Finer points of boredom

Motoring News - Friday December 14, 2007

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

Finer points of boredom

JESSADA TANDHASETTI

The year-ending Motor Expo just closed its doors a few days ago. And by the time this column is in your hands, I am quite sure new vehicle sales statistics from the Motor Expo have already been published.

I never placed an iota of importance on how many cars were sold at the show, which is frequently used as an indicator of our national economy and the well being of the population.

There are so many other factors that influence the sales at motor shows. We will never know the number of car buyers who never really needed to buy a car and should have stuck with their current vehicle. Or how many should have bought used cars.

Judging from my experience spanning over a few decades, I have noticed that Thais buy cars based on their emotions more than logical reasons. Some first-time buyers never even stopped to think about the financial burden.

The way some people buy cars is strange to say the least. Absolutely void of reason. They ask a couple of close friends or someone who supposedly "knows" about cars and brands. Then they select which model offers affordable monthly installments. And then they fill out the necessary forms and willingly become financial slaves to various financial institutions.

Some people claim they are "bored of the same old car". No one can stop anyone from the feeling of boredom. But if your financial status or income bracket does not qualify yourself for ownership of a new car, it is recommended that you remain bored with the same car.

Thais are easily bored nowadays. At the beginning of the month when it's salary time, I hear complaints that people are bored of reasonably-priced restaurants and they need to go some place with a tad more quality and quantity to get rid of this boredom.

And then there are people who are bored of vacationing in Thailand despite not having seen half of the local tourist sites and attractions. So they buy expensive airplane tickets to go abroad and waste tonnes of money.

When you grow old and realise that your earning potential has diminished, where will you find your income from?

Now if you are bored of the old cheating ways of our local politicians who are being paraded in front of us to win our votes, or bored of rich generals showing their B100 million mansions to tax-paying citizens like us, then I say your reason to be bored is justified.

Shifting gears back to the Motor Expo, I saw a couple of new brands on show which gave me a good feeling of things to come.

The more brands, the more competition. This leads to development of quality and prevents market monopoly and price manipulation by the seller.

I felt even happier when show-goers paid a great deal of interest to these two new vehicle brands. The first brand is Korean, which isn't exactly new for the Thai customer, but tripped over itself a decade ago with mistakes made in after-sales service operations and damaged its brand image considerably despite of its good quality.

But now this Korean marque is being managed by a reputable Japanese trading company as its new distributor. There is no need to be conned by blank promises. I asked the sales executives about the brand's strengths and the answers were the following:

- Management by the manufacturer preventing third parties taking advantage of the customer and loss of brand image like the previous distributor.

- Lower pricing strategy for vehicle products with comparable quality levels.

- Five-year warranty on quality along with unlimited mileage.

I believe that the first and third answers will be tested and proven by the customer in the long term. The brand's objectives appears to be possible based on their determination.

However I am especially impressed by the third answer which creates trust and confidence in the customer. Especially from the technical perspective, it's a testament to the durability of the vehicle which is why the manufacturer dared to offer such a long term warranty to the customer.

Hopefully this will pave the way to serve as a template for the rest of the competition. Obviously the benefits will be realised by the customer.

The second brand comes from a neighboring country which highlights low-pricing strategy. Of course this is good news if the quality level isn't reduced in equal parts according to the reduction in price.

Those familiar with the auto industry over the past two decades will agree that the customer's hand has been forced, indirectly, to buy cars which are increasingly becoming more and more expensive with little or no reason at all.

The latter brand is using the services of a Thai distributor which previously managed a Korean vehicle product.

Let us hope that lessons were learned from past mistakes because those who suffer from such mistakes will be the poor customer who unknowingly purchased the car with their utmost trust and confidence.

Jessada Tandhasetti is former department head of automotive engineering studies at Rangsit University and is currently a technical consultant. He holds a master's degree in automotive engineering from Technical University, Berlin, Germany.

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