Thread: How many KM do you drive in Thailand every year?

It seems that many expats give up driving when they settle in Thailand.
A few more these days seem to own a car
How much do you use it?
Where have you been?

Originally Posted by wilko

It seems that many expats give up driving when they settle in Thailand.
A few more these days seem to own a car
How much do you use it?
Where have you been?

Zero, the Mrs deals with all that nonsense, I would have smashed to car up by now with these idiots, she seems to anticipate their madness. We only drive around Bangkok.

When I was working, I was doing somewhere around 40,000 km a year. In the 20 odd years of working here, I have been in almost every province.

I stopped working in 2015 and brought a new vehicle, I just sold that car a month or so ago, and it had 165,000km on it, so I am averaging about 20,000 km a year now.

About 70,000km.

50,000 of which is my door to door work commute drive Monday to Friday.

The good ole Spliffmobile (truck4x4) just turned 300,000 recently.

Originally Posted by spliff

The good ole Spliffmobile (truck4x4) just turned 300,000 recently.

In 1 year ?.

Very impressive.

555 I bought it in 2001

Originally Posted by spliff

555 I bought it in 2001

If your eyesight is that bad you failed at reading the question, might be time to stop driving.

Well, that was rather unkind. Sorry about your problem.

Originally Posted by britanicus123

Zero, the Mrs deals with all that nonsense, I would have smashed to car up by now with these idiots, she seems to anticipate their madness. We only drive around Bangkok.

I found the trick to driving in Thailand was to drive aggressively rather than defensively. ie racing up to stop signs and jumping in front of the then harsh braking victim on the main road.I love the way the Thais behind then all follow closely like train carriages once that right of way has been broken
Even though I believe the majority of Thai drivers had a gun under their seat I found them a lot more courteous than these road raged horn bibbing wankers in most other countries.
The main secret to staying safe on Thai roads imho though is to stay off the fuckers after dark.

Originally Posted by Reg Dingle

Even though I believe the majority of Thai drivers had a gun under their seat

Many do.

To ease the boredom I often instigate a bit of road rage on the 7 motorway.

Have had a few hand guns pointed out of drivers window at me.

Think I’ve put a little over 5K on the truck we bought in January. A lot of that was frequent trips back and forth between Pattaya and Taphan Hin in the first 3-4 months we had it. Since Songkran I’ve only drove local other than a couple trips to Ban Phe. So my guess is I’ll probably average between 7,000 - 10,000 annually over the next 4-5 years

Unlike many I don’t mind driving in Pattaya or Thailand in general. But Bangkok is another story and have avoided going there. My memory of driving there last time I lived here isn’t positive. Think I got a ticket every daggum time I drove up there in the city.

about 10k a year here - I work from home, so rarely drive in the week.

Originally Posted by Reg Dingle

I found the trick to driving in Thailand was to drive aggressively rather than defensively. ie racing up to stop signs and jumping in front of the then harsh braking victim on the main road.I love the way the Thais behind then all follow closely like train carriages once that right of way has been broken
Even though I believe the majority of Thai drivers had a gun under their seat I found them a lot more courteous than these road raged horn bibbing wankers in most other countries.
The main secret to staying safe on Thai roads imho though is to stay off the fuckers after dark.

Although I was in Laos I drove a lot in Thailand and despite the fact the Lao car was left hand drive I found the thais not to bad , certainly better than the Lao.who had only recently got some money and got all vigo, Ed up they couldn't drive for shit. ..I stayed of the road at night in both countries.

Combined, (meaning vehicles and motos), about 25 to 30Km but I do see that tapering off starting next year.

For years I see so many posters go on and on about shit drivers here but I just do not see it to the extent many whinge about. Sure I see some silly shit but I see that in every country I have driven. But to Dils point above, just drive aggressive and pay attention. Its not that hard. I used to commute back and forth every 2 weeks from Lampang to Korat. Never an issue, Then commute every 2 weeks back and forth to BKK then Chonburi. Never an issue. If it matters, On BKK I use the elevated tolls and bypass so seldom ever in that Metro bumper to bumper BS. I can't take traffic crap.

