Hoghead;282464 wrote: I would love to be proved wrong but after inflation, Distributor greed, and marketing as a status item, I suspect that we will be living for obscene pricing for some time to come.
Yes and no. Seems to vary a lot from one brand to the next.
The Thai manufactured Ducatis are a LOT cheaper than the ones imported from Italy. Thai Ducati Diavel is a full 400k baht less than the Italian-made Diavel for example.
Kawasaki's imported bikes are quite reasonably priced, compared to the competition anyway. The Kawasaki Z1000 is made in Japan and at 550k Baht is by far the cheapest 1000cc bike in Thailand. The Kawasaki Vulcan is WAY cheaper than any of the other cruiser style bikes available in Thailand. Actually, I think Triumph and HD are the only brands other than Kawasaki that even offers "cruiser" style bikes in Thailand and we all know how expensive HD and Triumph are in Thailand.
Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki make cruisers but choose not to sell them in Thailand...
Triumph, even though they manufacture the twins right here in Thailand, continue to charge outrageous prices, simply because they can...
Still, in the grand scheme of things it's an exciting time to be a biker in Thailand- the choices of brands and models continues to increase and there's a bike for pretty much any budget these days and the grey market importers are still filling the holes that the official dealers neglect.
I'd prefer to look the Thai bike scene as a "glass half full" rather than a "glass half empty", but that's just me
:happy1: