Ferrari's in Thailand???

I agreed. I went back to Thailand last couple weeks and stayed that just for one week. Since I only have 2 weeks vacations left. I've been using my 360 for 3 days and guess what... My car was having problem on hydraulic pipe whereas It broke at the Emporium. It took 10 security guards to help me push the car because the backend was so freakin hot. It stood there and waiting for F-service (K. Kovit was my main Tech) for almost 2 hours and they could not fix it. I had to leave my car there with 2 service guys and they had to flatbed it back to the dealer at night. Took them 1 day to fix the problem, then my dad took it for a spin and it happened again. The hydrualic pipe was broken twice and my car still has red tag on it. The dealer said this is the first 360 that having problem. Now my car still at the dealer waiting for hydraulic pump from Italy and I don't know how much longer it will take. I thought Ferrari has already fixed this hot/heated engine problem, but I guess not.

Pong if you have time could you please check with the dealer to see what's going on and what caused it, cause my dad does not really have time to check on this.

Thanks
Mon

 

F40Lover: Ha ha....our 328 is not for sale...I still enjoy it a lot. It's not fast or particularly quick...but it's very satisfying...more so than even the 360 my brother used to own... As for the price of the new 360CS, I am not sure. It can change depending on the exchange rate and the deal you get from the dealer. But I think it will be around US$500K or a bit more. There are a few of there here already...

You can buy Tubi from the dealer...we got our 360 system from the dealer and still have it...nice piece of work.

Running cost for F-car in Thailand is quite high, but I suspect it will not be much different from the other exotic cars here. I have checked for price on a few things for my 328, and I was quite shocked...the suspension bushings are very expensive (at around US$2,000 per set of front and rear). I don't know if the price is right, but it sure makes me feel uneasy..ha ha. The labor cost is not too bad, it is higher than the usual brand but I don't think it is way off the scale.

The official distributor has been in business for a while (since early '90s). It was named "View". And now it has become "Ferma". The mechanics there frankly doesn't impress me much, but at least they are trained. They can deal with all the contemporary F-car without a problem, but I am not sure about the older Ferrari. I have seen in there, Mondial T, 328s, and I have heard a few 308s also use the service at the dealer.

I agree that F-car should be running at WOT once in a while..ha ha, just to enjoy the sound.

 

F40Lover:...a bit more infor....there are 2 shops that are specialize in exotic in Bangkok. They can deal with any exotic from any era. And there is a very nice restoration shop on the out-skirt of Bangkok that does a really nice job. I have seen a few Benz 190SLs from them. So, if by any chance you can bring the 250 SWB here, I think you do have places to take care of your car.

K.Mon....regarding your 360, if we have a chance to stop by the dealer, I will make sure to look at your car for you. Our 360 never have any problem. I wonder if this is in fact the weak point of the car. But we drove it in heavy traffic and took it to the track before, it performed flawlessly.

 

K.Pong. Thank you so much. I wanted to know what's wrong with my car too. At first the engine light came on twice, I took it back and they had to reprogrammed it. Now it's the hydraulic pipe and pump. don't know what's gonna be next. BTW my car is G. Titanuim color.

Mon

 

Hi Mon,

Sorry to hear your problem on the 360. I will be around in Bangkok on the 9th and could happily check your 360 as my friend Eric will be driving anyway around Bangkok (he speaks perfect Thai) so that we could check out the report and get back to you at once. You could PM me so that I could leave you my mobile no. in case.

Cheers
PS:I could image the spectacular scene when 10 guys pushing your F360 around Emporium. I loved to stay in the Emporium with my kid when we were in Bangkok but this time we will stay in the Sukhothai Hotel

 

Thank you so much Onlinesys. Yeah it was a shame that brand new 360 died over in Emporium caused traffic jam in the parking lot. Once they moved my car and surrounded it with cones, a lot of people were crawling pass by and looking at my car. I had to apologized them for causing a delay. My dad had that problem again after the Emporium incident, but this time he was in the middle of the Viphavadee Rd, heading toward F-dealer. He said he had to leave the car in the street and jumped into the footpath to call the F-service. He also said that he almost put a sell sign in front of my car . These 2 incidents leave him no choice to left the car at the dealer and have them diagnose it till it fixed. Now they said they are waiting for hydraulic pump from Italy. And I hope that this should fix the problem.

 

K.Mon & Onlinesys:

I hope they can fix the problem. My 1st 360 had problem with the F1 system, and Foreign Car Italia in Greensboro, NC couldn't fix it (it happened within 3 days of delivery). So, they took the car back and refund me every penny...ha..

My brother's 360 didn't have any problem and we sold it already (by the way, just got the letter from the factory thanking me for buying the 360..ha ha ha...).

I will not be going around that area during this time (I stay in Chonburi), so I guess Onlinesys will be a much better help right now. I don't know much about car, but having it reprogrammed twice is not a very good sign. I think problem with hydrolic is different matter though. So, if the hydrolic problem is fixed, I think you should be OK with it.

By the way, I always see red 360 parked at the Emporium, but never see your Titanium one....

Onlinesys, I think you will love the Sukhothai Hotel.

 

Alex,

Shangri-La is a very nice hotel situated on the bank of Chao Praya River. It's in the old section of Bangkok, not too far from the sky train station. I don't know how it was rated internationally, but I bet it's at least a 4-stars, if not 5s, hotel. I had my friends and clients stayed there, I had a few seminars there and the service has been superb.

