LHD to RHD conversion - Import?

Mr. Larson

This is most likely a daft question ad I will get laughed at, but is it possible/legal to import a LHD car from the EU? I know you would probably get creeled by VRT...

Can a car be converted from LHD to RHD? I have heard it can be done and certified somehow, legally for the EU by certain garages. In Warsaw, it apprently costs about 5000 PLN which is about €1,200.

If a car has been converted by a registered, certified company in Europe, is that considered legal and can you import it? I'm 99% sure the answer is no no no no otherwise lots would do it, but I have to ask.

maidhc

What car? Considering Mercedes are unable to covert their own upcoming small SUV to RHD for some cars it will be impossible.

For others you only need to get a donor RHD car to find a dash, steering column, pedal box, wipers (unless it is a Pug!), switches, perhaps wiring loom, and about 200 hours work!

crosstownk

Jabberwocky wrote:

Can a car be converted from LHD to RHD? I have heard it can be done and certified somehow, legally for the EU by certain garages. In Warsaw, it apprently costs about 5000 PLN which is about €1,200.
.

How sure are you of that figure? It just sounds way too little given all thats involved - new dashboard, pedal box, relocate heater ducts & fans, steering rack (and a good portion of the steering column), head lights, tail lights, front door panels and switches, associated wiring, etc, etc - €1200 sounds to good to be true - even if labour was free!

Obviously, work required depends on the amount of work required which will depend on the car you have intend to convert.

Mr. Larson

I heard it from a guy I know in Warsaw, so eeeh, not sure of the price one bit. Also there was no particular car mentioned so I guess the question is how long is a piece of string..? I might see if I can get a quote for an exact car/model.

Outside of the cost of the conversion, does anyone know if there is any legal or cost prohibitive reason why it can't be done?

Anan1

Jabberwocky - The answer to all three of your questions is yes. As the others have said, though, conversion costs would be prohibitive. The car would also be very hard to sell on afterwards.

cantdecide

I've heard about this too but i think for that price, even in polish currency, it's to convert a RHD to LHD asnd not vice versa...

Anan1

cantdecide wrote:

I've heard about this too but i think for that price, even in polish currency, it's to convert a RHD to LHD asnd not vice versa...

I'd go one further and guess that that price is for a hot donor car too.

Seth Brundle

Just try hard and picture the conversation with your insurance company. What do you think their reaction would be?

barthek

Anan1 wrote:

I'd go one further and guess that that price is for a hot donor car too.

Its not that bad Scrapyards in Poland are cheap as chips. After all it's a 40 mil people country with millions of cars! And tens of thousands are scrapped every year.

depending on the garage, their experience with swaps and particular car the labor only is usually between 500 and 1500 euro. this does not include the parts that you'd need for the swap.

some cars are too much hassle to convert anyway so this works mainly for popular models.

just my €0.02

cheers

Stephen

Its perfectly legal to import and drive around on LHD cars here. Inconvenient for things like tollbooths but all they care about is getting the VRT money. I think the only real modification needed to pass NCT is adjusting the dipped headlights to point to the left instead of the right.

Del2005

Stephen wrote:

Its perfectly legal to import and drive around on LHD cars here. Inconvenient for things like tollbooths but all they care about is getting the VRT money. I think the only real modification needed to pass NCT is adjusting the dipped headlights to point to the left instead of the right.

And if bringing in from the US, you'll need to add yellow turn signals. There are loads of LHD cars around with no issues. And the only time I've seen a car being converted was watching a show about converting stolen Japanese 4x4s for sale in the mid east.
I doubt that you would be able to sell a car that has been converted, as no-one would trust it to be safe. But since most cars now are all built on the same platform I doubt it would be that big a job to convert as they make LHD and RHD versions of most cars and any that don't would more then likely be made on platform that has RHD cars.

Matt Simis

Jabberwocky wrote:

This is most likely a daft question ad I will get laughed at, but is it possible/legal to import a LHD car from the EU? I know you would probably get creeled by VRT...

Creeled?
Afaik, you get a blanket 25% off the OMSP for the purposes of VRT calculations on LHD cars, which is a very good thing.

Type 17

Probably only worth doing on an older (more simple, technically) car that is interesting and worth a bit more than other cars of that age.

The only ones that I've seen done were Mk1 Golf GTIs and Cabrios - old and simple (no airbags, simple electrics with minimal electronics), parts handy enough to get (dash, pedals, steering rack/column are the same on all Mk1's from 1.1C to GTI), and the resulting RHD GTI/Cabrio would interesting enough to possibly pay for the conversion (if you do the labour yourself).

So, worth doing, but only with certain cars (avoid boring or complex models).