How to drive a right-hand drive car in Russia

Japanese right-hand drive cars: are they worth buying?

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The fashion for steering wheels “in the glove compartment” came to our country in the 90s, when it was profitable to bring Japanese cars to Russia. In those years, even the profession of a distiller appeared in the Far East. Now the hauls are not popular, because there are practically no new imports from countries with left-hand traffic. And the existing “Pruli” are based mainly in the East and Siberia. The closer to the western part of Russia, the more rapidly the share of right-handed “Japanese” women falls. Among European countries, only Great Britain remains an adherent of left-hand traffic. Now it is more profitable to buy a new car assembled in Russia than to import a used one from other countries. This is due to high duties, the introduced ERA-GLONASS system, and problems with documents and registration.

Why we love right-hand drive cars

During the period of the domestic automobile industry, between the production of the Seagulls and the new Vestas, we had a period of shame, when there was no desire to buy buckets with four wheels. High-quality used right-handed Japanese cars came to the rescue at about the same price as new Russian models. Foreign cars could not be compared with our Zhiguli cars, even though we bought them used. The driving style and operating conditions are incomparable: a car rolled off the assembly line in Togliatti that was of worse quality and more expensive than a used representative of the Japanese automobile industry was driving.

At the same time, the Japanese know how to make cars that are so reliable and durable that they are able to withstand homemade Russian garage repairs, Chinese spare parts, and at the same time ride along Russian trails for decades.

In the city, it is much more comfortable to turn right, park, or go out onto the sidewalk on a “rule.” Moreover, the list of advantages goes on: in a head-on collision with oncoming traffic, the impact falls on the left side of the car, which can save the life of the driver of a right-handed car. These and other advantages are foamingly proven by adherents of JDM, the domestic Japanese market.

The question of benefit is the main one for Russians when choosing a car. Even a European car with right-hand drive, created for the Japanese market, will cost less than in Europe. In addition, buying a car with a different engine from European ones is a special JDM thrill. For the domestic Japanese market, modifications are produced with increased engine power, all-wheel drive and special functionality. Another reason why we choose Japanese cars: an empty German “base” is sold at the same price as a “Japanese” stuffed with modern technology. And here we come to the main disadvantage of used Japanese mobile phones.

Why you don’t need to bring a prul to Russia from Japan

In the 90s, prices for importing foreign cars were different. Now it costs a lot of money to bring a Japanese car to Russia. For example, the price is only for customs clearance of a 2015 Toyota Celica. with a 1.8 and 145 liter engine. With. will be 331,773 rubles. And that doesn't include the cost of the car itself, shipping costs, brokers, or auction fees. Lengthy processing, lack of opportunity to inspect the car in person, difficulties with transportation and paperwork, installation of ERA-GLONASS - and in the end, only canonical fans bring cars from Japan.

To say that you will have to get used to driving a car on the passenger side is unnecessary. It won't take much time, and fans of the "rules" will call it more of an advantage than a disadvantage. However, if you are not a fan, but are only planning to buy a right-hand drive car, imagine how you will overtake on the highways. If you were able to explain to yourself how this is possible, don’t hesitate, make your choice in favor of the “rule”. But remember that you will have to switch the box with your left hand. Are you left-handed? Then it will not cause difficulties. If not, practice shifting gears on the passenger side of your car to see how uncomfortable it is. We are, of course, talking about manual transmissions. And also about the wipers, emergency lights, climate control, etc. - all these levers and buttons are now on the conscience of the left hand.

Try to find a service in your city that has equipment for right-hand drive cars: even in big cities, not all service stations can boast of them.

And if you, having parked on a “pull”, go out onto the sidewalk, then your passenger goes out onto the roadway. Think about it - your passengers are able to be attentive to other road users and not throw open the door towards the flow and not run out onto the roadway.

Price, import difficulties, taxes, confusion with environmental classes - all the problems with cars from Japan are contained in the legislation. There are no downsides to the cars themselves, it’s just a matter of habit. But who will buy Vestas if we are suddenly allowed to bring in “Japanese women” from Tokyo again.

