Since the change from Right hand drive to Left hand in April of 1972, Nigeria has maintained its left hand-drive status, and as such the most acceptable trend here.
Nevertheless, there are still few right-hand cars on our roads, but they’re very negligible. Going to the topic of discussion, there has been a very significant increase in right-handed cars in Nigeria, that were converted to Left-hand upon arrival here in Nigeria, and I will walk you through how to identify some of these cars when you see them on the road.
These Cars are mostly imported from countries that make use of Right-hand Drive systems, like UK, Japan and some other Asian Countries.
For the most rampant ones we see here in Nigeria, we have the Toyota Corolla Altis, Camry, Toyota Harrier(RX330/350), Toyota Hiace, Nissan Urvan, Daihatsu Altrai, Suzuki Every Wagon etc.
Apart from the sedans, and SUVs that are imported completely, the wagons and Buses are stripped down to parts before being shipped down to Nigeria and then Recoupled/assembled back, Click this link to watch a short clip of what I mean by imported in parts and coupled back.
Below are images of some of the Cars I mentioned above.
Daihatsu Altrai
Corolla Altis
2007 Camry Asian Spec.
Nissan Urvan
Toyota Harrier(lexus RX 330/350)
Toyota Hiace
Now to the topic of the day, There are various ways to identify that some of these Cars were converted from Right hand to Left hand, It can be as simple as the Position of the Gear in the cases of the Nissan Urvan and the Likes of Daihatsu Altrai, The direction in which the Gear Labels face in the cases of the Hiace, Corolla, Camry, and Harrier.
In the Image above, we can clearly see how far apart the gear is from the driver on the left, it seems almost as if the passenger is the one changing the Gears, this is a very Clear example that the Car was originally built to be a Right-hand drive Car, but was converted here in Nigeria to Left hand drive.
Here, in the image above, we can see that this bus has two Gears, a Manual Gear transmission and an Automatic Gear transmission, this is as a result of failed conversion from Right to left, and the driver had no other option than to add a Manual Gear Transmission to be able to further make use of his vehicle.
To this, we see two Automatic Gear Transmissions here, due to failed conversion, now also observe closely how dirty this dashboard is, which definitely isn’t how the manufacturers produced it.
Now again, another way to identify this, is the position of the SHIFT LOCK button on the gear, take a closer look at either the Image above or below, you’d see that the SHIFT LOCK button is Positioned to suit the left THUMB, while for Left Hand Drive Vehicles, the SHIFT LOCK should be on the left part of the Gear stick, to enable the use of your Right thumb while making use of it.
The Circled points are the SHIFT LOCK buttons
Below, I’ve attached image of where the position of the SHIFT LOCK button should be in a Left-Hand drive Car.
From the above image, you can now see where the exact Position should be for both a Left Hand Drive and a Right Hand Drive.
Another way to identify this, is where the Fuel Door is located, A little deviation, For Most Asian Car manufacturers, they Always Position/keep their fuel door on the same Side as the Driver, in simpler terms, when you go to refill your Tank in a Fuel Station, you position your fuel-door close to the attendant, which is on your left for most Asian Cars, then mostly opposite the Driver’s side for many European Manufacturers. Hence for some of the Buses, their Fuel Doors are always located on the Right-Hand Side, indicating it was Originally a Right-Hand drive from the manufacturers.
We can also identify these cars by the direction of the Car Wipers, Yes, Wipers, in a conventional Left Hand drive we have here, the Wipers are set to swing Anti-clockwise, for it to clear more of the Driver’s part of the Windscreen/Windshield, while in Right-Handed Cars, they Swing in the Clockwise direction to clear more of the Driver’s part of the Windscreen/Windshield. I will make a video to simplify all these.
The Location of the Window Control buttons also indicate if a Car has been converted or not, now, the Driver’s part of the Car houses all the four Control buttons for the four Windows and other buttons that only the Driver has access to, now in many of these converted Car especially the Buses and Trucks, you see that they rarely move the complete housing from the right hand door to the left hand door. this is also a faster way to identify some of these Cars.
Another way to identify these Cars is by carefully checking the part of the Car that doesn’t have the Grab-Handles, below are images of what I mean by Grab-handles. You can also visit Philkotse.com to read up on what the importance of the Grab-handle is.
Grab-Handle
Empty Grab-Handle on the Driver’s Side
to Further explain the images above, the Driver’s part of the car in most cars are manufactured without these Grab-Handles you get on the other doors of the Car, so whenever you come across any Car that lack(s) one, the position of the the door without the Grab-handle will let you know the Original Driver train it was Manufactured for. Note that there are cars that have Grab-handles on all the Four Doors.
Another way to identify this, is with Cars that are equipped with Hand Gears instead of the floor gear, the location of this hand Gear also points to the original Driver side of the Car, for Left handed Cars, the Hand gear is always located to the Right of the Steering, where it will be convenient enough for you to make changes with your Right hand, but on Right-Handed Cars, the Hand gear is located on the Left hand side of the driver, hence, in some of these Converted Buses, they still maintain that left handed Position of the Gear, which makes the Drivers change their Automatic Transmissions using their left hands instead of the Conventional right hand for a Left-handed Car.
In the images below, we have the position of this Rear-mirror on the left from the first image, this is done by the manufacturers to enable the driver get a better view of what is behind him, thus this rear mirror helps him with that of the inside Rear-view mirror, as such, this outside Rear-mirrors are strategically placed opposite the Driver’s Part/side of the Car, same goes for the front mirrors on the second image on the right, they are always placed opposite of the driver, so that he/she can be able to view it seamlessly. hence, whenever you see these Two mirrors on the same side/part as the driver, definitely, it was converted.
Rear-Windshield Mirror
Front-end view Mirror
Position of the Gear INDICATOR Labels also help in identifying some of these cars, check the image below to get a grasp of what i mean by GEAR INDICATOR label.
In many of these cars, they don’t usually change the positions of the Gears as in the Corolla Altis, Harrier and Hiace, as such you tend to see the Indicator Labels facing the Passengers side as shown in the Second Image on the right.
Gear Indicator labels in a Left-hand drive Car.
Gear indicator labels in a converted Car
I hope with these few points, you will now be able to identify some of these Cars when next you come across any.
In addition to these points, We’ll upload a Video to make this Explanation a lot easier for you, our esteemed customers.
