Howdy folks!
I'm an English teacher, so I'm on my own here no SOFA. Is this a barrier to buying a car on the classifieds here? I see some of the ads call for SOFA status buyers only.
I plan on being in Korea 10+ years so I don't want to dodge or bend any rules or laws. What kind of hoops would I need to jump through to buy one of these cars or should I forget it and have the wife start looking at Korean dealerships?

The reason you may not want to buy from a military person is taxes. You may have to pay terribly high taxes on a car that has been brought in to Korea from outside the country. Military & Govt. Employees under the Status of Forces Agreement are exempt from vehicle taxes. If it is a Korean car , that has never been to the U.S. you should have no problem. Please talk to Mr. Bill or another salesman on our classified site for the right info.

Just a little something to keep in mind...

Most service members come to Korea for a year. They buy a car and their only concern is that it gets them from point A to point B and they pray it does so for a year without requiring any major repairs. They don't care what it looks like - as long as it starts up in the morning - life is good. The last thing they ever want to do is invest any money in it.

When their year is up, they sell it to another service member - who pretty much has the same attitude as the last (who knows how many?) owners.

Basically what I'm saying is - a GI is probably the last person from whom you should purchase a used car in Korea.