Korean Job Discussion Forums

Homer · Guest

Thats cool Kricket...
Which countryside do you live in?
A village..a hut?
If your city had bad public transit then you could buy a car and it would make some sense.
I was just thinking of people living in a major city that has subways and buses that run every 2 minutes and taxis in droves....

kimcheeking · Guest

Anda · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: South Korea

Not everybody has wings Homer!

Rand Al Thor · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Locked in an epic struggle

Homer · Guest

These are all valid points about cars.

Kimking, you have a baby that changes things of course.

Anda: yeah those wings come in mighty handy...

Rand al thor: you are also talking about something different. What you mention is having a car for leisure activities. Getting out of town on week-ends and such. Thats cool.

My point was why would anyone living in a major city in Korea take his or her car to work when the public transit here is excellent?
With all the traffic and the air pollution why contribute to it?

Circus Monkey · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: In my coconut tree

steroidmaximus · Joined: 27 Jan 2003 Location: GangWon-Do

my car is killing me, but then I drive 75km to and from work everyday. My costs, gas and highway toll, are in the vicinity of 400k a month. This is not considering any joy riding I may do during the weekend, and I haven't done that in a while.

The car itself is a piece of junk. 1995 Daewoo Cielo; seriously considering getting a deisel or LPG car. Cost me 1.2 million. Got robbed on it Crying or Very sad

thanks to my old hakwan boss for getting me such a good deal. . .

Insurance is about 600k a year, and the numbers others have mentioned are smack on.

Having a car is great, I loved it at first and still appreciate having one here, but now I'm resentful when I see how much $$$ goes out the window on the damn thing every month.

Driving here is a true test of will, patience and nerve. Be forewarned that you must be more aggressive and take the initiative. The main reason I drive a piece of junk is so I'm not bent out o shape anytime I get 'bumped' etc. This has happened on several occasions. I love driving on the expressway topping 130, 140km/h and watching others zoom past me like I'm some kind of grandpa. Or tailgaiting me at that speed. Boy, that sure is fun. Giving the brakes a little nudge always gets their attention.

Anyway, more pros than cons, but I'm with Homer: if you can, take the bus / train.

thinker · Joined: 10 Feb 2003

i wouldn't feel safe driving anything in korea except a volvo 240 series, i only saw one the whole time i was there, got quite excited when i did too!

too bad i can't bring mine over when i return, that'd just be ludicrious!

city driving must be a pain in the arse, but i'd love to do Jeju and many other mountainous places, the roads are usually in excellent shape and must be fun to drive on!

mine's like this but older headlights and not as good shape, still love it though~

kricket · Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2003 8:47 pm Post subject:

Circus Monkey · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: In my coconut tree

LPG = Liquid Propane Gas.

Hope I'm right.

CM

Anda · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: South Korea

Um a lot cheaper but they won't let you convert a car here like back home, Oh it's bottle gas (LPG) it burns better than natural gas.

kricket · Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2003 1:44 am Post subject:

So if you buy an LPG car you can buy LPG gas which is cheaper than regular gas?

Canadian Teacher · Joined: 22 Jan 2003

LPG is in fact "Lquid Petroleum Gas. " Every taxi in Korea runs on it and a good portion of commercial, non-diesel vehicles. The advantages are many. It burns cleaner. It has fewer moving parts in the fuel system. It runs about W600/litre vs W1300 for gas. You will never know the difference between LPG and gasoline when driving.

The disadvantages are that a used LPG vehicle will go for at least double the price of a gasoline model. The number of refilling stations is limited but increasing. There is a slight loss in power but I have never noticed it on the LPG cars I drove in Canada. If you travel outside your town, pla

Diesel cars are new to Korea. Modern diesels are fantastic, smooth, quiet, powerful and clean. However, for an Avante CRDi you are looking at W13m or so. Out of most of our budgets.

My car is a 1998 Kia Pride station wagon. It has to be the ultimate nerd-mobile but it is reliable, built like a tank and can hold tons of gear. It is only 1300cc but with the five speed transmission I have no trouble keeping up with traffic. I bought it used two years ago for W1.5m and have spent about another W200k on it since then, tune up, tires etc.

Insurance for an old guy like is W400k a year. Road tax is W200k. It uses about 10 litres of fuel for every hundred km in the city and about 7 on the expressway. Gasoline is about W1330 a litre now so you do the math.

We never use the car for inter-city trips. If we go to Seoul, it is faster, cheaper and much more relaxing to take the Saemaul train. Added to that I do not have to find a place to park the thing. We really like to drive up the east coast in the summer.

HTH

kricket · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2003 4:26 am Post subject:

Sorry to bother you good folks again, but I have a couple of questions for car owners out there...

I just bought a used Kia pride and the guy charged me 180,000 won for "registration". I didn't have the benefit of having a Korean translator with me... so I was unclear on this...Does this mean (registration) that he will provide the tags (license plate) and the "road tax"? 180,000 won is really steep for just the tags... Anybody know what I paid for? The guy tried his best to explain, but I just couldn't understand him.

Thanks.

theevilgenius · Joined: 10 Sep 2010

Just wanted to get this thread going again out of pure interest to see what has changed in 8 years!