Local used car dealer has a RHD Saturn for sale

And it's a wagon, and I freaking want it.

It's an SWP (Saturn Wagon Postal) model, made for the Postal Service. It's not a chincy "let's bolt a steering wheel onto the dash and connect it to the actual steering wheel" affair, it's an honest-to-god RHD car, the dash is reversed and everything, shares all the parts with the cars Saturn (very idiotically) sold in Japan. When I saw it from the street, the thing that clued me in was that the wipers swung in the opposite direction from every other car on the road. It looks pretty beat up, and it was a government-owned car, so the title will be a mess...and I hope all of that will make my incredibly lowball offer to the guy seem reasonable

The only thing is, it's an auto, it's SOHC, and it's a wagon. Slushbox, 100 horsepower (charitably), and the heaviest body style. This combination, as you can imagine, makes for blazing acceleration.

What I really want to do is take the brand-new (DOHC) engine and 5-speed manual out of the Saturn I just inherited (that has too many other broken parts to keep), and put it into this. So I'll have a twin-cam, 5-speed RHD wagon

Anyone else here own a RHD car just for sake of owning a RHD car?

I've never had a right hand drive car, but I can imagine they would be a pain. Parking garages, drive through windows, drive up mailboxes, toll booths, they are all on the left. Other than that I have nothing to add.

I don't own one, but I want to own one. I've given thought to ordering a RHD Jeep.

I'm still toying with the idea of bringing my RHD 911 over here but there's really not much point given that I can find one in much better body condition for similar money over here...

You'll get used to driving RHD on the wrong side of the road pretty quickly if my experience is anything to go by.

It probably was not owned by the USPS. They only buy Caravans. It was probably owned by a rural mail carrier who works for USPS on a contract basis so it will have a private title. Should be no problem to buy. Go for it.

You'll just have to back through the drivethrough at McDonald's.

The truth is you can easily get into situations where driving a RHD car in this country is unsafe. Not so bad if you have an alert passenger that you trust but unless it's a 2-lane rural road I'd never want to drive one much alone.

I've had a few

jimbob_racing wrote: It probably was not owned by the USPS. They only buy Caravans. It was probably owned by a rural mail carrier who works for USPS on a contract basis so it will have a private title. Should be no problem to buy. Go for it.

I don't know about RHD Saturns, but some rural USPS offices did buy RHD Subaru Legacies in the mid-late 90s. I've seen two out in the wild and they are beat to hell, to say the least.

I agree with everyone else here: I wouldn't buy an RHD car just for the sake of it being RHD, it would have to be something more special than a Saturn (like, say, an R32 Skyline GTS-T). About the only thing I see being easier to do in an RHD car is to parallel-park it.

You want to have a real thrill? Go to a Caribbean Island where they all drive on the incorrect side. See how you like it. YOU WON'T!! RHD is only appropriate for those places, and not here.

Meh. I drive a RHD mail truck all the time. Not unsafe at all, just different. Lighten up, Francis.

Graefin10 wrote: The truth is you can easily get into situations where driving a RHD car in this country is unsafe. Not so bad if you have an alert passenger that you trust but unless it's a 2-lane rural road I'd never want to drive one much alone.

Sigh, everyone who's never driven one always says this... It's not unsafe AT ALL. The ONLY situations where visibility is restricted (passing on a 2-lane road and sitting in a left turn lane opposite another left turn lane) are optional manouvers where you can wait until you can see properly. There's no "instinctual pressure" to make the move when you can't see. In the case of passing, leave yourself some space instead of riding up the butt of the car in front of you and you can generally see just fine; in a turning lane you can even wait until the light goes yellow if it's that hairy, but usually you end up getting a window before that happens. It's completely natural and automatic to wait until you can do it safely.

Sure, you can DRIVE them unsafely, if you're an idiot, but you can drive LHD cars unsafely too.

Plus there are a WHOLE LOT of situations where driving RHD on the right side is probably safer... You don't get blinded nearly as much by the headlights of oncoming cars at night for one. Parallel parking is easier, passing parked cars on tight roads is easier, passing cyclists is easier, you're out of the way of the most dangerous type of collision there is (offset head-on), etc., etc. Need I go on?

When I bought my proper British sports car, it had to be the right way around: RHD.

Just because it's unusual, doesn't mean it's dangerous...

Jimbob beat me to it. I was going to say every mailman manages to do it, so do many brits so how hard can it be. If it were near me and I had the proper motor/tranny to put in it I would be replacing the Cavalier with a sweet JDM Saturn.

This picture to paragraph ratio in this thread is all wrong. I'm a big fan of auto unicorns, so if you've got a rare opportunity I'm encouraging you to jump!

http://hooniverse.com/2010/04/19/right-hand-drive-saturn-is-only-97-3-as-dull-as-left-hand-drive-one/ http://www.postalmag.com/classifieds/showproduct.php?product=117&cat=5&date=1232737528 http://www.saturnforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4975

cwh wrote: You want to have a real thrill? Go to a Caribbean Island where they all drive on the incorrect side. See how you like it. YOU WON'T!! RHD is only appropriate for those places, and not here.

