On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 22:14:12 -0000, (Mark Brader) wrote:

Lots of good stuff including this reference


http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_021b.html


I don't know the exact balance of informedness and irony conveyed by
Cecil Adams, but the 'straight dope' site does include one
particularly outrageous statement

The last holdouts in mainland Europe, the Swedes, finally switched to the right in 1967 because most of the countries they sold Saabs and Volvos to were righties and they got tired of having to make different versions for domestic use and export.


Of course Swedish manufacturers still make right-hand-drive cars for
the British and other markets, just as French, German, Italian,
Spanish, Czech, Korean, and even American manufacturers make
right-hand-drive cars for some markets.

Also cars for the Swedish market had left-hand-drive even before the
changeover in the rule of the road (though nobody seems to know quite
why).

Moreover Japanese manufacturers, whose domestic market needed
right-hand-drive, didn't find the need to make left-hand-drive cars
any barrier to making massive inroads in the North American and
continental European markets.

Incidentally Lynn Guinni wrote:

Most autos are
manufactured in the country in which they are sold.

Surely this isn't true in many parts of the world (especially if you
think of the number of countries without a motor manufacturing
industry). It's probably true in the US and Japan, but is definitely
not true in Europe.

Manufacturers with sites both in Britain and in continental Europe
(Peugeot, GM, Toyota) make different models on different sites: they
don't just make right-hand-drive cars in Britain and left-hand-drive
cars on the continent.

Drifting off topic - sorry :-)

Martin