LHD 560SEL exhaust removal

[carl888]

Why would anyone bother importing a LHD Benz, seems insane.

[TJ 450]

It is a bit insane, the guy got it for the engine apparently. He says it was cheaper than getting one locally.

Of course it is the low comp one, so I'm not so sure about that.

Tim

[Tony66_au]

Why would anyone bother importing a LHD Benz, seems insane.

Years ago wreckers would import whole cars in containers and if you brought in enough of them and picked the right cars it was very profitable, I knew a guy who did this with Jags and Range Rovers/Land Rovers and made a mint.

These days the cars HAVE to be cut in half to prevent people skipping out on extra duty but way back they'd just document the car as a parts car and then sell it whole once arrived.

The thing was that sometimes you just filled the container with crap to make up the room and it goes a ways to explaining some of the weird stuff arrived on our fair shores.

There has also been a bit of weird stuff ex Japan and Hong Kong and some of that has been LHD despite their being RHD countries.

[Big_Richard]

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[oversize]

Why such anger towards an innocent W126??  We want details!

[Big_Richard]

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[Tony66_au]

what i dont understand is how japan specific market cars can be left and right hand drive.

TJ's 190E is a genuine jap car that is and always has been a right hand drive car
the 560SEL is also a genuine jap car that is and always has been left hand drive.

WTF gives ?

Japan is unusual when it comes to cars, huge congestion, weird laws and minimal space make owning a car in Japan an expensive proposition.

Registration is exorbitant and doubles every year the vehicle ages (From memory) but this does not stop peoples quest for something flashy and actually only limits the age of the cars with the average motorist keeping a car for less than 2 years, add to this the lack of parking and the other myriad ways car owners get hit in the wallet the cars typically do 15 to 20'000 km in the 2 years IF they are high mileage examples and less than 10 if not.

Second hand cars are also worth little which is why there is a thriving trade in Ex Jap cars and commercial vehicles to RHD countries especially New Zealand although there are many traps for the uneducated buyer.

Servicing is typically non existent as cars just don't do the miles requiring it but the Japanese car culture is also very hard on sports models, a good forinstance is a GTiR Pulsar Nismo Ex Works car, SR20DET AWD monster with near enough to 500 HP at the Flywheel of maybe 3 years of age sells for maybe 5k AU plus shipping, compliancing back then was 12k from memory and they are an incredible toy if you know how to drive.

So the demand is for exotic and insatiable but RHD in low volume isnt always possible so they allow LHD cars as well and some dealers comply (I think there was some protectionist policy there as well but I cant recall exactly what) so say a Low Volume 560 hamburger with the lot is unavailable in RHD for say 6 weeks but we do have this LHD example you can take away now some bunny will stick their hands up and say I want it now....

So although left and right hand drive exists side by side they are the exception to the rule, Hong Kong also had its share of left and right hand drive cars although you tend not to see them exported here except Ex pats private imports.

So in Short?

The Japs LOVE their cars, and sometimes they cant wait.

[Tony66_au]

BTW if you are ever bored?

Look up the multistory car park Jap Motokhana's on Youtube, very skilled guys doing insane shit in scary places.