You experience everything in Thailand (86)

Blog reader Do van Drunen from Cha-am makes a short trip to the Netherlands in 2017 and parks his car with his partner in Bangkok. He shouldn't have done that, because read below what happened. A bad experience, that's for sure.

This is the story of Do van Drunen from 2017

Submerged

Just back from a 14-day holiday in the Netherlands, we arrived at my partner's apartment in Bangkok near the Victory monument in Bangkok. But what a strange arrival, all thick cables over the ground, a large pump that spewed out moaning and squeaking water and a panicked security man who came walking towards us. I wanted to go to the parking garage to pick up my car. “No sir cannot….wait here”, was his somewhat panicked response.

“Oh what's going on?” I asked. “Boss will come soon”, was his reply. After 10 minutes the boss indeed came with the owner of the apartment complex with both straight faces, which predicted bad things I saw. “Big problems with garage and car sir…but come with me”..

We descended to the parking garage and I looked into a dark hole with a thick layer of smelly gunk on the floor…and there it was, my brand new 3 week old Fortuner completely covered in sludge and wet mess. What was going on? During the enormous rainfall of the past few weeks, a large pump had broken down because a mattress had come in, so that the excess water could no longer be pumped out and the garage was flooded and my car went under together with 23 other vehicles. Three days later, the filthy water my car had been in all that time had been pumped out.

Well, that's it, and then the process of police, insurance, apartment owner, forms, calls, more forms, consultation, signatures, copy of passport, driver's license, etc. and that with your jet lag, not very nice, but there was no choice. After 5 hours, the car was on the trailer on the way to the main dealer in Tah Yang.

Once at home in Cha-am, I immediately started consulting websites, calling the Toyota main dealer in the Netherlands to inquire about the usual course of events in similar situations. After all, I already had the feeling that the mechanical parts could perhaps be replaced, but the electronic part was affected and no longer reliable. The advice of the Toyota dealer in NL was clear, have it declared a total loss, because this car is no longer reliable. But other parties, especially the insurance company in Thailand, thought differently.

The next day we spent hours discussing with the insurance company, dealer, specialists, police, etc. because I was crystal clear from the start, I don't want this car anymore!! However, the insurer still wanted to make an attempt for repair, but after further consultation, a lot of calculation, after all, if the repair is more than 70% of the new value, the car will be declared a total loss ... eventually the high word came out. The car has been declared a total loss and full compensation will be paid.

Incidentally, I noticed that the window of the rear door was open, which I certainly had not done. As it turns out, when this car gets into the water, a window opens automatically, to let the passengers escape, I didn't know that. Incidentally, the car stank enormously, when I was in the garage I asked a mechanic where the stench came from, it couldn't possibly come from the mud that was in it. He went to investigate and after 2 minutes…yes I got it, a half decomposed dead cat was under the front seat, which had probably floated in during the underwater session.

Pfff that was a relief, but in the afternoon when all the papers were collected, the downer came. As it turns out, in the case of a total loss in the first year, only 80% of the replacement value is reimbursed in my case, because I had purchased a late 2016 model and the 2017 models have risen sharply in price. Still a considerable financial setback. It is now also not possible to qualify for a free replacement car, etc. and extras are not included in the insurance.

Well, I've had better homecomings. But it's just a car and fortunately no people were injured or anything like that. Optimist as I am, I can assume that the Toyota dealer will still come up with a creative proposal in order to limit the misery somewhat. We are waiting for the coming weeks!