Your first
Right hand drive vehicles, not surprisingly, have interested me for a long time. I can actually remember the first right hand drive car I saw.... a MG convertible. Being a kid about 9 years old, I couldn't help but stare. I hadn't heard that traffic rules are different for different countries. I was in the car with my parents at the time, and they muddled through explaining traffic to a 9 year-old.
After that I don't remember seeing one (saving mail carriers) for a long time. I remember seeing my first Kei truck up close. It was quite mind-blowing at the time. I was in the market for a new vehicle, and have a flavour for... well... weird vehicles. It was in a parkade and for sale. I spent about 5 minutes looking it over in disbelief. I remember saying the highly stereotypical "this can't be legal in Canada" and "wow, that must be a puny motor", and most other things that people say if they are not educated in grey imports. I also distinctly remember looking to see where the signal stalk and the petals were, and how they were arranged.
8 months after seeing my first Kei truck, I was buying one. I was at a business that is a Kei truck dealer of sorts and took the truck I now own for a test drive. And, it turns out that this story rings true for most people that drive an RHD; The first RHD they have driven is their own.
After talking to a few of my friends and acquaintances that drive RHDs, most of them had to 'take the plunge' and buy an RHD before they ever get to try driving one. This struck me as quite amazing. Finding out this fact, I've turned my truck 'open source' - if you can drive a stick, you can drive my truck (given I know you at least a little). It's good for two reasons: It's education for those who have never driven one (no, it's not super weird) and it lets people have the experience of driving an RHD (which a lot of people do not have). It's been a good exercise for both me, and everyone whose gotten to drive it.
I, of course, drive one of the cheaper RHD on the road, so this does not scare me as much as people who have more invested in their cars. But, I encourage everyone to let their friends and family take their car for a spin. It helps them realize that you're not crazy for driving 'on the wrong side of the car' and will maybe plant some seeds to get more people driving these great cars!
rob
February 25th, 2011 - 00:06
i remeber the first time i drove a rhd was my buddys mr2 an at the time i had a nothamerican del sol i drove his mr2 for 10mins probly an fell in love after the ride i was like i am determind to buy a rhd mr2 but my love was for the del sol. 2 months later the car was in a crash an i knew it was a write off at the time 3 hrs after the crash i had my buddy look for a local del sol while i was at work didnt care what the car was like thinking well ill do a buy back on my car an do an engin swap ect. so i gave him 300 to do a down payment on a del sol he found an he never told me what kinda del sol it was he found that he put the deposit on till the next day when i went to see it an as soon as i saw it i was like really this cant be reall turnd out he found a jdm crx del sol transtop an i fell in love with it that day. sure it was over price for 10gs full of hail damage an faded paint but i was in love with the car an bought it that day since then iv had that car since i was 16 an love it to death an only drive it once in a while but its the one car ill never sell
March 1st, 2011 - 11:15
My first JDM was a Honda Life (kei), that won’t be eligible for import to Canada until 2012. It was my first car when I lived in Tokyo working as a Car Exporter- 5speed, 4wd and very tiny with tons of room for my family. I have to say, I am counting the days until I can import a Honda Life to Canada because I completely fell in love with it. I have since owned a Subaru Sambar truck, Daihatsu Atrai Kei van, Suzuki Cappuccino, Nissan Figaro’s, Mitsubishi Delica Spacegears and many others but the Honda Life remains my favorite for its size, MPG and comfort.