Right-hand drive cars

Kyle

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Jun 2, 2006
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from Sosua News

The director of the traffic police (AMET), major general Jos? Sigfredo Fern?ndez has told his officers to watch out for righthand-drive cars.

Traffic police hunt righthand-drive carsThese will be impounded immediately. According to Transport Law 241, it is forbidden to take a car onto the public road if the steering wheel is on the right-hand side. These are cars that are usually imported from the UK. The reason behind this action is the fact that an AMET agent was recently hit by a righthand-drive car. Studies show that the driver was drunk, but also that he had insufficient overview of the crossroads because he was sitting in the right-hand seat. According to the major general, it's a crime against humanity to drive around in a righthand-drive car.

so why do they let them import them ? :ermm:
 

Rocky

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from Sosua News
According to Transport Law 241, it is forbidden to take a car onto the public road if the steering wheel is on the right-hand side. These are cars that are usually imported from the UK.
Most of them are imported straight from Japan, not from the UK.

so why do they let them import them ? :ermm:
They are less expensive, generally have lower mileage and are better maintained than their American counterparts.
Most of these cars are converted to left hand drive before being sold to the public.
 

qgrande

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Jul 27, 2005
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So driving when drunk is OK as long as it's in a left-driven car... good to know.
Right-hand driven cars a crime against humanity, I like that, means we can send all those Brits crossing the channel straight to the ICC.
 

Kyle

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thanks Rocky...this article seemed so confusing to read. i was thinking more like "drugs are illegal" but we let people import and buy them just to arrest them".

so this conversion to left-hand drive is not expensive ?
 

suarezn

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Feb 3, 2002
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Right-hand driven cars a crime against humanity, I like that, means we can send all those Brits crossing the channel straight to the ICC.

That's right...to jail with those Brits, Japanese, etc who impose this bad habit on humanity...:laugh:

Kyle: Not sure how expensive the conversion is, but they do a great job. My brother is a car dealer so he pretty much has his pick of any car he wants, but his favorite car by far is a Toyota Camry that someone imported from Japan and did this conversion. His is the only one I've ever seen and it's very distinctive in looks. It does not look like a Camry at all and it's extremely economic car to drive. Anyhow you couldn't even tell that this was once a right hand driven car, except the turn signal and windshield wiper lever are on opposite side of the steering wheel. It always takes me a little bit to adjust to this difference whenever I drive it...
 

MrMike

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The Japanese always keep the best stuff for themselves and export crap (by comparison) to the rest of the world, so these non-export cars are very high quality.

Also used vehicles are very cheap in Japan since the annual tax (shakken, kind of like a "marbete") that has to be paid on them to keep them legal is a ton of money, so much that it makes buying a new car and ditching the old one an attractive option financially.

A small part of this cost advantage is passed on to the consumer when you buy a used imported Japanese car in the DR.

The Jeepeta I bought m wife is one of these, it is basically a Nissan Pathfinder (same exact shell) but it is a special non-export model, called a Terrano.

This has a very fuel efficient 4 cylinder turbo diesel engine that feels fairly powerful when you drive it but at the same time hardly seems to actually consume any fuel.
 

Conchman

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from Sosua News

The director of the traffic police (AMET), major general Jos? Sigfredo Fern?ndez has told his officers to watch out for righthand-drive cars.

Traffic police hunt righthand-drive carsThese will be impounded immediately. According to Transport Law 241, it is forbidden to take a car onto the public road if the steering wheel is on the right-hand side. These are cars that are usually imported from the UK. The reason behind this action is the fact that an AMET agent was recently hit by a righthand-drive car. Studies show that the driver was drunk, but also that he had insufficient overview of the crossroads because he was sitting in the right-hand seat. According to the major general, it's a crime against humanity to drive around in a righthand-drive car.

so why do they let them import them ? :ermm:


In The Bahamas, most cars are left-side drive cars imported from the United States, while the driving is also on the left side like the British and Japanese do. I suppose most Bahamians are then criminals against Humanity? I expect similar situations in Jamaica and other english speaking Caribbean islands.

