy to not see so many Assshooles in late model Mercedes tooling around town and almost running me over, as I definitely do see in Taipei.

Taipei is a very hard city to live in without a lot of money, because the houses are poorly constructed concrete boxes, with no central heating or airconditioning, poor water design and no hot water unless you have one of those gas jobs and a propane tank. Stepping outside the environment is not much better, with cars whizzing around and no place for the kids to play, but computer game cafes.

So there must be a great deal of frustration for people who raise a family with children there.

I know there is a lot of back biting and under the table score settling.

But I do not see that here, so far.

Very interesting. And I do like to look at the older model Benz cars.
I have had two of them when I bought them new:

a 380SE and a 300E.

I bought them over 20 years ago, and so these old cars here remind me of the fun I had in those cars. Drinking tea driving at night from Philly to Dallas. And screwing a few in an E in some underground parking lot with the security cameras on.