I'm a little curious here, I see that in the US Crossfires fetch a lot of money has anyone over there thought about importing a good condition RHD since I'd imagine that even allowing for c.$800 shipping it'd be a real winner on px, not to mention being quite individual and a high spec (UK cars have everything except TPMS IIRC)

 

Tough to sell a Canadian spec car in the US never mind a RHD.

 

U.S. Postal "Rural Delivery" workers love right hand drive cars......so do newspaper delivery personal. Unfortunately, not too many other Americans do.
Personally, driving a manual shift car with my left hand scares the crap out of me.

 

We trying to go JDM here?

 

That would be one way to speed up mail delivery! LOL.

 

Usually euro spec cars wont pass US DOT requirements as the safety requirements in Europe are 'lower' than the US. I use that term loosely but a few examples GI's have had importing cars; glass (single pane vs safety tempered), headlights (euro cutoff vs blinding american) and sometimes emissions system differences. I dont know if the crossfire shares these same problems but it usually only makes sense to import a higher performance version of s model not available in the US or a complete different model not available here.

 

Americans want hoods, trunks, fenders and tires. UK cars come with bonnets, boots, wings and tyres instead, that alone makes them hard to sell. The wings could get the FAA involved, I do not think this idea would fly.

 

Now if you had one in blue.. cause we all know "Every things better with Blue Bonnet On it"

 

Those wings are guards in Australia.
Also, overseas cars have not undergone US spec. crash tests.
Anything less than 25 years old is going to be a major ordeal to import.
Not that it is impossible, but unless it is something really special, it generally isn't worth the hassle.

 

I didn't mind shifting with my left hand, but making a left turn from a "left turn lane", from the right seat...
now that's terrifying.
And drive-thru's are just a PITA.

 

dude we have safety glass over the pond!!! Windscreen (shield) is required to be fully laminated (I suspect that classic cars of a certain vintage might be exempt as they may have been produced without) with all other windows needing to be 'safety glass' (ie when it breaks it doesn't 'shatter' and produce shards of glass).

I hear what you say about rhd over there - it's a definate mindset needed to go for that. For the last 15 years or so I was driving US cars over here (several Camaros and a Lightning pick-up) but people really didn't 'get' the wrong side of the car steering etc.

 

Import a UK car to US ? Make me laugh...
Only worth would be if you took an old MG or something extarodinary British. Old TVR? But a standard XF with steering wheel on wrong side, not worth it. just my 0.02$

 

When I was in Germany (85 to 88) the base folks told us horror stories about GI's that bought Benz's and BMW's for a pittance there, and then tried to import them to USA when they came back. Problem was, it took about 30K in certification/parts to make them EPA certified. It cost much more to own and was a helluva administrative nightmare to go through the process every year after paying all that money, to go through inspections yearly. All that cost resulted in the guy having a huge bill that he could never recover if he even found a seller stateside after he was done with it. They told us to get a old beater and just sell it there after you got your orders. I brought my Subaru there, and took it back after we left.

 

I found RHD cars easier to drive as a manual. I drove a Skyline GTS-T and a bunch of other cars while I was stationed at Mildenhall in England. Only confusing thing was switching between my LHD Rio and my RHD Peugot 406 because they were both manual. Also driving an American car on the other side of the road was interesting as well.

I know some Airmen wanted to try and import Skylines to the US. The best way to do that was to take the whole car apart and ship it piece by piece and then reassemble it in the US and have it labeled as a "Kit Car"

 

Mildenhall home to USAF bombers back in the day, my best memory of it was when a squadron of Sabre jets flew over our heads as my father drove by it slowly one day around 1949 or 1950. Wow, sixty odd years or so ago and it seems just like sixty odd years or so ago.

 

Bringing a Euro car into US emissions spec is very expensive unless it is a classic (read old). As far as driving in the UK, had a manual rental in Ireland and it was a blast to drive with the bushes whipping in the left window and those crazy round-abouts. it took about 20 miles to get the hang of it and I drove all over the island for a week. It would be spectacular to have a Brit car over here, but not worth the import headaches.

On the other hand, $800-1000 to ship to Europe (say Amsterdam) could be a bucket list dream. Ship the roadster over and spend 3 months touring all over the continent. Then ship her home. Problems - go see a Mercedes dealer. Last time I rented a car for 15 days there it cost $700, so two way shipping could be a bargain. I would just have to look into European insurance. Anyone...maybe a service person...have any experience doing this??

 

The US or at least the license branches here have been really easy on imports lately. A lot of small cars from China, Japan, etc are getting into the country by container loads. And have been getting licensed to drive on our roads, RHD and all.... They certainly don't qualify per crash tests and such, but they are being driven around. We have two small trucks we use on the farm...

 

Insurance in England is based on engine displacement so its quite high. I had a Peugeot 406 2.0L and liability only was $90. For full coverage in Kansas I pay the same for my xfire.

 

Those china specials are what are often referred to as "grey market" cars. Typically an individual and/or a small business will pay to have a batch of cars brought over and they can have one car certified/inspected etc. and have it applied to the whole shipment, making it more cost effective.
(Most of the Mercedes G-wagons you see are also grey market. Mercedes didn't officially sell them here for decades.)

Those micro trucks are imported as "off highway" vehicles, intended for "farm" use. (how they get around Federal standards) Some states allow them on surface streets.
Some of them are pretty cool, actually! I like the little Subaru one.

As far as I know, there are no specific laws against RHD, from a sales or licensing standpoint. But then, apart from having owned 2 RHD vehicles here in Colorado, I'm hardly an expert.