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RHD Car Production - How Much Longer? |
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tonyrome
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  Member No: #15
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The market for RHD cars is already small - most of the countries were British colonies and even the number of cars sold in the UK this year has been fewer than 2 million units - but it will become far smaller as a proportion of overall production during the next few years. In comparison to the 2 million units sold in the UK, the number of cars sold in China alone this year was 20 million and they expect that to increase to 200 million in just a few years. In conjunction with the existing LHD markets (see image!), the numbers of RHD cars sold, as a proportion of LHD, will be utterly insignificant. So, will RHD production continue indefinitely? I can't believe it's going to be economic in the long term. Will there be a limited range of models or a big price premium or more specialist converters?  |
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gmerry
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   Member No: #21
Location: Scotland |
Tony, are you saying that Japan was a British Colony (OK they did take a few Austin 7s) or that their domestic market is insignificant? Isn't Toyota the world's largest car manufacturer? One advantage of buying a Jap car (For British driving) is that all the controls are in the right place and the engineering doesn't have the conversion bits under the skin eg, cross shafts for brake pedals in Citroens. Regards G |
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michaelb
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 Member No: #14
Location: London |
gmerry wrote ... (OK they did take a few Austin 7s) I think that is what happened - and they just carried on with them. I actually prefer LHD because I'm right-handed and prefer changing gear with my right hand. I also find if the car has a heavy clutch it's easier to lift one's left foot and right hand at the same time because they are diagonally opposed. A RHD car with a heavy clutch means you're lifting two limbs on one side repeatedly - painful. I remember long journeys in my GTV6 (awful gear change and heavy clutch) I used to dread roundabouts  Funnily enough Alfas were originally RHD only because Italian roads were so bad it was felt the driver should be able to see the pot-holes better on the 'nearside'. The demise of RHD can't come too soon for me Though it would mean the end of cheaply available second-hand cars which we all enjoy in the UK. |
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capt109
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  Member No: #47
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Perhaps we should have made the change in the 60's like the Swedish. It would have made things a lot more universal. But the cost to change now would be huge, until some point I think in the last 10 years, all road in the UK were designed so they could have been used in both directions. We have people driving round for months with Fog Lights on after one day of fog so to do it now would cause a lot of accidents. |
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BruceB
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 Member No: #234
Location: Hampshire |
There was the old joke that Ireland was going to make the change-over to driving on the right, but would do it gradually: lorries and buses on a Monday, cars and motorbikes one week later. Ka-boom tisssssh. |
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Foxmc
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  Member No: #2
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I personally have nothing agaisnt RHD, except for the fact that I almost got ran over when I was in the UK a few years back for looking the opposite way 
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verycleverman
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 Member No: #65
Location: Northumberland |
BruceB wrote ... There was the old joke that Ireland was going to make the change-over to driving on the right, but would do it gradually: lorries and buses on a Monday, cars and motorbikes one week later. Ka-boom tisssssh. One thing they did switch was the destination signs. All the distances are in kilometres, whereas the speed limit signs are in MPH. Not very clever when you consider most speedometers read both scales but odometers read only in miles! Pete. |
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michaelb
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Member No: #14
Location: London |
BruceB wrote ... There was the old joke that Ireland was going to make the change-over to driving on the right, but would do it gradually: lorries and buses on a Monday, cars and motorbikes one week later. Ka-boom tisssssh. Actually Sweden did do it that way - Click Here -
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michaelb
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Member No: #14
Location: London |
verycleverman wrote ... One thing they did switch was the destination signs. All the distances are in kilometres, whereas the speed limit signs are in MPH. Not very clever when you consider most speedometers read both scales but odometers read only in miles! Pete. Nah Pete, the Irish speed limit signage has been in kms for many years now. What's weird is in the UK our speedos are calibrated in both in case we ever drive in a Kms calibrated country but no cars sold in Continental Europe, and now Ireland, are calibrated to allow use on British roads. Technically it should be illegal for them to drive in the UK. |
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verycleverman
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Member No: #65
Location: Northumberland |
michaelb wrote ... Nah Pete, the Irish speed limit signage has been in kms for many years now. What's weird is in the UK our speedos are calibrated in both in case we ever drive in a Kms calibrated country but no cars sold in Continental Europe, and now Ireland, are calibrated to allow use on British roads. Technically it should be illegal for them to drive in the UK. Admittedly, I haven't been over there since 2003, but it was certainly the case then. Regarding the speedos, one of the things I love about the C6 is the ability to swap from one to the other with the press of a button, (well several presses then). Pete. |
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tonyrome
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Member No: #15
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gmerry wrote ... are you saying that Japan was a British Colony I quote from my original post, line 1  "most of the countries were British colonies". The key word here is most...gmerry wrote ... or that their domestic market is insignificant? Yes, the Japanese market will become insignificant, compared to the LHD markets, once Chinese demand cranks up. Chinese sales have already outstripped demand from Japan and they've barely scratched the surface of the sales possibilities! gmerry wrote ... Isn't Toyota the world's largest car manufacturer? Yes, and? You think Toyota prefer producing RHD cars because they come from Japan? I'm sure they would be delighted to be able to produce just one version and the question posed was, whilst it might be economic to produce both at present, what happens when the numbers produced are, say, 99% LHD v 1% RHD? I can't think of anything else where you would produce something which required such substantial modification, for such a small percentage of sales - and without any price premium to cover the extra cost. Can you? |
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gmerry
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Member No: #21
Location: Scotland |
Can't imagine Japan ever changing to LHD. Not possible in their crowded little island. Quite content I shall never see the end of RHD even if Britain was to try a switch. Do appreciate your point on the diagonal muscles thing. Good thing we are running with C6 autos!! Just out of curiosity, do the LHD Toyotas (say Camrys - millions sold into the US) have a converted brake system, ie RHD to LHD?? Regards G |
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bdeithrick
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Member No: #70
Location: Greystones |
michaelb wrote ... verycleverman wrote ... One thing they did switch was the destination signs. All the distances are in kilometres, whereas the speed limit signs are in MPH. Not very clever when you consider most speedometers read both scales but odometers read only in miles! Pete. Nah Pete, the Irish speed limit signage has been in kms for many years now. What's weird is in the UK our speedos are calibrated in both in case we ever drive in a Kms calibrated country but no cars sold in Continental Europe, and now Ireland, are calibrated to allow use on British roads. Technically it should be illegal for them to drive in the UK. I cruised up all the way at 122 ( 120 on the garmin) So when I came into a 60mph zone on the A1 I just keep er lit hard. What can a cop do " sorry I don't know what that 60 means officer, I tried 60 on here and its very slow people were beeping at me????? He wont know I could change over to Miles in 5-6 buttons pushes. |
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Trainman
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  Member No: #86
Location: Penwortham |
wrote ... So when I came into a 60mph zone on the A1 I just keep er lit hard. What can a cop do " sorry I don't know what that 60 means officer, I tried 60 on here and its very slow people were beeping at me????? He wont know I could change over to Miles in 5-6 buttons pushes. He will now 
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ciao_chao
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  Member No: #518
Location: Buckinghamshire |
Just saw this - Click Here - from pistonheads, apparently sales figures were four in the past 12 months... | ||
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