I think they have river cruise for dinner and to enjoy the view at night, I am not sure if they will have day-time cruise up to the old capital of Thailand or not (I have heard about this but not sure which hotel has this program).

There is a nice Chinese Restuarant at another hotel called "The Oriental" it's an old house in front of the hotel... the french restuarant at the Oriental is also very good. The Oriental Hotel is very close to the Shangri-La....it was rated the best Hotel of the world a few years back (I had my wedding party there)

Well...I think you will enjoy your stay. It's a great hotel and it's quite convenience to get around (traffic can be very bad, but if you don't mind the sky train is close).

 

Hi Pong,

Just went back from Bangkok and weather was damn hot in the day time. Didn't see many nice cars on the street but when to the Ferrari dealer to see Mon's 360 and saw a 993 Turbo, Merc. E55 and 2 Cayenne and 1 Bentley GT at the Porsche dealer beside the Ferrari showroom. Also saw a 512TR in one of the car dealer located the hotel I stayed.

 

I just came back from a few days in BKK because my kids wanted to spend sometime there. The days are HOT! However, I think holidays like these are good time to spot some exotic cars in BKK. In the few days there I crossed path with two 575M, Pong's wife was head on with a Gallardo, My wife spotted another 575M, and this morning a Continental GT crawled pass us right in front of the hotel we were staying.

I also spotted a Hummer H2 in front of one cinema in Siam Square area.

Pong gave you guys very good information regarding BKK. Have a good time while you are here.

 

Here is the car, my dad said now the engine response a lot better plus the sound is more aggro

 

I saw one in Pattaya beach when I was there about 4 years ago, But I believe the car was a kit car!

 

Hi Mon and Pong,

Nice car and may I know is it your house in the photo?

Tx. for the great info from Pong!

Should visit you guys in the next trip to Bangkok!

Cheers,

 

Very nice car..K Mon...and may I add "very big house!!" too...he he...

Onlinesys, I believe it you looked up on the second floor of the dealer where you see the 512, you'd see the Gallardo also...it's the Lamborghini's dealer..

Yeh...it's getting very hot lately. 38 degree C seems to be the norm..

I took the 328 out for the dirve earlier at noon today....it ran perfectly, I was afraid that it might overheat, but took it out anyway...ha. But the aircon couldn't fight the heat...it's cool, but not nearly enough, I sweat pretty badly after half an hour behind the wheel. People are still doing the water festival, but they stopped dead on their track when they see the 328 passing by....I didn't have one drop of water thrown to the car...ha ha...they were all looking and pointing at it instead...

 

Hi Pong,

You really are something to bring the 328 out at noon and I can't image the situation when you got stuck in traffic. Perhaps the traffic is better during the New Year and most people would not like to pour water on the extoic!

I did not see the Gallado but saw a beautiful girl working in the Porsche showroom. Most Thai ladies are beautiful and polite.

Nice license number too Mon. I was told you have to pay for someone in order to get a special number. We do get good license number through the government charity auction instead.

Cheers

 

Thanks, yes it is my house. I forgot to have them take the pic of SL500.

 

K.Pong,
Thanks. I will be in Thailand on May 17th. I'm leaving US for good on May 16th, since I'm resigning from the company that I'm working for here. It's time to go home and find a new job.

 

In my last visit to Thailand i saw a 550 and two 360s parked in the valet section of a shopping mall called "emporium". There were also a lot of other expensive cars like bentleys and rolls royces in that section. Probably because emporium is a high class mall with all the designer stores.

 

K.Mon krub....hope you will like it here. At least, you can now enjoy the 360 on a daily basis. By the way, very nice color krub.

Onlinesys...ha ha, I had nothing to do, so I walked to the garage...that 328 was just too good to sit around...need to enjoy the V8 rumble as much as I can... It handles the heat pretty well. May be because I drove it out of town and get steady airflow through the radiator. And yes, people didn't try to throw water at the 328, it's not the car you see everyday. I guess they would rather look at it...ha ha.


thaispic3...the Emporium is a high-end shopping mall. So, you will see exotic there. One of the reason to bring the exotic to the emporium is because they will give you good parking spot...ha...(it's not an easy place to park a car.) I took my brother's GT2 there last week and got to park at the "reserved parking"...ha ha ha.. My wife took our NSX there and got the same treatment. I would have thought the NSX isn't exotic enough, but I guess the security officers can't tell the different between Honda and Ferrari.

 

Nice color choice K.Mon. Ours when we were in the US was also in Titanium. Our interior was dark gray with light gray tubing and stitching. Yours looks like light gray all over.

Even though I have sold my 360M, I still like the car and have plan to get one at a later date. Titanium is the color I will definitely buy. However, there's not many around. I only saw one Silver but never Titanium. Yours is the first Titanium I saw. If you ever want to sell it in the next few years, let me know please. If the time is right, I'd like to have a chance.

The car looks so good and sounds so lovely that almost any flaw is forgiven. I decided to change mine only because I wasn't satisfied with more than one areas of the car, and the car I now own seem to be a better buy at the moment, and at the price!

Given another opportunity in the future, I'd definitely buy another Ferrari. The 328 Koenig in our garage now is mostly for sighting pleasure. My arms hurt a few days everytime I drive the thing. But she is a beauty though.

 

Mon -- Please post the photos of the Sl500 as well. Tx!

Pong -- You are damn right as we drove to Emporium in a Volvo and no one even take a glance. We were treated a little bit better when we drove a BMW 325i next day but definitely need a real exotic in order to have a reserved parking space on the ground floor instead of turning up to the top floor!

HaHa!!