Deep Singh

For UK netters.Thinking about buying a LHD car at some point in the future.Anybody tell me any experiences about driving difficulties/insurance problems/resale problems
Many thanks,Deep.

David_Dickson

Normal driving isnt as much hassle as people make out. In town its not much of a problem, and on the open roads, you soon get the hang of overtaking, ie sitting further back from the slow vbehicle to allow you to see more of the road ahead.
The only real ball-ache is when it comes to stuff like toll-booths, car-park machines and drive-thru food places!

taffyboyo

If you bothered your **** to go to the scoobyball, this was a topic that was discussed on our table in great detail,
shame you couldnt make it ey!
Only kidding mate, never owned a lhd but all those americans cant be wrong, can they?

Spoon

I drive an American Dayvan on a regular basis. I know it's not a car but I actually prefer left hand drive in the UK as you sit out of the way of oncoming traffic. You can sit into the kerb and take corners with ease also. Overtaking is easier with a van than a car( height) but with a powerful enough car and with a little distance between you and the guy in front there shouldn't be a problem with overtaking.

Insurance was no problem at all.

Re-sale shouldn't be a problem either in terms of financial losses as you'd have bought at a reduced cost in the first place and as you've bought a left hand drive car there must be someone else out there prepared to do the same! Surely?

Brendan Hughes

I had my RHD car in Belgium for six months, and was really annoyed that I couldn't overtake properly on B roads - it was a Pug GTI, so supposed to be driven enthusiastically. Perhaps if you bought a boring cruiser it would be fine, but I didn't enjoy it for a sports car. You have very few toll booths in the UK, but I agree it would be a pain for supermarket car parks.

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

I own a proper left hand drive integrale and I love left hand drive On the point of view that I can change gear faster being right handed

Left hand drive is only a problem to overtake in if you have a car with no power, I am running my integrale in and went up and down the motorway with no problem.

Driving a left hand drive feels very natural now and it only took me 5 miles of driving along the cats eyes to get used too

I drive both right hand and left hand drive cars and the left hander is my favourite to drive.

Any questions?

Paul

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

p.s you get a 33% loading on your first years insurance but once they suss you can drive a left hooker you pay normal rates

Spoon

No loading on mine Paul, it also actually went down this year.

ski

Agree with Paulpalmer.LHD is way more easy than people think,I have had my LHD Scoob for nearly 3 years now and have not had any probs.

Pete

VinylJunkie

From the other side of the coin so to speak......I drive a RHD Impreza Turbo here on the continent and have no problems whatsoever- you just sit back a little and overtaking is no problem at all even on twisty roads.

Re-Bitten Hero

Exactly. I drive my RHD Scooby over here, and the only annoyance is toll booths, car park entrances and stuff. Oh, and sometimes joining main roads where you have to look across the passenger or through the back window. Otherwise, no problem at all, and fun when the person in the car next to you at the traffic lights thinks no-one is driving

Richard

MattW

I've driven lhd cars in the US(Auto) and Europe(Manual), and find the drive far more natural than rhd. I was quite surprised how quickly it became secondnature.

The only thing that got me was trying to get in the passenger side every time

Stephen Read

I drove a LHD Barchetta in the UK for a year and a RHD Scoob in Switzerland for another year.

Toll booths /Carparks are slight hassle. Less so in the Scoob because there is more space inside to lever yourself up and you can rest your @rse on the centre console/handbrake/cubby. I never clouted a toll booth either; which was nice.

The real issue (for me) was that I had to concentrate on my 'position in the road' slightly more than in a proper-hand-drive car. Both on normal roads and multi lane roads.

My natural tendency in the UK was to drift over to the right so that I could see past the car ahead. Infact, I often found myself subconsciously lining my body up with the driver of the car ahead for some reason. That could be a problem because you have the entire right hand side of your car sticking out potentialliny into oncomming traffic.

