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Tesla thinks a grabbing stick is a good replacement for right-hand drive in the UK.
(www.arenaev.com)
this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2023
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Um is it legal to have the wrong side drive vehicle? In the US you have only have right side drive if it's a certain age, ie a collectible.
Btw the article doesn't say they think it's a good idea, it's more of a joke.
I could be wrong, but I don't think the 25-year import rule in the US has anything to do with what side drive the car is. It was a law passed in the 80s to shut down gray market imported cars. Importers would buy cars from countries where they sold for much cheaper than the US and then resell them for way less than official dealerships.
The law would've been targeting left-hand-drive vehicles, so the right-hand-drive stuff is just a byproduct of it. I mean, the US government had all of its postal service trucks built to be right hand drive.
The issue was also heavily lobbied by Mercedes. It wasn't about profit loss, it was about people importing base and utilitarian Mercedes vehicles. Think cloth seat sedans and offroad unimogs. Mercedes fought this imports in order to uphold their prestige as a luxury manufactuer. They refused to import those things
Ah, that's interesting — and makes a lot of sense.
The dot safety rule is 15 years. Assuming the emissions are the same you could import a right hand at 15 years. You can however order right hand drive cars like jeeps, commercial vans, and other cars used for deliveries.
Oh I don't know, but it's a good effect. But postal vehicles have a specific need for that.
It’s legal. Before brexit it wasn’t uncommon to see French vehicles on British roads - most of Europe drive on the right after all.
Even after Brexit you are of course allowed to travel to the UK with a European car. This is still not uncommon lol
No, they bricked up the channel tunnel the day Brexit came through.
Most of the world too
For sure. I just meant that as we’re part of Europe, had open borders, and are connected to the continent by the Eurostar, is wasn’t at all uncommon to see European cars/number plates on British roads, and the vast majority were right hand drive. I’ve never seen an American number plate however, just as I imagine an American wouldn’t be used to seeing a British or French number plate on a Renault Clio in America, regardless of whether it was LHD or RHD.
Completely legal