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Rhd 1940 Dodge Coupe In Usa


Andydodge

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Have just seen a Right Hand Drive 1940 Dodge D14 Coupe listed on ebay thats been in the USA since new and is in San Francisco or thereabouts.........have sent an email to the seller re why..........lol.........anybody ever seen RHD mopar Coupe in the US?..........and why?...........lol...........am astounded...........andyd   

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It could have been a special order car for a rural route mail carrier. I remember the mail man we had while I was growing up always used an International Scout. He would special order them with RHD because it made it easier to fill the mail boxes on the right side of the vehicle. Even after he retired I would still see him driving around town in his RHD Scout.

 

Merle

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I know of a right hand drive Desoto. I think its a 1932 but I can't remember for sure. I don't remember the story behind it but I think it just never got shipped over. 

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Special order was pretty much always available. I know of at least 2 rhd Pilot House horse vans in Washington state, one is just up the road from my folks' house. A friend on the Sweptline board found a rhd 1962 D100 swb Utiline in Virginia. There are still thousands or rhd Cherokees, Scouts, and Subaru wagons floating around the USA. Mail carriers and rural newspaper carriers. Our back up mail carrier uses a rhd early 1990s Chevy 1500.

Edited by Scruffy49
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If I understand it correctly, Australia banned the import of LHD vehicles quite sometime ago.

 

To the best of my knowledge, there has never been such a ban on RHD vehicles in the US. So while they may be rare (other than postal delivery vans) there is no particular legal issue with having one. And back in the day when the US exported to the world the assembly lines were setup to build both RHD and LHD vehicles, so special ordering one was possible even if it was not commonly done.

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My understanding is that up till WW2 LHD cars could have been registered here in Oz but after that only single personal imports were allowed without being converted, ie if you migrated to Oz you could bring your own 1965 Mustang, drive it without converting it but you had to have a "Left Hand Drive" sign on the rear...........then about 15-20 yrs ago they changed this and any LHD vehicle over 30yrs old whether a private import or via a business bringing in 20 at a time could be left as LHD and no signage was required.........BUT vehicles less than 30 yrs must be converted and there is a thriving market in importing new Mustangs, Mopars, Camaros & Corvettes and converting them to RHD..........I'd read about the US mail contractors using RHD vehicles but had always thought they would have been a commercial vehicle........its nice to see a dash just like my cars in the USA..................lol...........andyd   

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The US Post Office (predecessor to the USPS) had a whole fleet of RHD Rambler Ambassodors in the late 1960's.  They had normal dashboards (except mirror image to LHD cars) and a single bucket seat for the interior, the rest being used for trays of mail.

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Apparently with some younger car guys, it's now somewhat popular to convert your LHD car or truck to RHD, along with

suicide doors.  I talked with two young fellows at a car show last summer.....both were moving theirs to RHD for the

"be different" factor.    

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