Right hand drive Classifieds now available on RightHandDrive.ca!
I'm excited to introduce a new feature available on the site.... classifieds!
I know what you're thinking: "It's been done, and I don't want to post my car again in another place." Well, you're not posting it again. We're doing classifieds a little differently than other sites.
The way you post classifieds here is different: You give us a link to your Craigslist or Kijiji ad. When that ad goes away (presumably when you sell your car) the ad goes away on this site too. So, with minimal effort, you can get more traffic to your classified ad, and don't have to worry about managing your ad on another site.
How's it work? Well. You give us your link via a simple web form, and it appears on the classifieds page of this site. Users will be able to view your classified ad you posted on Kijiji or Craigslist, with the images and text your put on your ad on Kijiji or Craigslist. When you close your ad, RightHandDrive.ca classifieds will detect you've closed it and it will be removed from this site. Minimal work, lots of gain.
Check it out now at RightHandDrive.ca classifieds!
rob
More Skylines Seized in California
I talked about this not so long ago. There are a few RHD cars that are legal to import into the USA,and Skylines are on that list. But, Skylines need modifications to meet the standards in the USA, and my understanding is that there is no shops that can do that work.
So, that means that most RHDs in the states have been imported illegally, and this can happen: 2 more Skylines have been seized, and will likely be crushed. I found the link on Jalopnik here. The original article, that is more fleshed-out can be found here on Nicoclub.com.
To the people who have lost their cars: I'm sorry. That sucks. Best of luck in the fight to get them back.
rob
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
Right hand drive auctions – a walkthough
If you've ever wondered what the Japanese car auctions look like, check this out!
The Australian show 'Mighty Car Mods' went on a tour of one of the HUGE Japanese car auction houses. It's a really interesting video to watch. They do a walkthough of a 6-storey carpark full of vehicles up for auction. Since Australia is an RHD country they could choose more liberally than we could here in Canada.. but they were still eyeballing a lot of the same cars! RX-7s, Skylines and the like! They also do a little bit on Kei cars up for auction.
The bit about the actual auction floor is INCREDIBLE. The auctions usually take 20-30 seconds (take THAT ebay!) and 4 go on at the same time. It looks like a pretty intense environment... but really interesting at the same time. They basically set it up as a videogame, by the looks of it!
Advice: skip the first 8 minutes... it's all fluff. Otherwise... enjoy! Lots of good information and shots of really interesting cars in here!
Cheers,
rob
JDM Radio – Surprises after importing
Stock radio from a Nissan Figaro - Click for larger image
There's a number of strange little things about JDM right hand drives that some people might not expect when they're importing.
One of these things is that a lot of people that import their own JDM don't think about is that Japan runs on a different radio band. Turns out that's the case!
In most of the world the FM broadcast band, used for broadcasting FM radio stations, goes from 87.5 to 108.0 MHz. Japan's FM broadcast band is 76–90 MHz, the only country to use this span. (From Wikipedia)
So, as the first owner of a fresh JDM in Canada, you might be wondering why you can only get the first few FM channels.... this is why. The AM radio band is the same, and will work, and if your area is anything like mine you'll be listening to a lot of informational programming. I always say that owning a right hand drive has taught me a lot, and this is one of the reasons why!
JDM radio tuned to a North American impossibility.
It's actually also funny to see what kinds toys come with these radios. I've seen MiniDisc players, tape and some crazy Non-english undefinable peripherals.
So, when importing your own JDM right hand drive, or checking out one that's already landed... check out the radio - if you're really into FM radio it might cost you a bunch to swap out the radio. Speaking from experience... there might not be a simple way to hook up your new North American spec radio either.
You'll notice that I used the term 'JDM Radio' and 'JDM right hand drive'. This is because this particular problem is specific to vehicles from Japan... if you import a right hand drive from the UK or other right hand drive country you won't have this problem.
Big thanks to ST and friend for the images.
Rob
Right Hand Drive Seizures in the States
VehicleImport's unfortunately too true banner
I've heard about police seizing vehicles that have been improperly imported - that's the nice way of saying smuggling. Not a lot of right hand drive vehicles are permitted for import into the states, and even trying to get those into the states can be a major chore, to the point it's impossible. A while ago I had read about a rash of R33 and R34 GTRs being seized by authorities Check it out here.
So I started to dig around to see if this was a common thing. Turns out that it's not uncommon. The US border guards will seize your vehicle if the proper paper work is not done... like this beautiful R32.
This got me even more curious, so I 'busted out' some 'google fu' to see what I could crop up!
Search term: right hand drive seized
The first thing I found: A Nissan Figaro that was seized when busting a Ponzi Scheme. Sounds like the person busted doing this Ponzi scheme had this in his collection. It's "improperly imported" so it was slated for sale... export only.