Amen. But that has nothing to do with RHD or LHD. In the Caribbean, I don't think it matters...they drive on all sides of the road. And the shoulder. And the grass. And the sidewalk. They're some crazy drivers.

I saw a pretty even mix of RHD and LHD in Nassau, regardless of what side of the road they're supposed to drive on. Including Chevy and Toyota Cavaliers parked almost next to each other.

As for the SWP - if you've got the proper drivetrain to drop in, go for it! It would be even better than the genuine JDM brake fluid reservoir cap that Deebs had on his.

Twin_Cam wrote: What I really want to do is take the brand-new (DOHC) engine and 5-speed manual out of the Saturn I just inherited (that has too many other broken parts to keep), and put it into this. So I'll have a twin-cam, 5-speed RHD wagon

IIRC, you can't do this unless you feel like making a custom hydraulic slave setup. There is no spot for the clutch cylinder as it would have to be right in the back of the engine. I am curious where the brake booster/master is also.

Also, I agree with the above posts... RHD is dumb, unless you are in a RHD country. Or you are delivering mail.

Have or acquire a friendly co-pilot and you ae good to go.

RHD as a toy - sure. If/when I buy a Mini, it'll be RHD even if I have to convert it. I'm still kicking myself for not buying a RHD GT6 that was for sale near me a few years ago.

RHD as an every day driver? Eh... I'm not a fan of drive-throughs on principle, so I rarely use them, but I could still imagine situations along my commuting route when sight-lines from the right side could be a bit difficult.

In reply to Jay:

Actually Jay, I've driven many RHD cars and I'm actually not an idiot. I focused on British cars in my restoration shop and over the years drove quite a few RHD cars. On the rural roads near my shop I found it quite enjoyable, especially getting used to shifting lefthanded. I'm sure if I had ever purchased one or was a mail carrier I may have come to the same conclusions you and Jimbob did. One of my first experiences was in Atlanta. That probably affected my opinion.

Klayfish wrote:

cwh wrote: You want to have a real thrill? Go to a Caribbean Island where they all drive on the incorrect side. See how you like it. YOU WON'T!! RHD is only appropriate for those places, and not here.

Amen. But that has nothing to do with RHD or LHD. In the Caribbean, I don't think it matters...they drive on all sides of the road. And the shoulder. And the grass. And the sidewalk. They're some crazy drivers.

This. And i'm pretty sure our bus driver (who probably had no more of a drivers liscense than anyone else on that island, if at all) made that damn Toyota van drive like an F1 car. I was impressed, to say the least.

I approve. RHD is cool, just make sure you have some crazy cool JDM parts, and you will fit in with all the fanbois.

Graefin10 wrote: In reply to Jay: Actually Jay, I've driven many RHD cars and I'm actually not an idiot. I focused on British cars in my restoration shop and over the years drove quite a few RHD cars. On the rural roads near my shop I found it quite enjoyable, especially getting used to shifting lefthanded. I'm sure if I had ever purchased one or was a mail carrier I may have come to the same conclusions you and Jimbob did. One of my first experiences was in Atlanta. That probably affected my opinion.

Well there's the rub. It's just like getting used to any other car, different sightlines, different control positions, etc. You have to adjust your situational awareness, in exactly the same way that you can't jump from a lifted Jeep Wrangler into a CRX without making some adjustments as to where you look and where you place your hands. You know this, then, but I'm arguing that any competent driver can do it.

I'm not going to say that it isn't different, or occasionally more challenging (aforementioned passing situations, etc.) but that doesn't automatically equate to "more dangerous." It really irks me when people automatically jump to the conclusion that the car is somehow unsafe; it's 100% up to the driver. I know there are people out there who would stuff things up in 5 minutes behind the wheel of a RHD car, but I generally don't trust those same people behind the wheel of a LHD either.

Why? Seems like a PITA for zero benefit.

mndsm wrote:

Klayfish wrote:

cwh wrote: You want to have a real thrill? Go to a Caribbean Island where they all drive on the incorrect side. See how you like it. YOU WON'T!! RHD is only appropriate for those places, and not here.

Amen. But that has nothing to do with RHD or LHD. In the Caribbean, I don't think it matters...they drive on all sides of the road. And the shoulder. And the grass. And the sidewalk. They're some crazy drivers.

This. And i'm pretty sure our bus driver (who probably had no more of a drivers liscense than anyone else on that island, if at all) made that damn Toyota van drive like an F1 car. I was impressed, to say the least.

In the Caribbean, some islands drive on the left, and some on the right depending upon their history. Most cars are LHD, but you can find RHD as well. That means some islands (like the St. Croix for example) are LHD cars that drive on the Left, and some are RHD that drive on the right. Very confusing!