Thread: Subaru XV or?

Originally Posted by Edmond

Or caught the train if he thinks training it to Kan is preferable to driving yer own car.


Though he did have a 286cc motorbike that he wasn't able to control and had to sell

This is the fella who could weave through traffic in his black Fiat Cinqucinquento

Originally Posted by Reg Dingle

What makes you think or guess at that?

The car was in the wife's name so technically no, but what the fuck this has to do with car ownership i dont know, anyhow I drove everywhere in Thailand and I remember spending 4 hours in traffic driving back to Bangkok from Kanchanaburi and thinking never fucking again

And my son and daughter were over there in September and here's the WhatsApp message from their taxi that i recall...

Yes the trip can take anything from 2.5 to 4 hours plus depending on the traffic, but what to do?
The train leaves from Thonburi station, itself a 30 minute cab ride out of Bangkok if there is no traffic. Also there are only a few trains a day, and none in the evening.
Our house is not in town, but nearer to Sai Yok (another 45 minutes drive past Kanchanaburi town) and 15km away from the nearest train station where there are no taxis or whatever. I have taken the 0730 train from Thonburi to Wang Pho station a couple of times on a Saturday morning in the cool season (there is no aircon as all the carriages are third class) and while it is quite pleasant, the one way journey from door to door took about 5 hours.

The good news is that the motorway between Bangkok and Kanchanaburi should be finished early next year which should significantly cut the journey time by car.

Originally Posted by slimboyfat

Honda HRV

Daughter just bought new one couple months ago. Seems very good choice to me. Cost was a touch over a milliom baht.

The Toyota Cross is a fashion accessory, a faux SUV which in itself is simply an ordinary saloon riding an inch or two higher.

Stop fucking about and get yourself a Honda Civic - you don’t need 4WD and everything else is marketing.

A new Civic is all the car you will ever need.

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

A new Civic is all the car you will ever need.

i am surprised you could afford one?

Originally Posted by malmomike77

i am surprised you could afford one?

Ask him what type of car he drives, he will be as silent as he went when he found out his beloved "Yorkies" is still in business even after his rant.

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

The Toyota Cross is a fashion accessory, a faux SUV which in itself is simply an ordinary saloon riding an inch or two higher.

Stop fucking about and get yourself a Honda Civic - you don’t need 4WD and everything else is marketing.

A new Civic is all the car you will ever need.

Thanks for your reply.
What is a Honda Civic going to offer that my current Honda City doesn't?

SBF, now you have decided against 4WD and gone for an SUV type car then SA is right, the Toyota is a lifted corolla. If you are still looking at an SUV then as previously suggested the Honda HR-V is a great vehicle.

I note you are looking at 2nd hand, how long are you looking to keep the vehicle? and roughly what budget are you looking at?

Is a new Honda HR-V still available other than the electric version, please?

Generally, you cant go wrong with a Toyota SBF. Parts, service and good reliability. Personally I am waiting for something more environmentally friendly.
I'm not sure how long it will be before the first car with a nuclear fusion reactor will hit the market though.

You’ll be waiting awhile…

Originally Posted by Bob Mason

Is a new Honda HR-V still available other than the electric version, please?

They are all hybrid now. I bought one in December. So far, go good.

Originally Posted by taxexile

useless due to water ingress to the engine and wiring loom

Originally Posted by taxexile

expert on everything and nothing

fer fucks sake grandpa - shut the fcuk up - just because you can operate a light switch does not make you even remotely credible when it comes to electric vehicles

Originally Posted by slimboyfat

Thanks for the feedback, which I have taken onboard.
My wife has given me permission to buy a NEW car as long as it is a Toyota or a Honda.
So I'm going with a Toyota Corolla Cross I think.

