34th Thailand International Motor Expo to end today

NONTHABURI, Dec 11 (TNA) -- Today is the final day of the 34th Thailand International Motor Expo and a large number of visitors flock to see and shop the various brands of vehicles. New vehicle booking orders have exceeded expectations with Japanese carmaker Honda taking the lead and it is estimated that nearly 50 billion in cash flows will be generated during the entire event. The final day of the 34th Thailand International Motor Expo which is being held at the Challenger Exhibition Centre in Muang Thong Thani is a bustle with a large number of prospective car buyers and the general public attending. The large crowds have meant that all no booths have failed to attract the attention attendees. Chalatchai Paphatphong, the vice chairman of the organising committee of 34th Thailand International Motor Expo stated that he was confident that booking orders for the entire event will comfortably meet the 38,000 units for cars and 7,000 units for motorcycles. He attribute this to the fact that the former government's 'First Car' program had expired its 6 year period which means that car owners in that program will be keen to get their hands on new cars. Taken in conjunction with increased consumer confidence in the economic recovery and the improved political climate more and more people are less inclined to be reserved about spending their savings on new offerings from carmakers. This is clearly shown by the extraordinary demand for SUVs this year. In the past they were considered as an unnecessary extravagance. Targeted cash flows for this year's event is between 45-50 billion baht representing a 20% increase over last year. Attendance numbers on the other hand are very close with this year's numbers coming close to 1.5 million- a slight increase of 12% over the previous year. In detail, booking orders taken on new vehicles as of November 29 up to December 11 account for 32,318 units. These are divided between Honda with 5,506 units followed by Toyota with 4,347 units, Mazda with 3,956 units, Isuzu in 4th place with 3,838 units and Mercedes Benz with 2,130 units. Motorcycle booking orders total 6,582 units with GPX taking the lead with 968 units followed by Kawasaki with 793 units, Chinese maker Ryuka with 746 units, Yamaha with 698 units and last but not least Honda with 669 units. (TNA)