Passengers are a help: both at toll booths and for spotting hazards/overtaking oportuniyies ahead but you naturally have to use your own judgement and not rely on them!

You being to learn that you can follow the left hand kerb/verge more. Afterall this is what you are supposed to do and not follow the white line down the middle as so many do!

You can also spot hazards etc up the indside as there is much more space there with every other bugger following the central white line.

To summarise, I would do it again without question.

The real problems is financial. It's better to buy in a wrong-hand-drive market and sell in a correct-hand-drive one.

You might have to cough up for RHD headlights. Some can be converted but the end result is normally poor.

P.S. When I imported my MY00 from Holland *back to the UK), I almost chose an LHD one because I could have had on on the spot instead of waiting 6 months and at the time, the RHD premiums kept on going up and up.

I paid £16k for RHD but a same spec LHD would have been under £14k and the non-ABS, non-airbag GT version was probably under £13K !

I wish I did because I moved to Switzerland a year later. DOH!

[Edited by Stephen Read - 3/25/2003 9:37:43 AM]

Deep Singh

LOL at Taffy
The toll booth thing never ocurred to me,but I could live with that.The 33% insurance loading is worrying though as I'm thinking of buying something exotic which will cost a fortune to insure anyway.Can anyone else confirm this? It will be powerful so overtaking should not be a problem from what you guys have said.
How much problem do the headlamps cause?
Anybody ever bought a second hand LHD car from Germany or Italy?

Old_Fart

Yes I've had a 944 and a 964 LHD from Germany..but, no offence intended, *****Edited t remove provocation****

Chuck

[Edited by Josh L - 3/28/2003 4:14:59 PM]

met

owned a lhd e36 m3 & it wasnt as bad as people make out. especialy not for the huuuuuge savings over the rhd cars, ie m3, tt et al. i currently own & drive a LHD 1955 VW Beetle, overtaking a problem>......... with a 0-60 time of 47secs its all bad

[Edited by met - 3/25/2003 2:55:14 PM]

bdrought

My 500E is LHD and its no problem at all. in fact, its far more comfortable. Overtaking is breeze (but then its pretty rapid).

No loading on the insurance either.

Bri

Deep Singh

Thanks guys.Old fart,you really live up to your name.I d'ont think anybody will feel worse off for the lack of 'your informed opinion'.Using profanities just shows the lack of your imagination.Not really interested in irrelevant cars such as yours anyway.No offence.....

Andrew O'Hara

Deep,

I am now on my 4th LHD car (2 Lancia Delta Integrale's and 2 BMW E30 M3's, I still have an E30 M3 Sport EVO now). I have no problem at all with LHD but admittedly when I had the first M3 it took about 2 hours to get used to LHD and positioning yourself on the road.

Believe it or not I actually prefer driving LHD and my next car either a Porsche 964 RS or 993 RS will be LHD (also because they are cheaper than their RHD equivalents )

Andy

Old_Fart

Tut-tut Deep. Sticks and stones and all that.
Good luck in finding your affordable supercar, I'm sure all your 'real' friends will be very impressed with your gorgeous Italian...sadly most of my friends aren't impressed with my cars, I met them when I was driving a Micra and it didn't seem to make any difference to them!
Chuck

Deep Singh

Thanks Andy.
Old fart,you have no idea about my friends/life,but seem to great pleasure in hypothesising about it.Why is that? If it makes your life seem better then yes I am a sad,bald virgin who needs to buy a big flash car to get friends/women.I suppose if I did something as boring as banking, despite the financial rewards, I would need to imagine other peoples lifes are worse than mine aswell.

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

What car are you looking for?

Paul

Deep Singh

Paul,only dreaming at the moment.Would like something with about 400 BHP(standard) and 4wd if you know what I mean? Bloody expensive LHD and unobtainable(for me) RHD.Still not sure I can justify the running costs of a car like that though.Seems almost immoral(on my wages that is)I'll probably think about it for ages and then decide to buy another Jap supercar for a third of the price(again)