Should Corvette be factory Right Hand Drive?

[AUSSIEVETTEMAN]

You guys are right!

It does cost a lot to ship them over, get them through customs and convert them. (If they are under 30 years old).

Let's say you want a C3, say 80 to 82 for arguments sake in excellent order.
It will cost you around $15000 (US) to purchase.

Car purchase (US Dollars) $15000.00
Shipping (US Dollars) $2500.00
Currency Conversion on $17500.00 is say $25000.00 (OZ)

Then there are government charges:
Import duty $3800.00 - 15% of converted above cost ($25000.00)
GST $3200.00 - on import cost and import duty

Then there are conversion costs to RH Drive:
Depending on who and to what standard, it may cost around $10000.00 to $15000.00 (OZ).

All up, the costs are around $42000.00 (OZ) for a good car!
That's around $29500.00 (US).
Ouch!

But that's the price we pay for now to drive a classic.
Speaking of a classic, did you guys watch the Gold Coast Indy coverage? If you saw the driver parades, there was a good chance you saw the Wife and I driving our Vette. What an experience!!!

Cheers

Tony

 

[AUSSIEVETTEMAN]

A site story I came across today.

I came accross this story on an Aussie web site today.

America Muscles in...

I am not the only one who can dream a little....maybe one day!

Cheers

Tony

 

[billagroom]

I HATE DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!!!!!!!
And I'm forever getting in the passenger side. Thank god my driver only costs 8 USD per day so I don't drive much anyway. I also notice the traffiic flow is not as good as North America. As far as having the whole world go to left hand drive I heard horror storys about when Canada changed over to left hand drive. Head on colisions everywhere.
Does anyone know if the USA was ever right hand drive?

Billagroom

 

[Derek]

Holden

We make great cars here. Australian Holden is made left hand drive for the US market.If we can do it , should be a walk in the park for you guys.

http://www.hsv.com.au/main.html

And as to get the government to change laws,..hahaha..hehehe

 

[AUSSIEVETTEMAN]

Could not have put it better myself Derek.

 

[C7BOB]

The Corvette Museum has a RHD C4. They built it to see how extensive the changes would be. They would need a new dash, center console, and many other parts, plus there was a clearance problem with the steering column. It was decided that it was too costly.

 

[vett boy]

For B.G. to increase production for heavy export would be a disaster.To maintain quality on the line 40,000 units is max.Corvettes are one of the few products G.M builds very well.

 

[vetmaniac]

My cousin in the UK just took delivery of his RHD Chrysler 300C. It all depends how much money GM wants to make.

 

[Stinger !!]

I gotta go with this theory!!!

RocketBlock....

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT UNDER THIS CAR??? ARE THOSE TIRES???

LEAD ME HERE "OH GREAT TIRE WARRIOR" .... SHOW US MORE!!

 

[Gersh]

Capitalism will tell

I'm a believer in the free market system, and if it were a good profit opportunity, Corvette would certainly go into right side driver cars, but if not, we definitely don't need any more laws to force them to! But if they did, it wouldn't make them any less Corvettes: it would help some of the rest of the world enjoy The Great American Sports Car.

I agree with Oldtimer about the metric system--it is much more user-friendly than the old British system, and if we weren't so comfortable and lazy, we would have switched long ago--still should!

I've driven on the left a lot and find it entertaining--no accidents, but it is good mental excercise to switch back and forth...

Gersh

 

[Dakota kid]

Why not get the Aussie gov'ment to change their rules and allow left hand drive cars! The US allows right hand drive vehicles to be built, imported and used. Our mail trucks are right hand drive. Subaru imports right hand drive cars for use in the US - mostly rural postal delivery people that have to buy their own vehicle. No need for stupid signs them either to warn other drivers that the vehicle in front of them is being driven from the right side.

Maybe the Aussies, Brits and Japanese should change the side of the street they drive on!

I also agree with this.

 

[XS650]

Are any American vehicles produced in America made with RHD for import to other countries?

Are all American vehicles with RHD built in foreign countries, the origin of their market?

Saturn has had RHD versions. My mail lady has one. I'm sure would enjoy her job more if she had an RHD Corvette to make her rounds in

Also Jeep Wranglers and Cherokies were available RHD at various times

 

[vettepilot]

I think that the factory should NOT try to do RHD cars, BUT, they could offer it as an extra cost option that will be performed by a GM contracted shop. Like the Callaway cars, they were built then shipped to Callaway for conversion.
I believe, but won't stake my life on it, the engine/powertrain in the C4, C5 and C6 is offset slightly to the right, this probably makes conversions more difficult, but not impossible.
That said, the current foreign Corvette sales is such a low number for the Corvette, and Corvette sales being such a low number for Chevrolet Division that it probably wouldn't get a positive nod from the bean counters.

I did see a 1960 Corvette in a parking garage in Perth back in 1990 while walking around the downtown area one afternoon. Took a photo, it was RHD.

vettepilot

 

[kiwi vet]

Its interesting that this subject has come up on the site, as here in New Zealand, there is currently a huge movement to allow LHD cars to be imported by American car enthusiasts. At present we can import and leave LHD in the following cases.

1 The vehicle is over 20 years old.

2 The importer has owned and used the vehicle in the US (or what ever country) for 3 months (and can prove they were there with passport, petrol receipts etc) and can not sell the vehicle in NZ for 5 years from importation date.

Outside those criteria, all vehicles LHD are converted to RHD, with the exception of rubbish trucks and mail trucks as in the US.
It's a stupid rule that is primarily aimed at stopping Korean, European & Japanese LHD cars not sold to US, being dumped here at cut prices rather than dumping in China or Russia etc etc.

It has nothing to do with safety, the two largest RHD countries in the world being the United Kingdom & Japan, do not have LHD bans or any special rules pertaining to LHD vehicles, and you can run between Europe and UK without changing cars.

Therefore a RHD Vette would be awesome, and should be made avalible to the rest of the world.
Chrysler has done it for years, so has Ford, why is GM so reluctant?.

Just another thought

The Vette is often called Americas Only Sportscar, and US Vette owners are rightly proud of this aknowledgement, so why not put it out there and see how it stands up to the worlds competition?. We will all win!

Competition either on the track or in the economic reality of the world market, makes the breed better. So everyone including those in the US would also benefit by getting a better vette with more competive breeding.

We really only see two main players in the US for sports cars, the Vette & the Viper. How can this be good for the consumer? they just agree to cut up the market in equal shares and you get what is provided. The reason that Europe & the world have such good sports cars is the comptition between manfacturers, not just on the track, but on price, style, usability etc etc.

Anyway, I would love to be able to walk into a local showroom and fill out the options sheet on a new RHD C6 Vette, and be able to enjoy all the benefits of this fanatastic car in my country without any of the draw backs we currently put up with.

Just my $0.02 worth.