I recently decided to buy a new car. I wanted hybrid or fully electric and I looked briefly at the GWM, then decided not to test drive one. Mainly I didn't like the sun roof, which was not optional. That is a problem waiting to happen in Thailand, in my opinion.
I fancied the Scooby - but there was no hybrid.
The choice seemed to come down to the Cross or the HRV. The Toyota dealer was a bit "whatever", they didn't have one for a test drive and they didn't know when they would get one, we just got a shrug and a smile. So we went for the HRV. Of course, Toyota called us for a test drive the day after we signed up for the Honda. Too late.
The car has been good as gold and just had its first 10K service. I have no regrets at all, even though there are a couple of things about it I would change if I could. The moonroof is pointless, contrary to the Thai language reviews on YouTube the midday sun does come in, so I now keep a hat in the car. The aircon is great, it isn't a temperature problem, it's about the sun on my head.
The HRV is super smart, once I figured out how to use the flappy paddles to recover energy we are getting 23km per litre in normal driving.
The smart headlights are better than I expected, I am fascinated by the way the car can decide which lights ahead are vehicles and which are not. However, totally useless around here where the locals ride around without any lights. The car isn't smart enough to spot an unlit sa-ling coming at you.
Performance is beyond adequate for my needs and high speed cruising is comfortable. One weak spot is power delivery in sweeping bends, sometimes it is slow to respond to small accelerator input at speed and I find myself drifting wider than planned. Maybe it would be better on the 'Sport' setting, I plan to take it over the hills to Udon when the gf is not in it one day. (Or I could simply take the bends more slowly.) It has plenty of power, floor the throttle and it will overtake pretty much anything other than an inter-city van. It just doesn't behave like my old TVR, where you pushed the throttle a little and the response was instantaneous. It is a bit like turbo-lag, maybe the engine management system is so smart it thinks that little extra weight on the pedal is just the driver fidgeting and it waits a while to be sure. This is a detail, more about my driving style than a problem with the car.
Overall very pleased, until the gf rearranged the bodywork by hitting a dog in the dark. Then it transpired that my dealer doesn't do repairs, so it is multiple trips to Udon Thani for quotes and repairs.
There are other choices, I am happy with this one.

Originally Posted by Shutree

the midday sun does come in, so I now keep a hat in the car.

I have never understood why people have sunroofs, having one in the tropics is just barking.

Originally Posted by Shutree

until the gf rearranged the bodywork by hitting a dog in the dark. Then it transpired that my dealer doesn't do repairs, so it is multiple trips to Udon Thani for quotes and repairs.

I was waiting for the Mrs pranged it story, mine has managed to ding all three new ones of ours within a month of getting them

SBF a lesson in dealers there too re repairs.

Originally Posted by malmomike77

I have never understood why people have sunroofs, having one in the tropics is just barking.

The GWM has a sliding sunroof. You just know that the combination of sun and rain in Thailand is going to kill those seals eventually.
The HRV is a 'moonroof', which I didn't know until they told me is a fixed glass roof. There are detachable roof liners, never likely to be detached on my car. Those in the back are opaque, which is okay but of course the interior is still getting heat from the sun through the glass. The front seat roof liner is a fine mesh, which lets in the sun to a degree. There seems to be no opaque option. Maybe some OEM option will become available.

It was almost inevitable that the car would hit or be hit by something, I was only hoping it might be a year or two down the line. She had to go temple dancing at 0530 on one of only 3 rainy mornings we have had in two months. Her night vision is probably worse than mine, which ain't great, and dogs in the road are common in the early hours. The planets aligned perfectly. Next up, my lottery win.

Originally Posted by taxexile

Arthur Daley


Utter nonsense, and not for the first time from the forums self proclaimed baht bus riding expert on everything and nothing.

The Toyota Cross is hardly a fashion accessory. It is a roomy, robust and reliable vehicle. The extra lift it possesses will certainly come in very handy during the temporary flooding that regularly occurs on the roads here during the rainy season and that renders lower riding vehicles, (and especially electric cars with their batteries fitted in the lowest parts of the car) useless due to water ingress to the engine and wiring looms.


Thailand is without doubt the perfect place for a higher riding vehicle.

Oh, for fuck’s sake, Tax, 16 centimetres clearance ain’t going to get you through floods in Thailand, you silly old prat.

Corolla Cross is a marketing exercise targeted at women easily deluded into thinking it is a rufty-tufty machine magically made safer, bigger and tougher because it’s an SUV. It ain’t. It’s like any other SUV, a jacked up, squared off hatch back, a marketing ploy that the Nissan Qashqai started all those years ago.

I thought SBF had more nous.

The hybrid Honda Civic carries more stuff, seats the same number of passengers, handles better, is more comfortable and returns fine fuel economy.

And it’s faster too

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

returns fine fuel economy.

Mr Clarkson, not as fine as

Originally Posted by Shutree

The HRV is super smart, once I figured out how to use the flappy paddles to recover energy we are getting 23km per litre in normal driving.

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

I thought SBF had more nous.

Whatever gave you that impression? 555

Originally Posted by taxexile

Thailand is without doubt the perfect place for a higher riding vehicle.

Buy a fucking pickup then..... not a little handbag piece of shit that still won't handle a flooded even though it has a 20mm suspension lift over its cousins.

Thanks to those who contributed to this thread in a constructive manner.
It's just a shame that there is so much toxicity on TD these days. But you all knew that anyway and I had just forgotten it.

I lost my vestal virginity at the tender age of 19 to a farmer's daughter who drove a small white manual Subaru hatchback