Not surprisingly, approximately the same story to the seizures posted on gtrusa.blogspot.com. There is always some degree a rumour to these postings about seizures, but I'm sure there's some truth to them. Here's on from a year and a bit ago: http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/03/nissan-skyline-gt-rs-seized-in-california-over-possible-illegal/
Surprisingly, the first two pages were almost ENTIRELY USA related. Which is odd, most of the world has LHD/RHD problems, and the USA don't really even allow them to be imported (by and large). Googling "right hand drive impounded" does not have much USA, or even North American info.
Excited by my initial success, I decided to exploring some more: "right hand drive stolen" - A BUNCH of USA posts. Again, weird. I guess they'd really be an interesting can in the states, therefore a target. But again.... the USA doesn't really have RHD cars... so are they all getting stolen, and the all the owners are complaining online?
Then, a fun one: ["right hand drive" illegal] (with quotes around right hand drive). This brought up people from the states asking if it's illegal to drive an RHD. Which in a way it's not. It's just illegal to import them.
Then finally: "right hand drive problems". This brought up a lot of hits from Canada, which makes sense. There was some lots of legal issues still being panned out, and getting parts for RHDs can be... tricky... sometimes.
At any rate, it was an interesting excursion into the fountain of google.
Banner borrowed from vehicleimport.blogspot.com
Rob
The JDM Licence Plate Mod
This is always a surprise to a first-time owner. It seems obvious after you think about it, but not before you see it.
The mod, in action
In short, Japanese license plates are a different size, and have a different bolt pattern. Bolt pattern? Is that the term? Sure it is. I had to drill a hole beside each of the regular holes to center my license plate.
It's actually one of the simplest ways to figure out if a car has been imported or not. People rarely buy new license plate holders, and just drill the license plate. I've seen Mercedes and Porsches running around with drilled license plates too.
A real problem came in with my truck. In Manitoba, trucks have a T in the upper left corner of the plates. So, I couldn't drill a hole there. Instead I had to drill through the bison on the other corner.
The poor bison will never look the same
Desperate times, desperate measures. Now, when you see a plate that looks like this, you'll know why.
Just a little crooked, and we know why.
Ringing in 1996, I mean 2011
Another year is done, and another year of grey imports is allowed into the country.
I, for one, am looking forward to seeing some Lancer Evolution IVs around. The Delica crews are looking forward to the upgraded SpaceGears.
One year to go before the Pajero Evolution can be imported.... that thing looks mean!
Any cars you're looking forward to importing, or seeing on the road?
rob
Decals and Wakaba
JDM as fck
So, in my perusing of the internet I stumbled upon a pretty great decal. I think images might be the best way to show this one.... It's titled 'JDM as fck'... which is pretty hilarious. I saw this on a kijiji ad for a Fairlady, and I'm still smiling about it.
The decal is apparently from JDM style decals, and is very clever. That little green and white decal is a very Japanese decal called a 'Wakaba maka', which means 'new leaf marker'... which means the driver is a beginning driver. Pretty zen name. New drivers in Japan have to put these at the back of their cars to alert others. They're magnets if they're legit. One of my friends asked me why they wouldn't be stolen... the answer is simple... because no one WANTS them.
Some JDM drivers proudly put them on their cars to show off how 'legit' the car is. I can only imagine how silly that must look to Japanese people when they see it. "I'm proudly a new driver?" Weird. But then again... when Japanese people see me in my truck they think that anyway.... "Why would you want a delivery truck?"
I, on the other hand, put my wakaba on my fridge. They look pretty awesome there and are a good conversation piece. The conversation is pretty much just what you read...
Wakaba magnets on the fridge
How did I get them? A friend that spend a few years in Japan found out I have a Kei truck and forced them upon me. Needless to say I couldn't say no. You can find them online... but it's best if you just know someone in Japan who'll mail them to you for free. Again... no one in Japan wants them.
Rob
Stop the cliche!
Seriously. This is getting under my skin now. Almost every writer that's writing about Right Hand Drives thinks they're clever and inevitably come up with the same title.
Times Colonist following the Cliche - via TimesColonist.com
"Right hand drive right for Canada?" or some variation of that theme. It's been done. It's like making your facebook status say "So-And-So is". It's been done a million times before..... be more creative.
Do you need proof of this? Google it. Here's a Google tip: put quotes around your phrase to match exactly that phrase.
Cliche Proof!
There we go. 143000 items. Papers like The Sun are syndicated, and run lots of the same articles, so there is some redundancy, but... yeah.... 143 THOUSAND.
Dear Journalists: Be more creative.
At least Journalists are "glass half full" people and say "right for Canada" as opposed to CADA's "Right Hand Drive - Wrong for Canada". But they do have an agenda after all - keeping their wallets overstuffed selling overpriced new vehicles. Check out this old post for more on that if you're interested.
rob