Cars in Korea

Well, Cara's car is having issues at the moment. First her car completely stalled and then would crank, but never physically run on its own. That was solved by jiggling a fuel pump relay so it would supply fuel to the car. Now, the car won't even turn the ignition on. Grr.

But, to take my mind off of Cara's car being broken, I'll tell you about the cars we have now, versus what we had while we were back in the U.S.

Cara's old car was a 2000 Audi A4 1.8T. Oh man, that car was sweet. It was comfortable, looked good, and drove very very nice. The windows were tinted pretty dark, it had a tiptronic transmission, 5 Speed Automatic (which made it very fun to zoom on the highway in the middle of Texas...). The only problem for me was that if we weren't using cruise control, I couldn't fold my legs, and well, it got uncomfortable real quick. That didn't matter since it was Cara's car.

I did discover a few interesting things about owning an Audi though. First, maintenance is expensive. If anything had to be fixed on the car, you can guarantee that it cost $250+ to get it repaired. Most we paid was around $1k to get an airbag fixed that was on the passenger seat. Of course you're probably thinking why we'd pay that much to repair 1 airbag. As it turns out, the Audi was programmed to disable all airbags if one was not properly functioning. Not much of an option there. But that was by far out of the norm.

Second is that if you pull up to a car dealer, you are treated completely differently than most people. If you can buy an Audi, you must have money. When I was getting ready to buy a car my junior year, I remember going to a few dealerships with my friends Explorer. The car salesman would talk to me, but more often than not, I had to stand around or ask for someone to help me. Let's contrast that with my recent experience when my corolla's transmission was getting repaired. I drove to the Toyota dealer to check on my car, and when I parked, a salesman came walking out from the show room.

"Good afternoon sir, how are you today?" He glanced at the license plates and started some small talk. "Wow, North Dakota...that must've be a long trip."

"Actually my wife is from North Dakota, I'm from Maryland," I replied.

"Oh, that's even farther...Is there anything I can help you with today?"

"Well, not really, my Corolla is being repaired and I'm just checking on it." I was surprised for a second, and then remembered I was driving an Audi that was old enough to look like I was in the market for another, but new enough that it looked like I had money. I was in Manhattan Beach, CA (Ritzy L.A. Suburb) after all, and it was nothing to see high-end Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, BMW or Audi cars. But, alas, we've sold the car to Cara's parents, and is no longer in our inventory. (Audi A4 1.8T, nicknamed Roxy, primary function multi-role road transport...)

My car in the U.S. was a 2004 Toyota Corolla S. Not as nice as Cara's but I had my reasons for buying it. First, I blew a little too much of my $25,000 cadet loan to have enough of a down payment on a 2003 Honda Accord EX-V6 6-Speed Manual Coupe. Also, I wanted to be able to tinker with the car and have to worry about breaking something because it was so complex. Compared to Cara's 26(ish) MPG, the Corolla was supposed to get 42MPG. I had fun while I drove, so it ended up being 34-36MPG. Once I started driving in LA, it dropped to like 29 or so.

As I neared graduation at USAFA, I started looking at the radio console and realized I could put an LCD in place of the radio. Thus beginning my Car Computer Project that I worked on from 26 June 2004 -16 April 2007. One of the only things (besides Honor Guard) that I actually had fun with. When I started, I had a simple volume control scrollbar, and Windows Media Player as my music player. No radio, no easy way to power down the computer. By the time I had finished, I had installed the following:

• a music player designed for in car use
  
• Character LCD and software interface I programmed
  
• FM & XM radio tuners,
  
• a power supply that powers down the computer safely after the car is off,
  
• GPS
  
• Internet Access

When I traveled to Oklahoma City, OK from Los Angeles in March, this whole setup was very nice. It made the drive so much more bearable. Needless to say, I miss my car. Its sitting in Joe's driveway, and we're hoping to ship it to Korea when I go back for Ty Russell's Wedding.

Well, those were the cars we had in the U.S. Now what about the cars we have now?

Cara has a 1992 Volvo 940 GL. Not a bad car. However, there are about two key things that are wrong with the Volvo. First there is no driver's side door handle. We have to pull on a hook to get the door open. The second is there is no Driver's side mirror. Apparently parking on the street in Korea is bad for the mirrors. So much so that folding mirrors aren't a luxury on cars. Any car made in Korea has folding mirrors. Luxury determines whether your mirrors automatically fold in or out by the touch of a button. Nice, eh? Not having the mirror doesn't bother Cara because she doesn't use it that much. I, on the other hand, rely on that mirror when I'm parking in tight spots. I tried to use that mirror plenty of times when I first got to Korea, and it bothered me a bit. Oh well, such is life.

The previous owner put in a CD player, which is cool, but instead using screw on wire connectors (whatever they're called) he used electrical tape. So depending on how you turn, brake, etc., different speakers go out, or turn on. Regardless of all that its still comfortable for long drives, and the gas tank does not lie. When it says empty, it really means empty. We found that out the night I arrived in Korea to stay. Her car cost about $750 which is pretty good for a GI Mobile.

My car presently is a red 1994 Hyundai Accent. Well, it was initially red, now it seems more like pink or something. When I started working with Goodrich, one of my co-workers was driving me around in the car. I was looking at it, and was like this would be a cool Korea car. It was low maintenance, small, fuel efficient and had a radio/tape player. What more could you ask for. Literally seconds after thinking that, Dave (co-worker) asked me if I liked the car, and then offered to sell it! After all the paper was finally accomplished, I paid him $100 for the car. basically everything he had to pay for to make the car sellable. (paperwork, inspections, etc.). My car is a five speed manual, with power front windows. Everything else is unpowered. No powered brakes, no power steering, no power mirrors. Makes me appreciate driving the Gold Car ('83 Honda Accord) during high school, even if it was one of the most beat up cars in the parking lot. Now, the funniest thing about the car is that the previous owner was somewhat paranoid. He thought that someone was stealing his gas, despite the fact the fuel door had to be released from inside the car. Yeah, talk about a piece of work. So in order to make sure no one was stealing gas, he would fill the tank up, put a piece of tape over it, and then sign it. I still look at it and crack up. Too funny.


Having said all that, our cars are actually pretty good for a GI car. People are typically only here for a year, and the people who are allowed to have a car already have a nice car back in the states, or don't feel like buying a new car for just a year. So if these cars fail us, there are plenty more to choose from. Especially since I'm part of the 'contractor mafia' now. (He made me an offer I couldn't refuse....)