Cars are too expensive here. With the good exchange rate does anyone know any good dealers who would be willing to order a right hand drive Cooper S for me. I would then consider shipping it back to the UK.

PS what do you pay for an s with a reasonable spec e.g Chilli, all leather, etc

any tips links most appreciated.

regards

pin

 

Pin, Welcome to NAM.

Nice question and if I remember someone asked about ordering a right-hand drive MINI to have here in the states some months ago. I’m sure someone here will pipe in with a more accurate answer. If I remember though, a UK spec MINI can not be ordered for delivery here because it does not meet current regulations for import.

 

Pin (or should I say Head? ), here's the thread that ran for several months last fall which discussed the whole issue of ordering a RHD MINI in the US. Point is, as sndwave says, it's probably not possible.

Now, obviously you could get a LHD MINI in the US and then do the necessary work to import it to back to the UK...but I have no idea how expensive or possible that would be. If the UK has laws anything like here (and it's probably WORSE come to think of it), importing a car that isn't already legalized for local registration is a very expensive proposition. You'd probably eat up any savings you realized on the basic purchase price....and you'd have a "grey-market" MINI. Hummmm.... not a really good idea.

 

From memory, there are plenty of LHD cars in Britain. Any car purchased on the Continent and brought back would be LHD, so I don't know if the UK laws are quite as draconian as the US laws.

 

When I moved to the UK in ’92 and was there 6 years, I brought a left-hand drive car with me and drove it the entire time. Any US military person who is stationed there can bring a car from the states with no problem and it has nothing to do with being in the military. Importing to Europe is not as restrictive as importing to the US.

I can see where Pin may not want to drive a left-hand drive in a right-hand drive world though. To pass someone is a ***** having to pull your car out in to traffic on the blind side.

 

USAF brought me and mine to the UK in 1997-2000. All that would have to be done to a US spec mini is to have the rear fog lights installed, as they are nessesary to pass MOT. It already has all the nessesary side marker blinkers, so no worries there. I really enjoyed driving a LHD car in the UK... it was never an issue whatsoever.