Tag: car parks

Whether you are looking to buy your first holiday home abroad, planning for your retirement or are already enjoying the Ex-Pat life on the continent, one of the things you’ll want to consider is getting a left hand drive car. While it might make sense to use your existing right hand drive car if you only venture abroad for a week or two a year, for anyone looking to spend more time abroad a left hand drive car makes a lot of sense. In this blog, we’ll take a look at 5 reasons why you should make the switch to LHD.

Car parks

It sounds obvious but car parks with ticket-operated barriers are designed for left hand drive cars on the continent. This means that in a right hand drive car unless you have a passenger you’ll have to physically get out of your car to get a ticket before running back into your car to move forward before the barrier closes.

Toll booths

Again, toll booths are set up for left hand drive vehicles so simply stopping to pay tolls can become quite irksome with frequent trips out of the car, or having to do your best yoga impression.

Overtaking

Another difficulty driving a right hand drive car in Europe is the danger involved in overtaking. Because the view of the road ahead is obstructed you are more at risk when attempting to overtake than a driver in a left hand drive car.

Insurance

This is where things can start to get tricky. If you plan on keeping your right hand drive car and using it while abroad for more than about 60 days of the year then most insurance companies will not provide you with cover. Even policies that offer extended European cover limit the amount of time that you can spend on the continent.

Registration

If you are moving to France, Spain, Germany or any other left hand drive country on a permanent basis then you will need to register your car in that country. This is where registering a right hand drive car can become problematic as you’ll need a certificate of conformity to show that it meets the required environmental standards of the country you are looking to move to, for modern cars this shouldn’t be a problem but older cars may prove problematic.

Add to this the necessity to have your headlights changed to face the right way, speedometer needs to clearly show your speed in kph and fog light needs to be on the left hand side of the car. Your car will need to undergo the equivalent of an MOT test as well to make sure that it is roadworthy.

Buying a left hand drive car is the easiest way to avoid the problems above and help make your life that little bit easier abroad. At Transeuropean we can help you get a great deal on a left hand drive car and have been sourcing; supplying and selling left hand drive cars since 1970.