Japan Imports

benwj

gtmash mentioned to me a while back to watch out for rust in Japanese imports. I have a Japanese import and yes, it has rust. But then I remembered that Japanese imports were also popular in Australia since they didn't need converting to RHD. That got me thinking that my car must have been converted from RHD to LHD after it arrived in the UAE. But I cannot find any evidence of this. So I can only assume that it was a LHD car in Japan. Is this possible?

rudeboy

benwj wrote: gtmash mentioned to me a while back to watch out for rust in Japanese imports. I have a Japanese import and yes, it has rust. But then I remembered that Japanese imports were also popular in Australia since they didn't need converting to RHD. That got me thinking that my car must have been converted from RHD to LHD after it arrived in the UAE. But I cannot find any evidence of this. So I can only assume that it was a LHD car in Japan. Is this possible? benwj what car have you got? if its some like skyline or supra then yeh it has been converted from rhd to lhd. but if its a honda some of the cars even Japan are LHD and usually what happens is that the dealers sitting in UAE, who import the cars will most of the time say the cars are from japan when they are really from Germany. so from germany the cars go to japan and then from japan they come to UAE. and you will find some left hand cars coming originally from Japan. so which car have you got? check its chasis number? is there any writing in Japanese?

benwj

560 SEC The owners manual is in Japanese

rudeboy

it could be right hand and you could have converted it :P. you can usually tell whether a car has been converted or not by looking under the mat at the passengers side. if you find a huge whole you will know it has been converted. but i am guessing it is original lhd from japan because you do get some left handed cars there.

benwj

I will check it today, but I am pretty sure that it would not have been worth converting. The sad thing is that I will have to leave it here when I leave. Unless I go to the land of hope and glory :wink: :)

rudeboy

benwj wrote: I will check it today, but I am pretty sure that it would not have been worth converting. The sad thing is that I will have to leave it here when I leave. Unless I go to the land of hope and glory :wink: :) and where is this land of hope and glory :P

benwj

sorry, late night. I meant the US, which is highly unlikely. Or I could always go to Europe somewhere.

rudeboy

benwj wrote: sorry, late night. I meant the US, which is highly unlikely. Or I could always go to Europe somewhere. am pretty much sure you can get the same car you got rite now from usa and europe.

gtmash

Been a while. The LHD Mercs coming from Japan really are original LHD. In Japan, it is considered a status symbol to drive an "imported" car with LHD. So the Germans just gave the market what it wanted.

benwj

Its about time. Thanks GT.