Exporting to Borneo?

[X6_40d_Nick]

Heard an interesting thing today....!!

I bumped into a work colleague who hadn't yet seen my X6, indeed he didnt know i'd changed my 325d, so needless to say we're in the car park talking cars. He told me he'd been considering looking for an X6, as he had driven a friends X35d and was impressed...etc, etc...

But interestingly his friend had recently sold his x35d, for a five grand profit and it was being exported to Borneo!

Anyone else heard of any similar stories? Or am I being wet behind my ears...?

[X5Sport]

If Borneo is anything like the other countries in South & South East Asia then their is a market for nearly new luxury cars because the import duty on a new one is astronomical! We go out to Phuket in Thailand regularly and as you would expect, the country is awash with Toyota, Honda, GM and others of that ilk. But a BMW, Merc, Audi type luxury brand is very rare other than in Bangkok because the taxes levied are over 100% of the mrp. Borneo may well have the same rules.

Those levies are way down if the car is more than a year old though. We do see a few of these types of cars but always at least one generation back, or several years old. Lack of dealers and availability of spares is also a problem for all these brands. There is now a BMW Dealer in Phuket but it doesn't sell a lot of cars and only seemed to carry the 1 & 3 series in the showroom. There's no shortage of money with the number of foreigners now living there, but the taxes mean a new BMW is beyond the reach of all but the very wealthy.

I think even a bottle of Australian wine that in the UK might cost you say £7 a bottle, is closer to £30 in Thailand.

[Rusty]

Do we need to consider a group buy of a container to Borneo?

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[X5Sport]

pmsl....


On a serious note though, I wouldn't do it as the cost of 'tropicalizing' a BMW is going to be scary. You need to change and upgrade the cooling system and a/c system...... Now that's a mod.....

Never seen a car out there with a 'Heat' function, just lots of blue cooling marks from slightly cooled to 'thank goodness for a/c' cooled.. I don't know how 'cool' Borneo gets, but even in winter (May to October), Southern Thailand is still at 30C or more.

Oddly, you don't get many convertibles out there either, though whether that's due to the intense sun or the termites eating any fabric roof I'm not sure.....