Poll: Aussies don’t want left-hand drive cars

Aussie’s are right-wingers.

Well, not necessarily in a politically affiliated sense, but certainly in a road-using, car-driving way.

Despite industry calls for the Land Down Under to adopt left-hand drive vehicles, and therefore gain easier access to a cavalcade of epic machines such as the Ford Bronco, Australians overwhelmingly want to retain right-hand drive vehicles.

In a recent poll held on the carsales Facebook page, the vast majority of more than 2700 respondents answered ‘no’ to the question, should Australia go left-hand drive?

Only one in five who voted said we should flip the road system around… and it may or may not be true that those voters also requested we switch from the metric to the imperial system.

In all seriousness, there are sound arguments for adopting left-hand drive cars.

Vehicles would be cheaper to buy and more models would be offered here, such as full-size US pick-up trucks like the Ford F-150, Nissan Titan and Toyota Tundra for instance, and loads of wacky knock-offs from China.

Around 80 per cent of the world’s annual car production is left-hand drive, making Australia a nonconformist auto market along with Japan, India, the UK and South Africa.

But what’s the alternative? Spend hundreds of millions of tax-payers money – perhaps billions – to rip out every road sign, reconfigure every highway ramp and modify every intersection.

So it’s clear from our (mostly) beloved carsales community that we really shouldn’t move from right-hand drive to left-hand drive.

The majority of our Facebook fans agree with the infrastructure issues, arguing that we’re too established to be able to make such a drastic change.

One reader, Chris Polglase, said what everyone else was thinking – especially in the current pandemic: “What about the drive-throughs?”

Other Facebook commenters said: “It’s too late to change our infrastructure,” and the argument that a glut of hot US vehicles, such as the Dodge Challenger Hellcat, would be offered doesn’t resonate with everyone.

“Would prefer JDMs [Japanese domestic models] over American cars.”

Of course the cost issue is a big one too. Back in 1967 Sweden was the last country to flip from driving on the left side of the road to the right, and in today’s money it cost $840 million.

“Will cost far too much now,” said one commenter, while another added that the drastic change would make it complicated for many drivers.

“Isn’t there enough nuff-nuffs on the road now, so let’s not confuse them more.”

The drive-through issue was a hot-button topic. “Sure, are we just going to knock-down and rebuild every drive-thru or make people take them in reverse?”

Those in favour of changing the road regulations offered cogent arguments, such as: “We would gain access to more US cars” and “LHD is better for right-handers in manual cars”.

Another savvy reader stated that “Manufacturers are reducing right-hand drive production which will leave us with what?”.

Indeed, General Motors’ decision to cease right-hand vehicle production and sell off its Thai Colorado plant spelt the end for Holden.

Perhaps there’s room for compromise… could sanity prevail in this controversial issue?

“Britain you can drive right and left-hand cars. Why can’t we?” asked one carsales reader.

Why can’t we, indeed…

Read the article that started the Facebook debate