The Interesting Cars of Thailand

Thailand is a very interesting country. I was able to visit the country, known as “The Land of Smiles,” for the very first time earlier this year for the 44th Bangkok International Motor Show (BIMS) which pretty much gives us a glimpse of what new models we can expect in the Philippine market given the fact that we have a very similar market.

It truly is similar as almost every car you can see on the road is identical to what we can find here in the Philippines but of course, there are some differences and some standouts here and there which we will be talking about here.

Of course, let’s start with the most common vehicle on Thai streets. No, it’s not the tuk-tuk. It’s the taxicab which in Thailand gets two different kinds of color schemes. The more common one is the green and yellow combination but what I found interesting is the pink-colored ones. The most common taxi model used is the Toyota Corolla Altis (see below) and the Toyota Innova. The former was also used by a handful of taxi operators in the Philippines but given the more premium positioning of compact sedans in our market nowadays, it is now a rarity.

As for SUVs, the Toyota Fortuner is the most popular one here in the Philippines. We’re not sure about Thailand but it surely is very popular there as well. The Legender, known as the LTD in our market, even gets a unique color that we don’t get, red. That does look really nice.

Pickup trucks are equally as popular in Thailand as they are in the Philippines. Nearly every, if not all, midsize pickup truck models in our market are sourced from Thailand. The difference is most Thai pickup truck owners actually use their vehicles for loading unlike here in the Philippines where they mostly use them as daily vehicles or family haulers. This shows with the many single cab pickups in Thailand which prioritize cargo hauling. Quite a unique sight as we no longer get pickup trucks in this kind of configurations.

This one is no longer new but it’s something that I really wish we had in the Philippines. It’s the Honda Civic Hatchback. Well we did have the hatchback version of that generation Civic in our market but it was limited to the Type R which is of course very expensive given that it is the brand’s performance model. It would be nice to have the regular one in our market, maybe there’s still a chance for the current generation. I did think though that it also makes sense not to introduce it with the unfortunate appearance of more than several examples of “Tinype R” Civics, or Civic Type R copies.

Save the best for last, they say. It’s not yet as popular as it is still fairly new but we can already see roaming around the streets of Thailand the current generation Toyota Yaris Ativ. Wait, Toyota Motor Philippines doesn’t sell the Yaris Ativ here, right? Well this is actually the Vios for our market, the best-selling model in the country. With its sportier and more premium Corolla Altis and Camry-like styling, it surely won’t be tiring to see many of these running on Philippine roads.