By 
A model of the Hyundai Pony that hit the market in the mid-1970s and came to be remembered as Korea’s first mass-produced car. In 1982, the Pony I was upgraded to Pony II, which remained in production until 1990. / Korea Times File
Via the Korea Times.
8:08 am on February 25th, 2010 1
The old pony taxis. Remember them well. That's when Korean cab drivers were really scary. A cab ride was an adventure! Now all they do is try to rip you off.
They're all so tame and laid back now. Maybe it's all the pot they are smoking.
8:11 am on February 25th, 2010 2
…and I think I recall sometime in the 90's when the government required all the taxis to be upgraded. There were still quite a few ragged ponies running around.
8:49 am on February 25th, 2010 3
I remember when I was really young and we visited my mom's family in Korea, I was so fascinated with Korean taxis, I'd take pictures of them everywhere i went (my parents gave me this little box camera to use).
12:58 pm on February 25th, 2010 4
In what ways do they try to rip you off?
Other than hapsŭng (ride-sharing) and shared "bullet taxis" or the like, all predictable and "accepted" situations, I've never had a taxi driver charge me anything other than the legally set fare.
I once accused one of doing so, but it turned out it was my misunderstanding of when the rates went up for the night in the provincial city.
2:05 pm on February 25th, 2010 5
When I got to Korea in 1991, I bought a 1985 Pony for $150.00 from a Major who was PCSing in about 48 hours and had to unload it to out-process. I guess I got my money's worth, but man what a piece of garbage! I was never able to get it to pass an inspection so I couldn't get it on post, the muffler fell off and the stick shift popped out of its housing. It finally died and I scrapped it a month or so before I PCSed!
2:35 pm on February 25th, 2010 6
You have obviously never been a GI in the 2ID area.
2:39 pm on February 25th, 2010 7
I have had them attempt to charge me 20,000 won for what I KNEW from previous trips was 4,000-5,000 won. Ever wonder why so many cab drivers get beat up in Area I? It's not ALL asshole GI's. It's well known that cab drivers will attempt to take advantage of you up here.
5:11 pm on February 25th, 2010 8
Too bad you didn't make friends with the Motor Pool KNs.
5:56 pm on February 25th, 2010 9
No, I'm talking about the 80's business model you described first. I've seen it go down both ways. Mainly, the cabbie doesn't turn on the meter and hopes you don't notice. Then at the destination, usually the gate, he pops you with the 20,000 won bull. Most soldiers, wanting to avoid any problems, grudgingly pay it. This is not a misunderstanding about day and night rates. This is thievery plain and simple.
The command should educate soldiers on this. POINT at the meter, if he doesn't turn it on GET OUT!
As I was not a GI (therefore NOT a good neighbor) when this was tried on me; I turned to the gentleman and politely explained he could have 2 or 3,000 won (depending how generous I was feeling and how much of an ass he was) as a "tip", what was on the meter – 0, or we could go talk to the police about it. They usually grudgily took the 2 or 3000 won I offered. Both of us knowing he would have made more had he:
A. ran the meter and
B. not tried to rip me off
"Meta gee wae an-kayo?" gets their attention.
I will say that now that the local cabs can come on post (and many in town have the "op-post" sticker) the incidents have gone down. I suspect because now the command has a little authority over these guys. Denying them from post would cut a lucrative portion out of their business. TDC cab drivers have also become (for the most part) much politer. It seems many of the vultures hanging outside the gate and ville have disappeared of late. This is a good thing for all concerned.
12:30 am on February 26th, 2010 10
Back in the day (early ’80s) the taxi drivers in 2ID used to never want to use the meter – of course this was because they wanted to charge you more than what the trip would cost if they used it.
But in recent years, I’ve never had a taxi driver in Area I try that. They have all just gone by the meter.
There are some rules that some GIs don’t know about, such as the increased taxi fares for rides between the hours of midnight and 0500; and also if you go from within Seoul to a destination outside of Seoul, they will charge you extra, and it’s perfectly legal. This seems like a rip-off when you’re in one of the northern parts of Seoul (Dobong-gu for example) and you ask for a ride to Camp Red Cloud. But it’s an acceptable practice in Korea.
1:40 am on February 26th, 2010 11
I had my own way of dealing with the taxi drivers around Casey that wouldn't give you a ride using the meter. At night when you'd come out from the ville to the main road in TDC looking for a ride to the Camp Hovey gate (that by the meter should have cost around $2 or 1,400 won), the taxi drivers would always ask for $3 or 2K won.
And you couldn't get one of them to break ranks – there would be 15-20 of them lined up at the curb – and every single one of them would ask for the same fare.
I'd get in the front taxi and tell him let's go to Hovey. He'd say $3/2K won and I'd say nope – go by the meter. He'd argue with me for a minute, and when it became clear that I wasn't going to pay, he'd get out of the taxi and go back to the crowd of taxi drivers standing by the curb smoking cigarettes. I'd just sit there in the taxi – figuring if that a-hole wasn't going to go by the meter, at least I'd tie up his taxi for awhile and stop him from making any money.
But one time…I got this great (and very devious) idea. I cranked the arm on the meter 180 degrees and it rang up 600 won. I cranked it another 180 degrees back to its original position – and then I hit the reset button. So Mr. a-hole taxi driver now owes the taxi company 600 won. One time the guy was really being a first class pr!ck, so I spun the arm over and over until he owed the company around 20K won. When I got out of the taxi, ol' boy gave me a smug look that said "You actually thought if you sat in the taxi long enough – I'd come back and give you a ride for the correct fare?? Wrong!!"
Little did he know – I got the last laugh. And I sure would love to have been there when they rang up his fares and he sh!t a brick when they told him how much he owed the company.
4:08 am on February 26th, 2010 12
God that's an ugly car. And I'm a fan of 1970s cars.
5:18 am on February 26th, 2010 13
Yes it was ugly. And yet if you owned one of those in ROK at that time, you were considered relatively successful.
9:30 am on February 26th, 2010 14
Most compact cars in the 70's were ugly.
I remember when my old man bought a VW Rabbit in '78. UGLY! UGLY! UGLY! It lasted forever though.
12:12 pm on February 26th, 2010 15
In the 90's, taxis would try to charge you double fare because the had crossed an imaginary line that separates downtown from the less densely populated parts of the city.
12:14 pm on February 26th, 2010 16
Dude, what do you expect? You paid 150$ for it. One tire on my SUV is worth that much.
12:19 pm on February 26th, 2010 17
Those old VW Golf/Rabbit with a diesel engine were built like tanks.
2:11 pm on February 26th, 2010 18
guitard,
"I cranked the arm on the meter 180 degrees and it rang up 600 won."
That's a good trick… but I'm not sure it worked as intended.
I don't know how far back it goes… but the current system is that the driver "rents" the taxi for a flat rate (i.e. 50,000won/day). They cover insurance and repairs, he covers gas.
The taxi company gets their money without having to worry about the games that taxi drivers working on a percentage would undoubtedly play.
When you consider the costs involved and the fact that taxis are quite a bargain in Korea, it is possible to feel some sympathy for Korean taxi drivers who might pick up only 2 or 3 fares for less than 5000won per hour.
But, of course, dishonest vulture taxi drivers have what is coming to them.
8:19 am on February 27th, 2010 19
Nice car!
6:24 am on March 2nd, 2010 20
Compared to the Asian economy cars of the day, like the Honda Civic (see here) and the Toyota Corolla (see here), I don't think the Hyundai Pony looked particularly unusual or ugly. The taxi green doesn't help its case, though.
8:50 am on March 2nd, 2010 21
Reminds me of the VW Rabbit.