There was a case like this a few years ago near RAF Mildenhall. An American serviceman (I think he was a chaplain) had driven all the way up from Heathrow with no bother. He then called into a petrol station to ask directions to the base. When he drove out of the service station he forgot which side of the road he should be driving on. Coming the other way was a National Express coach which had to swerve off the road, resulting in the death of one passenger on the coach.
It wouldn’t be the only case like that involving American forces, unfortunately. Especially once you get onto rural roads, as around the Mildenhall & Lakenheath areas, it would be very easy to stray to the right. There was also a case in the local news not long ago of a drunk lorry driver who set off the wrong way down the A14, head-on into the fast lane :eek: Thankfully the police stopped him before anyone died.
Just FTR, in the Mk I and II Ford GT40 the gearstick was on the right-hand door sill - so all you people complaining about shifting with the wrong hand, buy a GT40.
Or maybe try requesting one from Hertz 
I’ve driven several RHD cars over the years here in the states.
I find the hardest part is pulling out of a parallel parking spot when you are next to the curb. If the car has the outside rear view mirror mounted way out on the front fender it is double hard.
It requires a bit of a leap of faith.
Pulling out of a parking space in such a way is harder, I’ll agree, but it’s not really that bad. No different to if there’s parking on both sides of a one-way street, for example.
The bitch is trying to find an rental automatic in the UK without having to pay almost half again the price of a manual. Why is that? You would think that rentals would be automatics like in the states to on order to minimize confusing the idiots. I guess it must have to with the price of gas over there and the better milage you get with a manual.
Si Amigo:
It’s just a market segmentation thing based on consumer preferences there.
In the UK, automatic=rich guy car
A UK buyer has trouble finding an inexpensive vehicle with an automatic, for the same reason that a US buyer will have trouble getting a convertible passenger car with cloth seats and manual windows.
:dubious:
My first car was a 1-litre Nissan Micra, with an automatic transmisson. Just checked, and the list price for the cheapest modern automatic Micra is only £1000 over the most basic model. And it’s only slightly more with the Vauxhall Corsa. In both cases, the main cost isn’t the transmission, but the upgrade from the puny engine in the cheapest option.
The Pontiac Solstice/Saturn Sky can be had with manual windows. What UK market mass produced convertible comes with manual windows?
In the UK, automatic = Granny car, whether that’s fair or not. But it’s true that automatic is also preferred on big luxury cars, especially Mercs. Not sure why that is. Perhaps because when they’re that big you can’t expect them to be “driver’s cars”, so you might as well go for coddling options like automatic transmissions.
I remember when standard transmission American cars had the shift handle mounted on the steering column; was that ever the practice in Europe? If so, on what side of the column was the handle mounted?
I only recall one example, a Renault from years ago, possibly a Renault 9?
I can’t speak for Europe, but it’s not common here.
Yes. That was the practice in Europe. I used to drive a ~1960 Vauxhall Victor with, IIRC, 3 on the column and a 1962 Mercedes 220S with, IIRC 4 on the column. They were all (including the Vauxhall) left-hand drive and the shift lever was on the right of the column. (Then of course there is the Citroen 2CV with 3 or 4 in the dash [to the right of the column on left-had drive models]).
I’ve had no problem getting used to shifting with the other hand, with roundabouts in general, or figuring out which side of the road I’m supposed to be on. My problem is the radio volume control! In the rental cars I’ve had (Ford and Volkswagen), the volume control is wayyyy over to the left. Perfect for American vehicles but a far stretch from the right hand seat. Waaaaaah!
I suppose I should have limited my question to cars produced in countries where people habitually drive on the wrong side (just joking) of the road. Like England and Japan.
My father once bought a Renault Dauphin(sp?) that had the shift on the right hand side of the column but it was left hand drive, suitable for the US. A friend had a Peugeot set up the same way.
When I was a teenager, there was a brief fad that called for the transmission lever to be relocated to the left side of the steering column; it wasn’t that hard to do but the shifting pattern was reversed. Getting used to that did cause a few problems.
In 2003, four of us spent a month in england driving a Vauxhall with a manual transmission. The shift pattern was the same as all of were used to and learning to shift left handed wasn’t a problem for any of us. The thing that was somewhat troublesome was getting used to making proper turns in traffic. By the way, we all loved the “Roundabouts.” They really keep the traffic moving. Might be something for our traffic engineers to look into. They sure eliminate a lot of traffic signals.
I’ve done the reverse, learned to drive in the UK and then moved to Sweden (after the changeover, although I was there just prior to that).
Never a problem.
Similarly to Myglaren, I drove in the US and Canada after having learnt in the UK with amazing ease. I thought it’d be difficult, but it really wasn’t. Occasionally I’ve encountered problems with identifying the correct positioning to left turn across traffic into a large junction and sometimes find myself driving a little in the ditch and have to correct.
Take into account that, on balance, the roads in North America are much wider, better marked and have better signals and signs than roads in the British Isles. North American roads (because they were built much later) are mostly built for cars, they are not paved trails and cow paths. This is even true when you compare the Eastern US to the Western US.
The transition from Britain to the US is bound to be better than a US driver taking on someplace like Ireland or Wales.