What is important to know when buying a used Japanese car

Before purchasing any used vehicle, it is important to check its history. But problems arise here with right-hand drive Japanese cars. They do not have a VIN number, which prevents most services from entering these cars. Just a year ago, the Autocode service solved this problem. We have added functionality to check right-hand drive cars. You can check the “Japanese” through the Autocode application by license plate number or body number. From the report you will learn about traffic police restrictions, liens, road accidents and much more. But it is important to understand that you will only see the history that has been developed over the years of using the car in Russia. If you purchase a car from a Japanese auction, its history will remain a mystery to you. In this case, after the purchase, you can carry out technical diagnostics to reveal all the cards and know what to expect from the purchased car.

What do you think about right-hand drive Japanese cars? Leave your opinion in the comments after the article.

How to drive a right-hand drive car in Russia

4. Embedding on the main page on the right.

Here lies another of the serious “urban” disadvantages of PR cars. On the left-hand drive, the integration is carried out automatically, even according to the mirrors. In order to see the far right lane of the main road on the PR in the same situation, you need to push the car further into it, and very often just look back (although the view is blocked by the rear of the roof pillar). In the first case, we hope that no one is rushing along the lane. In the second - that there are no substitutes or inadequate people driving in front of us, who will suddenly brake while we look around or try to see the situation in the mirrors.

The mirror problem on the left steering wheel - embedding from the left into a fast left lane - is completely uncharacteristic of Moscow and, it seems, existed only at the intersection of the Third Transport Ring and Volgogradsky Prospekt. In general, it is not difficult to compare the safety of the steering wheels when turning: on the right, visibility to the left is important - here plus LR and minus LR; on the left, visibility both to the left (plus LR and minus LR) and to the right (plus LR and minus LR) is important. That is, overall, in our driving conditions, it is safer to turn on the left steering wheel.

And don’t say that “I can see clearly from the jeep.” From a tall SUV or SUV you can sometimes look over the traffic or bump stops. And if not, then there is a chance that opponents will give way to a large and heavy car. But beati posidentes. It is unlikely that PR dealers will give such a discount to the bulk of buyers of Vitz, Corolla, Kaldin and other passenger car fleets so that they can at least buy a fresh Forester or RAV4 with improved visibility.

5. Departure from the right shoulder.

In the city, quite often you have to move out of a row of cars parked in the right lane. Under normal conditions there are no problems - the left mirror helps, but as soon as it gets dark, its effectiveness decreases - it is more difficult to navigate by the reflections of headlights in a spherical mirror. In the rain, visibility through the right mirror also deteriorates greatly, but the real “fun” comes on a dark, rainy evening. With LR you can, in extreme cases, lean out of the window, with PR you have to go out at random. The mirror situation for the Republic of Lithuania with leaving the left side of the road is much less common - there are not enough suitable streets.

6. Two-lane street, avoiding obstacles.

On our full-width lane there is a heavy truck or a bus that will have to go around in the oncoming lane. Yes, its driver may be completely wrong, but, nevertheless, the situation is usual - it was unloading, the bus broke down, or it simply takes in a crowd of passengers through the damned validator. It often turns out that we have no distance and will not have it in principle, just as there is absolutely no visibility - this is where you frankly think about right-hand drive economy. The only option is to wait until some left-hand drive driver comes out of the queue behind to overtake, and position yourself in his wake, hoping that a possible oncoming driver will somehow wait - the main thing is not to jump right under his wheels.

The Japanese may be a strange nation, but even they found it necessary to seat the driver closer to the center line, and not to the side of the road. And only the smart traders guessed that when we drive on the right, the driver should also be on the right.

Don't confuse convenience with habit. You can easily get used to driving on the right hand drive, you can get used to not noticing its shortcomings, but it is simply impossible not to realize that driving on the left is more convenient and safer.

Right-hand drive Japanese car. Is it comfortable to drive this?

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Right-hand drive Japanese car. Is it comfortable to drive this?