Up here in the North its all wide open driving and AH1 from Rangsit to CM is a nice highway. Cruise along at 110km to 130km all day.

Before I retired, 60-100K a year, with most of that back and forth between Kabinburi and Bangkok.

Since I retired and moved to Bangkok. about 20K a year.

Plus the road infrastructure is way better in Thailand, compared to Lao .. but yeah. The trick is to stay of the road at night. In both places

Originally Posted by BLD

The trick is to stay of the road at night. In both places

True point. Not much of my driving is/was at night. Usually up really early and haul ass to my destination and done. I could leave my house here in Lampang around 6:30/7am and be in Chonburi by 3pm or so. Lot depends if wife would come. Then its longer as we have to stop at every damn place for supplies and snacks and crap we don't need.

We used to do roadies from Vientiane to danang leave at first light drive to lao bao on a busted ass road arrive on the Viet side after clearing customs then stay the night there. The viets aren't to bad to but same problem , leave it until the morning .we used to do those road trips all the time and safety was always 100% in my mind it was probably a bit risky putting my family at risk of harm.but we done it. And had fun .

Slowed down a lot over the last few years due to Covid and advancing years. I still do 25-30,000 per year which was less than half of what I had to do as a youngster and a lot of that was on laterite roads in the olden days. I've driven to every province in Thailand except Narathiwat for a total of around 1.5 million km. My thinking is that roads and driving skills in Thailand just keep improving.

Back in the day I drove a lot of unnecessary km looking for accommodation that didn't have squat toilets with water scoops, so my fault for being fussy. I've worked in quite a few countries and my opinion is that Thai drivers and the road system are as good as anywhere.

About 20k a year , retired so able to jump in the car for a few days on the road at will, Thailand is great for this with food and lodgings availability.
Prefer the highway to city driving but got to get out of the city first before putting the foot down.
Has my driving deteriorated since living here ?, yup !!

between 2003 and 2020 I had 2 successive vehicles - covered 280k in each one. Various motorcycles and rented vehicle from 1998 to 2023. I've driven extensively in Thailand and Laos and 2 trips into Malaysia. This year I will total a lot less as I've retired - about 8000 p/a.

I have always driven al lot - for me it is an important part of work and leisure
I've driven extensively in UK, Western Europe, Australia and a couple of trips in North America and Morocco.
As part of my first degree I worked in a road traffic engineering department in a major city in the UK - this gave me a valuable insight into road safety - something tht I notice some posters here have no idea about.
I it of course good that peple recognise their own limitations as drivers - which is a major part of road safety.
However I've noticed that many people refer to their "experience" which in fact is just the accumulation of bad habits.

Originally Posted by Stumpy

Combined, (meaning vehicles and motos), about 25 to 30Km but I do see that tapering off starting next year.

For years I see so many posters go on and on about shit drivers here but I just do not see it to the extent many whinge about. Sure I see some silly shit but I see that in every country I have driven. But to Dils point above, just drive aggressive and pay attention. Its not that hard. I used to commute back and forth every 2 weeks from Lampang to Korat. Never an issue, Then commute every 2 weeks back and forth to BKK then Chonburi. Never an issue. If it matters, On BKK I use the elevated tolls and bypass so seldom ever in that Metro bumper to bumper BS. I can't take traffic crap.

Up here in the North its all wide open driving and AH1 from Rangsit to CM is a nice highway. Cruise along at 110km to 130km all day.

I think the drivers and driving here have improved greatly over the years.

Drive in India...

Driving is fine in Bangkok. I regularly drive into Onnut with no problems. Too much further in and you're going 5kmh anyway.

We're not far from the main expressways so whichever way we're going is pretty easy.

Yes - driving in Bangkok is fine - it has one of the lowest death and injury rates in the coiuntry.
So long as you know whre you are goingand are not stressed for time there is no problem - I used to communt to work in BKK in the car in preference to the BTS.