South Korea Gladiators

[ShadowsPapa]

The automatic part doesn’t surprise me. Every vehicle I saw there was an automatic. That did surprise me.

Really? That's surprising as my son has a stick over there. (actually, I think it's his wife's car)

There are Jeeps there, mostly Grand Cherokees.
I likely have some photos somewhere.

people say Asians are bad drivers, but I saw some impressive driving skills.

It's because Americans don't get it. Here, it's a crazy nut house. There, it's all sane. It may seem crazy, but they obey traffic laws, police are few and far between, and drivers do what they do out of necessity, not because they are rude or trying to cut ahead of the next guy. The attitudes are very different. You have to lose your American way of thinking, or believing people are doing something just to get ahead or be mean or selfish or rude. Here, where I live, they are rude, selfish, and will cut you off and then finger you for being in their way. Not so over there.
They have to be very good drivers to get from here to there over there.

We stayed with my son and his family for a while back in 2019, saw a lot of the country, big cities, and the poor farmers living in shacks (right next to the million dollar apartments)
My son married a Korean woman about 10 years ago. He moved there to teach English to Korean children back then.
They now own two schools there, and split their time between the states and Korea. She spends more time over there than he does due to the school, and her book tour and promotions. Their son goes back and forth as well.

The cross walks are WIDE, and there's one going each direction. You stay in the cross walk on your right, people coming across the street from the other side are in the other cross walk on your left - that's how many people there are. Bicycles everywhere, taxis everywhere - pretty much all run on LP.

My son's mother-in-law invited us to dine out with her. That's my wife and I on the right, far end, my son on the left, far end - EJ is taking the photo.

Agree it looks as it lacks the “well” before the hood bulge rise. My guess is pedestrian safety. Keeping peeps from landing on sharp things under the hood.

The pedestrian traffic there is beyond anything I have ever seen here, especially certain times of day. Cross walks are packed, I mean you move as if you are part of a single thing crossing the 4 and 5 lane (each direction) streets. You cross, you don't mess around.
There are many places where if you need to make a left turn - you cannot. It's prohibited at intersections due to the pedestrian traffic, as well as vehicle traffic. So you go about another half block until you find the u-turn lane and you make a u-turn, go back to the intersection and turn right.
Looking down through the glass floor............

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[NC_Overland]

Really? That's surprising as my son has a stick over there. (actually, I think it's his wife's car)

There are Jeeps there, mostly Grand Cherokees.
I likely have some photos somewhere.


It's because Americans don't get it. Here, it's a crazy nut house. There, it's all sane. It may seem crazy, but they obey traffic laws, police are few and far between, and drivers do what they do out of necessity, not because they are rude or trying to cut ahead of the next guy. The attitudes are very different. You have to lose your American way of thinking, or believing people are doing something just to get ahead or be mean or selfish or rude. Here, where I live, they are rude, selfish, and will cut you off and then finger you for being in their way. Not so over there.
They have to be very good drivers to get from here to there over there.

We stayed with my son and his family for a while back in 2018, saw a lot of the country, big cities, and the poor farmers living in shacks (right next to the million dollar apartments)
My son married a Korean woman about 10 years ago. They now own two schools there, and split their time between the states and Korea. She spends more time over there than he does due to the school, and her book tour and promotions. Their son goes back and forth as well.

The cross walks are WIDE, and there's one going each direction. You stay in the cross walk on your right, people coming across the street from the other side are in the other cross walk on your left - that's how many people there are. Bicycles everywhere, taxis everywhere - pretty much all run on LP.

My son's mother-in-law invited us to dine out with her. That's my wife and I on the right, far end, my son on the left, far end - EJ is taking the photo.

The pedestrian traffic there is beyond anything I have ever seen here, especially certain times of day. Cross walks are packed, I mean you move as if you are part of a single thing crossing the 4 and 5 lane (each direction) streets. You cross, you don't mess around.
There are many places where if you need to make a left turn - you cannot. It's prohibited at intersections due to the pedestrian traffic, as well as vehicle traffic. So you go about another half block until you find the u-turn lane and you make a u-turn, go back to the intersection and turn right.
Looking down through the glass floor............

Yeah, I was there for two weeks and spent a week in Seoul and the second week traveling the country from the DMZ zone down to Busan on the southern coast. My ex was Korean. She grew up in So Cal and is very much American, but she was born in Seoul.

It’s a pretty country. I loved Busan. I could live in Busan. At one point, it almost happened.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Yeah, I was there for two weeks and spent a week in Seoul and the second week traveling the country from the DMZ zone down to Busan on the southern coast. My ex was Korean. She grew up in So Cal and is very much American, but she was born in Seoul.

It’s a pretty country. I loved Busan. I could live in Busan. At one point, it almost happened.