While it is true that this impedes view somewhat, especially while overtaking, it is in my opinion, another knee jerk reaction typical of Caribbean governments and officials.
 

qgrande

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Jul 27, 2005
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In The Bahamas, most cars are left-side drive cars imported from the United States, while the driving is also on the left side like the British and Japanese do. I suppose most Bahamians are then criminals against Humanity? I expect similar situations in Jamaica and other english speaking Caribbean islands.

While it is true that this impedes view somewhat, especially while overtaking, it is in my opinion, another knee jerk reaction typical of Caribbean governments and officials.
Of course it is. In Europe British cars driving around on the continent and continental ones in teh UK is pretty normal.
 

Chirimoya

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Dec 9, 2002
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I've been a passenger in left-hand drive cars on the European mainland and right-hand drive cars in the UK and there is much scope for error. I think I'd enjoy being the driver even less.
 

Kyle

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i spent 2 years in england driving a left-hand drive car.....it was scary...especially in a round-a-bout...:eek:
 

Platano Drifter

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lol and here me and my buddys go crazy for RHD cars i know people who convert them and people who buy the car from japan like that o yea im located in miami till sat lol but yea i would love to have a RHD car but after reading this im quit disapointed that i might have to take a cAR IVE ALWAYS WANTED (nissan silvia) and convert it to LHD that really sucks but now im confused heres why

nissan makes infinity
toyota makes lexus
and so on but that is in the americn market in japan what we would call a lexus is a toyota and same goes for nissan for exapmle a lexus sc300 in japan is a toyota soarer and a ls400 is a aristo, so u mean to tell me dealers in DR go through all the trouble of makin them LHD and changing out all the emblems im asuming the make a fortune because paople in the us are always tryin to buy JDM(japanese domestic market) parts to make there cars more "JDM" and in DR they're un jdming the car lol its just ironic from my point of view

im asuming dearlers make a killing off of e-bay sellin the jdm parts removed??
p.s sorry for the lack of punctuation
 

Rocky

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toyota makes lexus
and so on, so u mean to tell me dealers here go through all the trouble of makin them LHD and changing out all the emblems
I'm not sure if I understood your point, but I can tell you that they do NOT change out all the emblems.
My Lexus GS300 bears the original Japanese emblems, Toyota Crown Aristo.
 

Platano Drifter

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I'm not sure if I understood your point, but I can tell you that they do NOT change out all the emblems.
My Lexus GS300 bears the original Japanese emblems, Toyota Crown Aristo.

ahh thank you thats what i wanted to know cause in japan theres no such thing as lexus etc and i wanted to know if the car bears its japanese name and toyota emblems or does the dealer swap them out for the lexus emblems
 

Rocky

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ahh thank you thats what i wanted to know cause in japan theres no such thing as lexus etc and i wanted to know if the car bears its japanese name and toyota emblems or does the dealer swap them out for the lexus emblems
There would be too much expense involved.
The steering wheel center, the whole front hood grill, the large plate between the rear tail lights, all four caps for the mag wheels and the trunk lid emblem would all have to be changed.
 

Platano Drifter

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There would be too much expense involved.
The steering wheel center, the whole front hood grill, the large plate between the rear tail lights, all four caps for the mag wheels and the trunk lid emblem would all have to be changed.

yeah thats y i was confused when he said he got a lexus from japan cause there are not if he would have said its JDm name i would have known what he ment so i was wondering how would it be less expensive if you have to change all that stuff over just for the lexus logo
 

Rocky

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yeah thats y i was confused when he said he got a lexus from japan cause there are not if he would have said its JDm name i would have known what he ment so i was wondering how would it be less expensive if you have to change all that stuff over just for the lexus logo
That's my fault, as I refer to it as a Lexus, being as how that's the name everybody knows it under, and if I said a Toyota Crown Aristo, they wouldn't know what I was talking about.
BTW: There were rumours that Japan might launch the Lexus name in Japan for 2007, but I don't know if they did or not.
PS: There is an art to converting these cars properly, and they need to be thoroughly examined before purchasing, to ensure that the job was well done.