CADA anti-Right Hand Drive Propaganda
Propaganda is a strong word, but that's the only thing I can call this. CADA, the Canadian Automobile Dealer Association, has obvious reasons to not like right hand drive vehicles. RHDs are great value and cut into their bottom line. You can buy a new Skyline for.... $99000... depending on your options, or a 95 that's with some performance modifications and low mileage for $12000 or less.
The propaganda in question is this pamphlet. It outlines how these cars are unsafe and don't pass safety standards. Of course, they have no backing for this data and it's all very one sided. Which is why I define it as propaganda. There are no real strong arguments here, just statements. This is amplified by the fact that the backing is CADA, an association that is designed to make money.
I should mention that I don't know when this was published, since they don't cite a date. If they would have cited sources for information and data, we could try to pin down approximately when it came out... but unfortunately they do no such thing.
I honestly don't know why they're so up in arms about it. I don't think people that are interested in specialty cars such as RHDs are likely to by a car from a dealer. New or used. They should accept the change, and maybe even get into the market! Why not! They're complaining that they're losing sales, while ignoring a new market.
Thought I'd share this, as food for thought.
rob
edit: updated price of Nissan GT-R (aka... skyline) to CAD price off website. My estimate of $44k was apparently off by more than 100%.
April 12th, 2010 - 08:22
You make some great points. Why is it that established business/business groups are more concerned with hedging themselves in, rather than growing their opportunities?