Category: Cars

Mystery VIP Car, Khon Kaen

I raced this car home back to Sarakham last week.

Perhaps the ugliest sedan I've ever seen.
Perhaps the ugliest sedan I’ve ever seen.

I guess the driver was worried about spilling his Grey Poupon, because he had me on the straightaways (kind of rare because my wife’s VQ30-powered Cefiro A33 smokes almost everything under 2 million baht; such is the sad state of affairs in many road-tax-by-engine-displacement countries) , but slowed way down on the curves. I’m kind of sad because I don’t even know what kind of car it is, but if I had to guess — Chinese Bentley? Korean Cadillac?

Either way, it was hideous. Almost as bad as the ugliest car ever made, which I’ve been seeing kind of often lately.

UPDATE: Of course, Chris the master of all things with engines, called it – this is definitely a Mitsuoka, probably a Galue-III. It’s the first I’ve ever seen, having been in Thailand almost the whole time they’ve been produced, and it totally matches with what I saw. On another page it says this car “incorporates styling touches from such classic designs as the ’94 Cadillac Fleetwood.” Also, the specs indicate it was loaded with the same type of engine in our Cefiro, but newer and with higher output – either a VQ-25HR or VQ-35HR. Interestingly enough, the Galue-III was made in both RWD and AWD.

The Toyota “Kujira” Crown, Reborn

After five months of being held hostage by a rogue body shop, a brief return home, and then a serious accident caused by a negligent repair shop, the Kuj has returned.

These are the kinds of photos I really wanted to take before the accident, but I never had the chance. The body shop to which the work was outsourced did a good job – they pounded out parts I thought would be impossible to save, and finished the job slowly while looking for parts.

Only one rare part was totally lost – the lower right front turn signal lens and frame. The shop returned the car to me apologizing for not being able to source the parts in four whole months. At that point, I just wanted the damn car back so I agreed to accept it with this one glaring omission. Then I got my Google on and found the part in one day, shipped from a fellow Crown fan in Bangkok.

Ironically, a good smack in the front end seems to have cured several chronic engine issues. For now, I am just very happy to have the Crown back.

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Location: Maha Sarakham bypass, just around the corner from my neighborhood.

Stuck like a boss

Yes, I got stuck.

I arrived a bit late to the first wedding of two only to get trapped in the parking lot due to idiots who had parked every which way Undeterred, I squeezed through a couple of pickups to a promising dirt field that appeared to be damp, but solid. A couple feet into it, the car bogged down a bit, but not wanting to get stuck, I pushed forward… and got stuck further into the field.

Anyway, lemons into lemonade I say. This is what my car would look like slammed, with brown tires:

 

 

Eventually, a truck came and pulled our trusty Cefiro out of the muck, and I took it to get washed before Nam came home.

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By the way, this is the semi-finished parking lot at the new wedding hall of Marin restaurant in Maha Sarakham.