Anyone here ever done this; maybe a military person serving overseas?

I'm English but currently live in the US and own a US-spec MINI. I'm planning to return to England shortly and want to take my car with me. In order to make the car road legal in the UK it needs to have numerous modifications done, one of which is changing the direction of the headlamp beams. On www.mini2.com there is a thread about how easy this is to do my removing a plastic cover from behind the lights and basically flipping two switches (see thread below). Anyone know whether US-spec cars have these switches? I really don't want to pay top-dollar for a new set of UK-spec Xenon lights if this little trick will work on US spec lights.

http://www.mini2.com/forum/mini-coop...ml#post3053967

 

Not possible. Our Xenon's are different than Europe's xenons. They have a crazy flare that lights up the side of the road. If a MINI with it's headlights on goes up to a wall, you will see a large flare on one side to light up that side of the road (i.e. signs). US MINI's are just straight across...no flare...which is a shame! More than likely you are going to need to purchase a brand new Xenon set of headlamps to be Euro compliant

 

I am in the UK now with a US spec mini. With the headlights, they put stickers on the headlights to cut down on the glare. The original ones I had on mine were white. (Looked stupid). One was missing when I bought the car so I took the othe one off. When they did the MOT last month they put them back on, but used clear ones, so you really cant see that they are on there. You are going to have to add a rear fog light. Keep in mind you will have to pay taxes on the car when you bring it in country, other than that, its just going to have a limited resale market as it will have the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car. MCS arent common over here with the brits, they prefer the "ONE" due to the cost of gas, and insurance.

 

Thanks guys. I know that the SVA test is more stringent than the MOT test, so I don't think I can get away with using the "headlight stickers" trick on the lights to redirect the beams. I guess it might have to be a complete new set of (expensive) Xenons.

I'm OK on the taxes front since I've lived in the US longer than 1 year and have owned the MCS for more than 6 months....so tax & import duties don't apply .

 

jeez that'd freak me out driving a LHD car in a RHD country!

 

 

Wouldnt it be cheaper to buy a Mini over there? After shipping, insurance, and revamping it to meet spec along with the limited resale market thus probably a reduced resale value I just wonder if it makes more sense to sell it here and buy another one when you get there.

 

yeah, one that has RHD...