Korean Job Discussion Forums

movybuf · Joined: 01 Jan 2007 Location: Mokdong

I will be on the market for a used car in the future, and I'm thinking of getting a non-Korean car. I'm wondering if anyone on here owns a non-korean car and can give an idea of much repairs and general maintenence cost.

Who's Your Daddy? · Joined: 30 May 2010 Location: Victoria, Canada.

I can't offer advice, but I'd try to warn you off buying a foreign car. I think you're really dealing with monopoly pricing on any service being done (whereas domestics are dirt cheap to repair).

Died By Bear · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 4:19 am Post subject:

Although the wife and I both drive imports, Korea is the most expensive country in the world for foreign car repair.

Repairing imported cars is also more expensive in Korea than in other countries. Replacing the driver-side door in a Hyundai Equus, Korea's most luxurious sedan, costs W938,800. But for a BMW 750 it costs W2.2 million and for a Lexus LS460 W1.5 million. Among medium-sized sedans, replacing a driver-side mirror for the Hyundai Grandeur costs W166,000, but the price is more than double for the Ford Taurus (W397,000) and Honda Accord (W347,000).

In fact importers pass most of the enormous profits from sales and repair service to headquarters. Toyota Korea sent the entire net profit of W11.8 billion it made in the 2009 fiscal year from April 2009 to March 2010 to headquarters in Japan, and BMW Korea sent 63.2 percent of its net profit of W47.9 billion last year to headquarters in Germany.

Source: C/I

Stan Rogers · Joined: 20 Aug 2010

Buy local. Much cheaper to repair and faster repair times. Insurance premiums on foreign cars were jacked up big time last January because they cost so darn much to fix.

IS-F · Joined: 20 Oct 2009

movybuf · Joined: 01 Jan 2007 Location: Mokdong

I was thinking of a few years old Volvo S40. I love styling and the safety. I was also thinking of a few years old Audi A4. I love the styling, but I'm not sure what kind of safety record Audis have. I've been doing some research on these cars, but the situations are much different between the US or the UK and Korea. So, any input is helpful.

Also, I really don't the K5 styling. I don't like how high the bottoms of the windows are. It makes the doors seem huge and the windows tiny. The rear window always seems too small for adequate visibility, too.