It must a fortune for the likes of VW, BMW etc to re-engineer their cars for RHD markets so just what is involved and what do you think is added onto the price?
How many parts needs a redesign just for RHD?
|
How many ? A lot... different dash and everything on/in it, including wiring, the pedal assembly's, master cylinders, fuel lines etc.
- - - - - - -
I am the only Pole over here.
|
|
Headlamps, possibly rear fog lamp too. Steering assemblies etc etc etc
|
|
But a lot of them won't spend the money on re-engineering the wipers to RHD; Peugeot take note! Also, on some older VWs the braking feel was ruined by the cheap and cheerful conversion to RHD - Polos were bad in this respect.
|
Not necessarily re-engineering though. Japanese and Korean cars for the UK market are effectively the original home market RHD cars but with suitable engineering for European tastes.
Given the size of the RHD market (South Africa, Far East Asia, Australasia, UK, Caribbean etc) and with CAD, I assume that most cars are engineered for both hands at the same time.
--
Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
|
|
The old BL mini's with the central speedo were dead easy to convert. If I remember correctly, the only new item to be added was a rhd steering rack. All of the other bits could be swapped over, and the relevant holes etc were already there. Brake pipes had to be re-routed and I think there was a minor problem with the heater. Otherwise a Sunday morning DIY job.
|
The 1976 Rover SD1 was engineered with LHD in mind.. a convienently placed air vent IIRC.
This could respark a debate about switching to LHD, driving on right etc in order to reduce prices?
|
When they converted my 605 to LHD, the firewall was already drilled with the holes in place for the steering column. But my current 406 isn?t funnily enough. The biggest problem was the wiring loom, nothing reached the new position on the dash and each wire had to be painstakingly spliced.
Cost to change was 1000 zloty (170 squids) plus parts, but the guy was doing it as a favour in his spare time and it took him 2-3 months. Even so, it quadrupled the value of the car. I?ve said it before, there is a business opportunity there if anyone can be bothered with all the hassle. Quotes to do my 406 have been in the 800 squid zone.
On my last drive across Europe there were stacks of transporters full of cheap UK cars all headed for Lithuania where I believe you can legally register them in RHD form.
|
|
|
Imagos
We recently took delivery of a new VW LT 28 van. The driver complained about heater operation and investigations revealed that it had a LHD bonnet fitted. Identical to a RHD bonnet from the outside, the underbonnet air intake apertures were wrong sided, resulting in the heater air intake being blanked off when the bonnet was closed.
A bit different to the old Mini's !
|
Front seats and seat mountings, switches in doors and associated wiring ........
--
L\'escargot.
|
VW took a short cut with the old Mk1 Golf.
They didn't bother to strengthen the bulkhead for the clutch cable. The cable pulled thru in some models. Had to be quick fixed with giant washers but was never a perfect solution.
|
I recall seeing a picture of the prototype LandRover, with its steering wheel in the middle. So no problems there.
I've seen cars that had the gearbox slightly offset to the left, to give parking space for the driver's left foot, and also others with the lever angled over towards the driver on the right. Presumably they didn't convert well.
I've never driven a LHD car, so this may be an elementarty question:
Is the orientation of the pedals mirrored on the left, or does it simply repeat the clutch/brake/accelerator layout of the RHD?
If so, where does the clutch foot rest? And why would the whole world use the RHD pedal layout even though mostly LHD?
|
The orientation is the same. The LHD cars i have driven have had a foot rest in the relevant place.
Good point about the whole world using RHD layout - maybe if the right hand pedal was the clutch driving a LHD car would be near impossible!
|
|
Fascinating how most of us are right-handed yet we all find it second nature to change gear with our left hands. My Polish friends all say they find it more natural to change gear with their right hands. But I suppose you just naturally adapt like left-handed people do with right-handed scissors.
|
British RHD cars originally had their gear levers on the right - it was a lever to the right of the driver, sometimes on the outside of the door.
My Triumph Roadster 1800 of 1947 had a right hand gearlever on the steering column. This was to permit seating for three on the bench seat.
American Pierce-Arrows had RHD, allegedly so that the chauffeur could hop out easily to open the passenger door.
|
I find that cars designed originally as RHD(ie.japanese) are far more comfortable than european cars as everything is just in the right place.No off set pedals,seats or steering wheels etc.
Having driven thousands of miles all over the world,I have found driving on either side of the road no problem.I prefer though as we do having my right hand(strongest hand) on the steering wheel while changing gear with my left hand.
|
|
The only long term solution was to weld extra metal around the hole in the bulkhead. At least VW had a sense of humour though when it came to omitting the brake servo, must have thought the UK buyers all watched the Flintstones.
|
|
|
|
Yes and the original dashboard was basically a flat box that could easuily be moved to the other side of the car.
|
|
|
|
|
'scuse pedantry, but is 're-engineer' the right word?
Surely 're-engineer' means 'fundamentally redesign' a machine or organisation.
Swapping from right-hand drive to left-hand drive is more a 'modification' albeit a significant one.
|
|
IIRC smart needed to redesign over 300 areas of the car to change from LHD to RHD - even following this the RHD version was still compromised.
|
I know people in engineering in both Ford and Vauxhall, and all their European cars are designed in LHD, but are then engineered so that they can be built in both LHD and RHD with the minimum number of changes.
However some things in the conversion are inevitably compromises - the RHD steering linkage will more complex, for example, because it's got to fit around an engine that was designed to go in a LHD car.
|
|
One of the worst examples is the pug 306 clutch cable. In LHD cars it simply comes straight through the bulkhead and onto the clutch bellhousing, but in the RHD version the cable is curved round the back of the engine about 7 feet in distance.Result - the lubrication on the cable dried out resulting in a horrible pedal action.
|
|
Renault 4 was fun - they kept the choke knob on the left hand side. You had to reach across to operate it.
|
Renault 4 was fun - they kept the choke knob ....
What's a choke knob? Must be something before my time!
--
L\'escargot.
|
>> Renault 4 was fun - they kept the choke knob .... What's a choke knob? Must be something before my time!
The knob that activates the choke!
|
|
|
|
