Comments on: What are the controls like in a Right Hand Drive car?

By: rob

rob — Sun, 03 Nov 2013 00:21:29 +0000

I don’t think such a thing exists, or is required anywhere (that I know of). It’s surprisingly easy to just jump into an RHD and just giv’r.

By: Jody

Jody — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 15:14:54 +0000

Does anyone know where to find an instructional manual or driving skills for right hand drive vehicles. Along the lines of a driving school or DMV course???

By: Is it worth the trouble owning a Right Hand Drive? | Tuned Tech

Is it worth the trouble owning a Right Hand Drive? | Tuned Tech — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:02:38 +0000

[...] Rob is a guest poster from righthanddrive.ca. This article has been cross-posted from his site, and you can see the original post there. [...]

By: richmond

richmond — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 05:51:35 +0000

in Oz local / Europe cars are same as LHD cars IE wiper Right side / turn Left
But asia is mirrored turn on right /wiper on left. the European builders probably thought about drivers from reversed countries driving there product where as japan did not care as much about the rest of the world when there auto industry was young

By: marvin dyson

marvin dyson — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 04:02:48 +0000

I find right-drive vehicle very easy to drive as I have also my own suv,Land Cruiser. At first I was reluctant to buy this truck but in my amazement,I within half-an hour of driving it’s no difference than LHD vehicle of which I have one suv that I drive alternately..it’s just a matter of concentration when you drive any of them.I have more concentration this time coz’ of driving 2 different drives vehicle in going to work everyday.
Moreover the city of Winnipeg,I’ve seen one of their service trucks on sanitation which is a late model Ford also,a RHD! besides that there are still lots of postal vehicles that are still on the road these days.I don’t know in Quebec,a guy I used to acquire my Land Cruiser from,has told me they temporarily banned these RHD vehicles on the road!..
I find it very simple and easy driving RHD vehicle since when you get off the vehicle you’re on the safe side of the road! You only have to use a little precaution when overtaking or passing vehicles on the highway to avoid getting a blind spot on your left side for the incoming vehicles,avoid tailgating the vehicles in front of you..(BTW tailgating is a common mistakes a lot of people do that’s why they get into accidents!)
The only downside of RHD is when you go to a drive-in you’ve got to have a buddy on your passenger side to hand over the money to the cashier!..lol

By: rob

rob — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:22:56 +0000

Hey Steve,
The radio thing must be super confusing. My Hijet has the ‘reversed controls’ radio, which causes my passengers no end of grief (therefore provides me no end of entertainment). So the signal lights can be on either side of the steering column, that’s what I had understood. That’s so confusing!

Quebec is currently the only province that explicitly disallows RHDs, currently. The moratorium is up in a few days, so we’ll see what happens long term this month. All other provinces (afaik) have the ’15 year’ rule, allowing RHDs on the road after 15 years (a Canadian standard). There were a bunch of triumphs RHD when I grew up, and I was totally enamored, which were at least 15 years old.

Government vehicles have a provision to allow RHD trucks for their uses, mostly for postal vehicles, as you said. It’s somewhere on riv.ca, but I can’t find it right now. Quebec still has those under that exemption since they fall under federal law, not provincial law.

Thanks for your comment!
rob

By: SteveP

SteveP — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 07:51:59 +0000

I’m a Canadian living in the UK and I visit South Africa frequently. Both the UK and SA drive on the left. South Africa has banned all left-hand drive car imports but in the UK you can drive almost anything you want on the road. It is one of the most liberal states in regard to car imports and use.

The indicator and wiper stalks are the same as we are used to in Canada on most UK cars. Exceptions are some Asian imports like the Malaysian Protons. I recently rented a Daihatsu in SA which also had the reversed stalks.

In Australia I rented one car with “normal” layout and the next one was reversed. I find almost all aftermarket radios have controls either for the US (LHD) market or sometimes a central control knob (ambidextrous). Only cars built solely for a RHD market seem to have OEM radios with the controls oriented properly.

I hadn’t realized that parts of Canada restricted RHD cars. I’m from NB and can recall lots of old RHD MGs from my youth. IIRC, Canada Post still uses a unique Grumman RHD delivery vehicle which allows the letter carrier to exit on the curb side when delivering. Has Quebec banned these or are they exempted as “existing”?

BTW – my neighbour here in the UK has a Nissan Figaro. Cute, but tiny.