I have been given a six-year-old Samsung 5-series as a loaner in the meantime. Not a bad car by any means, but it sure feels different from the Kia Carnival (a Kia Sedona if I had bought it in the States). What it lacks in height it makes up for in length, so I've easily got twice as much car in front and back that I have to worry about when parking. I feel like I've got a giant cow-catcher attached to my front end.
Plus, being so (relatively) close to the ground, I swear to the Almighty, it feels like I'm in the luge event at the Winter Olympics. Or the street luge in California.
It really does suck losing your car even for a couple days. There's always something you forget — I left my hands-free set in the Kia — and there's always something you miss. I guess I'll have to go without having "The View" on the built-in telly when I'm driving home from work in the morning. (Despite the fact that I paid 40,000 won to disable the "Attention: On Driving" warning that blocks out the screen when the car is in motion, the TV is just for listening, not for looking at...I don't watch TV while driving, especially the time I hit that delivery truck).
That is San Francisco. Sacramento street in Chinatown. i think the cross street is Grant.
ReplyDeleteI figured it was S.F., but I didn't really know where.
The only places in SoCal where there is that much Chinese writing are nowhere near that close to the ocean.
Nomad wrote:
ReplyDeleteSamsung SM5...I bought mine in 2002 and in 4 years, have never had any problems with it.
Yeah, I remember you writing that.
It was an okay car, and it was pretty zippy, especially considering that it is LPG (i.e., powered by LP gas). I guess a lot of rent-a-cars are LPG-powered nowadays.
Of course, my Kia is also LPG, but I know that gasoline-powered cars can have a bit more umph.
Anyway, I did notice that the ride wasn't as smooth as my Kia. My GPS device is suspended from the windshield, and it shook a lot more than in the Kia.
I don't think the Samsung was particularly bumpy, just that the Kia is a lot less so. It also could be the particular car I had.
Oh, and the other problem was that it reeked of stale cigarettes. Bad enough that one friend had to get out of the car.
Heh, funny to read about your mishap on Yongsan. Since 97, all my dings, scratches and fender benders have happened on base, not off.
Really? That seems so odd to me. I've had pretty good luck on post.
I may have mentioned it before, but when this car was first purchased, it was the "company vehicle" for our small start-up, and it was always parked in front of the house-cum-office, where it got frequent scratches. It and its predecessor had a virtual "stripe" around it from all the cars scratching as they passed. Not just our car, but all the others on that narrow street which was not designed — in the 1920s — with cars in mind.
I've tried so hard to keep my SM5 looking nice and almost succeeded until a few feeks ago when it real real windy. I parked in the commissary parking lot, ran in to get a few things, and came out to find a nice ding in my door, along with white paint. Of course, the asshole was long gone.
Just don't get road rage over it.
I plan to take care of this car [knocks on wood]. It looks beautiful right now, and if I can get by with as few new scratches as I got over the past three years since moving into my apartment complex, I'd be satisfied.