This paper investigates the productivity differentials between foreign and local plants in the Thai automobile industry using plant-level data for 1996 and 1998. The findings show that labor productivity is higher at foreign-affiliated plants than at local plants. However, foreign plants in the motor vehicle bodies and the motor vehicle parts industries tend to have a lower capital productivity than local plants. Moreover, comparisons of TFP levels reveal no evidence that foreign plants have higher TFP that can be related to their ownership-specific advantages.