You get used to it very quickly. Then for six months you confuse wipers with turn signals in left-hand drive cars.

overtaking in traffic without installing a camera is a real problem.
you have to lag behind the person in front and then stick your head out a hundred times and wait for when. The main thing is to have time to hide back in time, otherwise you will get punched in the face. Most right-hand drive drivers are greedy and don’t install cameras, and the periscope Overtaking Mirror on a right-handed car is not at all the same. In total, driving on the highway is extreme every time. It is very inconvenient to pay for tolls and underground parking. you have to park on the street and avoid toll roads (their non-rubber thing is 4, so it’s really annoying).

Driving out when parking diagonally is also no problem.

in our region, prices right and left are equal. The result of right-hand drive is a real hang-up. You can only give it to Novosibirsk residents.

Driving experience on the road from 2006 to 2012.

to the pluses.
Traffic police officers and other drivers really think that the car is being driven by the blonde sitting on the left.
when she turns away and does not look at the road, they beep furiously and try to bring her to administrative responsibility for chatting on her mobile phone.
real laugher :)

your friends think that you are a beggar, and therefore they belong because even a right-hand drive car bought for a million does not make you a status boy (YOU, be arrogant). because you still have friends. :)))

Ban on right-hand drive in Russia in 2020

Good afternoon, dear reader.

This article will discuss the current ban on right-hand drive in Russia in 2019 .

Below we will consider the technical regulations of the Customs Union on the safety of wheeled vehicles. It is this document that imposes restrictions on the release into circulation of vehicles with right-hand drive.

If you wish, you can read the full text of the document, but keep in mind that its volume is several hundred pages:

Distribution of right-hand drive cars in Russia

A possible ban on right-hand drive is primarily of interest to readers living in the Far East. It is there that the largest number of right-hand drive cars imported from Japan are used. And their owners want the latest information on this issue.

The problem does not greatly affect residents of the European part of Russia, because... The number of right-hand drive cars here is relatively small. However, in the Far East the situation is completely different. Used Japanese right-hand drive cars occupy more than half of the market there, and many of the readers of SDA Master.ru own 2-3 Japanese cars and are very satisfied with them.

Note. Right-hand drive is so common in eastern Russia that there are even driving schools and private driving instructors specializing in Japanese cars.

In general, it is not surprising that the problem of right-hand drive cars in the Far East is very acute.

Features of prohibiting right-hand drive

So, let’s look at the Technical Regulations of the Customs Union “On the Safety of Wheeled Vehicles”. For right-hand drive vehicles, paragraph 19 of Chapter IV applies:

19. The release into circulation of vehicles with right-hand drive of categories M ₂ and M ₃ .

In the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Kazakhstan, the release into circulation of vehicles with right-hand drive that belong to other categories is prohibited.

Let's start with the second paragraph, since it is the one that is easier to understand. It prohibits the release of any right-hand drive vehicles into circulation on the territory of Belarus and Kazakhstan.

As for the territory of Russia, it is discussed in the first paragraph, that is, the ban on right-hand drive applies only to cars of categories M ₂ and M ₃ .

Detailed information about vehicle categories is provided in a separate article:

Cars

In the currently valid technical regulations, all passenger cars of category B belong to category M ₁ . Thus, the ban on right-hand drive does not apply to private passenger cars in 2020 . As with all other passenger cars.

Let's consider the categories of vehicles for which the use of right-hand drive is prohibited from January 1, 2015. These are cars of categories M ₂ and M ₃ , i.e. passenger buses with a capacity of more than 8 people. According to the usual classification, such vehicles belong to category D.

Please note that we are talking about all cars with more than 8 passenger seats. For example, there are crossovers that have 4 rows of seats and belong to category D. The ban also applies to such right-hand drive cars.

Let's summarize this article :

The technical regulations of the customs union “On the safety of wheeled vehicles”, which came into force on January 1, 2015, are discussed above. This document is valid and imposes restrictions on the operation of right-hand drive vehicles.
Since 2015, right-hand drive is prohibited only for cars with 8 or more passenger seats. Passenger cars of category B are not affected by the ban on right-hand drive in 2019 and 2020.

If the technical regulations undergo changes in the future, the corresponding article or series of articles will certainly appear on pddmaster.ru. I recommend subscribing to the site’s news so as not to miss information related to the use of right-hand drive cars:

And finally, I suggest you watch a funny video about the first batch of left-hand drive cars arriving in Primorye: