Process : Buying 2nd hand Bike in Thailand

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farangtses

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Sep 9, 2012
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Hello everybody

I wonder if somebody could write here the exact process when somebody wana buy a 2nd hand motobike in Thailand ?

What should we ask during transaction, except green book !!? Signed copy of ID card of owner ? What kind of letter should we fill / sign for the registration ?
Somebody could give a link to all the necessary documents to print / fill ?

Thanks everybody
 
TonyBKK

TonyBKK

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Dec 27, 2007
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Is the seller is foreign or Thai as it varies a bit depending.

You will need:

1) Your passport. Copies of face page, visa page, entry stamp page.
2) Depending on the province you may need a long term Visa (some tourist-friendly provinces like Phuket and Chonburi for example don't seem to care about this)
3) Work Permit OR Address Verification Letter from Thai Immigration or from your Embassy.

Seller needs:

1) Green Book
2) Thai seller needs their ID card. Foreign seller needs passport.*
*This is where it can be a bit tricky- some DLT require the seller to have a valid Thai Visa.

Most DLT will help you fill out the paperwork.

If I've forgotten anything I'm sure someone will chime in :)

Here's what I generally recommend:

Always safest to go with the seller and apply for the transfer together.

The DLT will inspect the bike and the paperwork and you will know right away if there is any problem. Any problems, just walk away.

IMO any seller who wants payment but refuses to go with you to their local DLT to apply for the transfer should raise a big red flag.

My advice, show the seller the money, but don't pay until the transfer has been approved.

Best of luck!

Tony
 
DavidFL

DavidFL

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Jan 16, 2003
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farangtses;282825 wrote: Thanks a lot for the answer,

Do you have any idea of where i could find the location of those "DLT" ? (by the way, whats the exact meaning of DLT?, department of logistic and transportration ?)

Is it this : http://driving.information.in.th/thai-dmv.html ? The same office as to get a driving license ?
Click to expand...
"the department of land transportation is the thai version of the DMV" from the URL you quoted.
 
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finnomick

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Jun 15, 2011
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Things may, and often do vary from region to region. Here in Buriram, if you buy a vehicle from another region, you must register the new purchase at the main regional transport and registration department irrespective of whether there is a nearer registration department to where you live. However, if you sell a vehicle and it is to be transferred out of your region, you need to go to your local registraion department. We took a vehicle back to the main registration department and was told the transfer could not be done there. We even offered them 1000 baht to do the transfer. We were told our money could be accepted, but they'd still send us to our local registration office to complete the transfer. ( Of course, if you happen to live near the main office, then this office will suffice for both transfers ). We drove over 100kms to be told to ' go away ' when the local office is only 12 kms from our house. I'm never too old to learn something new -- especially here in Thailand !
 
Joelthailand

Joelthailand

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Aug 29, 2011
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BEWARE even if a green book is genuine & can be transferred into your name. It can still NOT be a 100% green book!!

I went to buy a big bike this week & was shocked at what a little investigation can show. I am going to keep the owner & bike for sale anonymous, as he was definitely innocent of knowing & still has to try & sell his bike. He's a little rich kid that paid top money for this bike but was a ignorant/naive to the pitfalls of buying big bikes in Thailand IMHO.....BUYER BEWARE!!

Long story short, saw a big bike advertised very local to me & went to see it. It was not quite in the A1 condition advertised but okay enough to start negotiating on the price etc. A bike over 5 yrs of age that just looks clean on the outside cannot be classed as A1 condition without a fat file of bills or parts receipts to show someone has taken care of the bike over the years! My first little alarm bell went off!

Went to my local road tax office with the green book (they had originally put it in his name 2yrs ago) & they knew the bike & confirmed it was real & could be transferred to my name.

Next step before handing over cash was personally check frame & engine numbers match the bike & green book. They did on casual inspection! Great i'm gonna buy this bike!! :)

Spoke to my very old & wise farang mechanic that has been buying & selling bikes for over 20yrs in Thailand & he said before you pull the trigger & hand over any cash......Get a Thai friend to read the green book carefully ie bike color & year of manufacturer, then do some internet research on the frame & engine numbers! He added 80% of these type of bikes can have a very chequered history.

2 hours later i discover the frame was a "donor frame" registered 12 yrs before the bike was actually born & the frame was almost half the cc smaller on paper (green book & tax sticker) than the bike i was buying in person....btw the frame number was expertly re-stamped with the donor frame number & was on the green book! The engine was original & had the correct cc & number in the green book but in the real world this engine could not go into this frame.....not even Macgyver with the help of The A-team could put this engine into this frame!! :thumbdown:

Now with this new information i went back to the road tax office & asked some relevant questions! They laughed & told me there "could be a problem with the police if i have accident with Thai person" &
"if senior policeman inspect bike he could confiscate bike to police station coz he know the bike cannot be like this" &
"you cannot get 1st class insurance because this bike frame & engine number were put on this green book with extra money to DLT boss" &
"you will have big problem selling or transferring this bikes green book to another province".
For F#cks Sake....:mad:

Amazing Thailand eh!! Why didn't the tax people tell me this stuff in the first place......another case of if you don't ask the right questions they won't tell you the right answers!!

Hope this little story helps show that it's always worth scratching beneath the surface of a so called genuine green book on a slightly older big sports bike or chopper. Luckily this bike was on my doorstep, i would have been really pissed if i had traveled a long way to buy this bike. Trying to sell this bike in the future would have been a nightmare as well.
This was an interesting lesson & i was lucky not to get my fingers burnt! :thumbup:

Good luck
 
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