My son graduated from college when jobs weren't so easy to find here. He found that Korean schools were looking for people to move there to teach English to Korean children. It's a status thing there if you send your kids to learn English. While there he met a Korean woman who was also teach English in a Korean school. The rest is history.............
They married and while living in the states, did a "home stay" program where Korean parents sent their kids here to live with my son and his life - and learned English and about our society and country. They took the kids to places across the US and taught them English in the off-times. It earned them some big money.
She later decided to start her own school there. They both devised new ways of teaching language skills. They ended up with 2 schools, and she wrote a book about her teaching methods. It's all taken off in big ways.
I mistyped the year. It was 2019 that my wife and I were there and spent some weeks living with my son and his family. Got some real Korean food. EJ's mother loved fixing meals for us, and EJ is a good cook herself.
EJ's family goes back thousands of years over there, and my son is the first non-Korean to marry into that family.
So we had tour guides who knew the country very well, the language, the food, whatever.

 

[NC_Overland]

.
EJ's family goes back thousands of years over there, and my son is the first non-Korean to marry into that family.
So we had tour guides who knew the country very well, the language, the food, whatever.

Same on all. I knew her family was well off, but I had no idea. They owned a ton of land going back forever and the parts in urban areas are all those giant towers full of condos and apartments. We were completely pampered everywhere we went to the point of embarrassment. One time I was on my own and walked up to the building where they stayed and one poor security guard didn’t know who I was and questioned me. I asked him I call her father. Then a bunch of supervisors were there in seconds apologizing to me and one was absolutely laying into him. I felt awful. We had car service wherever we went too. It was great. Especially, after I got to know the drivers and got them to quit kissing my ass.

Her dad loved me because he apparently watched us behind the scenes and saw how I treated her and how she responded to my attention. Her mom tolerated me, but talked a lot of shit behind my back. Anything below a Korean dr was unacceptable for her lineage and education. Random side note, her grandmother was the first female journalist allowed in Korea. She was a big deal, but super cool and down to earth.

 

[Mball488]

When it comes to export models like the one shown there are always going to be those "I WANT THAT" or "WHYYYYYY" from both sides. Just coming from living in Germany for several years and having my German friends drool over my Rubicon steel bumper, small license plate (rear) and the fact that I have tow hooks is still funny to me. Their cow plow front plastic bumper with the wheel well connectors are the ugliest thing I have ever seen in my life. Most countries wont allow a steel bumper to be installed unless a winch is installed which is weird. I do on the other hand like the steel hood of the export model. The vents are actually functional. The side mirror turn lamps are another plus to the export model and for me at least I love the Export LED tail lamps. That's really about it. What the export model lacks are the MOPAR suspension (FOX). Steel bumpers, tow hooks, Halo ring for the headlamps, panic button on the key fob and esp. in Germany.. NO REMOTE START!. I'd say we have it good.

 

[Toyfrog]

Do the fenders have the X Recon lip on them or is it just me?

 

[Mball488]

Do the fenders have the X Recon lip on them or is it just me?

Yeah they do. Some are removable once the clips are pulled out, but I have seen some that have it molded. I dont know why they are really installed, the tires dont stick out past the fenders anyways. They also dont offer the Rubicon high fenders, even on the Rubicon model in most export cases

 

[ShadowsPapa]

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200903000936

 

[jeepstertim]

When it comes to export models like the one shown there are always going to be those "I WANT THAT" or "WHYYYYYY" from both sides. Just coming from living in Germany for several years and having my German friends drool over my Rubicon steel bumper, small license plate (rear) and the fact that I have tow hooks is still funny to me. Their cow plow front plastic bumper with the wheel well connectors are the ugliest thing I have ever seen in my life. Most countries wont allow a steel bumper to be installed unless a winch is installed which is weird. I do on the other hand like the steel hood of the export model. The vents are actually functional. The side mirror turn lamps are another plus to the export model and for me at least I love the Export LED tail lamps. That's really about it. What the export model lacks are the MOPAR suspension (FOX). Steel bumpers, tow hooks, Halo ring for the headlamps, panic button on the key fob and esp. in Germany.. NO REMOTE START!. I'd say we have it good.

Not completely accurate, my export (GCC(which is as far as I'm aware EU spec)) JTR is complete with the mopar (Fox) suspension, hooks and remote start. That said, GCC doesn't get heated seats and steering wheel (not much call in +40c). Totally with you on the indicators and rear lights (and fogs).

The park bench front bumper was one of the 1st things I ditched on my JK, fortunately the JT came with standard Rubicon fare.

The good thing is that when I drive back to the UK, there appears to be nothing required to make it UK legal, the same couldn't be said if I'd imported one from the States.

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