Re: What's wrong with right hand drive?

[Matthew Killick <m.killick@domain.elided>]

Biba says:

>Recently I mentioned to an email friend in Australia that I felt once
>all 'driving' components on a car - steering, shifting, clutch (if any),
>accelerator pedal, braking - became totally electronically controlled,
>it should be only a matter of telling the computer to design a mirror
>image dash (up to a point) and modify the wiring loom to accommodate
>both left and right hand drive cars.

That's true enough, when all the controls are electronically controlled.
The practical reality is that doing it properly requires considerable
re-engineering of column switches and windscreen wiper positions, as well
as re-location of bonnet, boot and fuel flap remote releases.  Alfa have
always slack about this, and left the minor controls as per LHD.  The
Japanese manufacturers pay serious attention to these issues, and get them
right.  Euro Ford/GM and others go about half way.  Typically, they move
the steering column across to the right, without transposing the switches,
so that you can't change gear and signal (e.g. for an opportunist
overtaking manoeuvre) simultaneously.

With the RHD 105 cars, Alfa did re-engineer the steering column for the
Giulia saloons, so you indicate with the right hand, but not for the GTV.
An example of the greater attention paid to the saloons in comparison with
the Coupes.

>I agree that if a company is truly building a world car they're leaving
>out a huge segment if they ignore right hand drive cars.

As above, the only companies doing it properly are Japanese.  All of the
others prefer to insult their customers with their slackness.

>I'm embarrassed to ask but is Taiwan and mainland China right hand
>drive? I assume they are.

No.  LHD

>Continuing with the world car theme, why can't all countries get
>together and agree on safety and emissions standards? Yeah, I know,
>easier said than done. Should Corvettes for instance suddenly become a
>hot item in Japan it would be a (relatively) simple matter of running
>off a batch of right handers.

It won't happen.  Without local design rules, it's not possible to hide the
protection of domestic manufacturers with the shields of non-tariff
barriers.  The reason why Alfa Romeo cars are not available in the US is
because the US government ensures that it is unprofitable for FIAT to
attempt to sell them.  Note that FIAT did re-enter the Australian market
expecting to make an appropriate profit selling 2000-3000 cars annually to
17 million Australians in a country approximately the same size as the USA.
 The difference is that the ADRs and other barriers are easier to cross
than the protectionist measures taken by the US government.

>I feel compelled to ask that if right hand drive is equal (or superior
>as some suggest) why have the British in the past offered right hand
>shift levers / mechanisms in some of their cars? Bentley and Riley come
>to mind as two manufacturers who offered this 'deluxe' feature (complete
>with notch in the right front side of the seat cushion).

Don't know if anyone claims superiority of RHD or not.  I don't.  Maybe
this was an option for die-hards brought up on external gear change
mechanisms, and who lacked the co-ordination to use their left hands.  I've
no sympathy, being left handed in a right-handed world.

Cheers
Mat

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