What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - movilogo
Most cars are designed for their parent countries mainly [eg. Mercedes in Germany, Honda in Japan etc.]

How are they tested in opposite side steering setup?

Most FWD cars have engine layout which is offset to one side - do they mirror the layout in case of steering placed on other side or simply switch the steering/pedals to other side?

And what about safety aspect - in the crash tests, do they crash both RHD & LHD cars?

Edited by movilogo on 03/06/2008 at 13:19

Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - Cliff Pope
Presumably also a car is designed for the road camber slope it normally encounters. Thus all cars in the UK will spend their lives on the leftward-slope with the steering having to angle slightly uphill to compensate. Is that taken into account in setting up the suspension and steering, and would it be different in a RH drive country?

Is account taken of the fact that most people are right-handed with a stronger right arm, so there will be a permanent but slight propensity to steer right?
Are gearboxes different to account for people's different abilities to manipulate things with their left/right hands?
Do cars that have their gearlever emerging offset from centre have a differently angled gearlever in RH/LH drive countries?
Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - Lud
I doubt if cars are skewed to suit the road camber in their parent countries (rather as Indianapolis racers used to be and perhaps still are, only happy to turn one way, yuck, call those cars?). I imagine they are made as straight as possible and their drivers become used to the range of road cambers where they normally drive.
Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - Screwloose

Perhaps of more concern should be the horrendously flimsy concoctions that aim to operate a LHD-mounted master cylinder from the right-hand seat.

Vauxhall used to use a piece of wire!
Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - Bill Black
All of my LHD cars have pulled to the left when visiting the UK. Some more than others, but all have done it. So you've definitely got that one right Cliff.
The 'pulling to the left' problem experienced by a lot of early-ish CRV IIIs was also unknown here in Norway, even though it was explained away as a technical glitch on diesels. My petrol version shows the same tendency when in the UK, here it's absolutely neutral.
Cheers BB
Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - Kevin Phillips-Bong!
Sorry to come so late to this one.

For a couple of years earlier in the decade I worked in Spain during the week but lived in the UK. For about 6 months I had Audi A4s in both countries.

The Spanish one was noisier (blame the tyres) and the UK one had more kit but they drove the same. So much so that on changeover days I often tried to change gear with the door handle!

Straw poll of one of course.
Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - Bilboman
IIRC early Scenics had a problem with camber on British roads. Continental roads just don't seem to have the same degree of camber, opting instead for wide, flat roads and huge, often scary, drainage valleys between carriageways. Hedgerows and sinewy country roads seem to be an almost exclusively British "thing", too (hence the chassis modifications to the latest Vectra).
I've often wondered whether cars originally built for LHD might suffer some anomalies when changed over to the "other side"; but having driven LHD and RHD cars both on the left and right over the last 20 years, I can't swear to noticing any major problems.
20 years ago there were dozens of "little" things which used to add up to cause annoyance - location of fuseboxes, bonnet release, offset handbrake... LHD Rovers used to have the aerial in the passenger's door pillar (not that it was ever going to be extended whilst on the move!) and so on. Gene Hunt's Audi Quattro has wipers set up for LHD, as did most Audis and VWs of the 80s - and a lot of Leyland cars, too!
Petrol fillers seem to be fitted randomly to left or right nowadays - gone are the days of the twin-tanked Jags of my youth! - and the only persistent "left to right" problem remaining is the side opening rear door of some SUVs and the "clap hands" wipers of Picassos, Voyagers and their ilk, where RHD drivers complain of a "discriminatory" wiper pattern.
Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - bathtub tom
>>I often tried to change gear with the door handle

I know the feeling, every time I hire a car abroad!
Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - defender
if you look at this link here www.paddockspares.com/sp/category/DISCOVERY_2_(1998-2004)/subcategory/Suspension/searchbox2/1__Front_Coil_Springs.html
you will see that for right hand drive cars there are different front springs for each side but for left hand drive both sides use the same spring ,funny that you brought this up as I noticed this as I was pricing a spring last week
Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - none
The old mini's used to be dead easy to swap from L to R hand drive. The dash was centrally mounted, so no changes there. A new rack, swap the pedal box over, bit of repositioning of brake and heater pipes and a few other bits and bobs - job done.
The LDV Maxus has a similar centrally mounted dashboard, so I guess that changes between L and R hand drive will be easier from a manufacturers point of view.
A couple of years ago I came across a rhd VW LT van with a factory lhd bonnet, it fitted ok and looked normal, the heater didn't work though, because the wrong bonnet blanked off the air supply to the fan blower motor.
Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - autumnboy
I know on certain models the supensions are uprated for UK roads, eitherwise they are the same apart from lighting etc.
Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - David Horn
I always used to think my Xsara was quieter from the passenger side. I don't think they made any huge changes to adapt it to RHD, no doubt some French concoction of rods and pulleys. :-)

Wasn't it the Megane that could be stopped by a good stamp by the passenger in the footwell?
Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - movilogo
Petrol fillers seem to be fitted randomly to left or right nowadays


Usually they are on kerb side based on where the car was originally designed [there are exceptions though]

Regarding "using door handle to change gears" probably it will be better to use a automatic car abroad :)

Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - Bilboman
Given that 40% of the world's population live in a country that drives on the left - close to one fifth of the world's population lives in India and car production and usage is increasing at a startling rate - I am surprised there is not more "symmetry" and cost reduction in car production, i.e. designing as many components as possible to fit both LHD and RHD models, rather than starting off with one design and adapting it later.
Will there one day be a car built with "central" drive, rather than LHD or RHD? IIRC the Matra Simca Bagheera very nearly made it as a three abreast, driver in the middle car, and it's not hard to visualise the Fiat Multipla and Honda FR-V in this configuration.
Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - Chris S
At one time manufacturers didn't even bother swapping the wipers for LHD/RHD.

The BL Ital (Marina) had them set up for LHD as standard - presumably export sales were greater than those in the domestic market.
Do LHD & RHD cars have same dynamics? - Bilboman
Just made a comment about that on the "wiper blade spoilers" thread, Chris. BL cars of the period had the wipers "wrong" both for LHD and RHD! A lot of European manufacturers (Renault, Peugeot, BMW, VW, Audi,...) didn't, or more likely, couldn't be bothered, to change wipers over for RHD markets until the early 1980s.