Hey all,

I've been living in switzerland for 6 months now, I'm contemplating buying a car..now if i can bring it back to Australia i'll buy a good car..

the downside is after bringing it over there will be the cost of right hand drive conversion...
does anyone have any idea how much both of these things cost? ie. is it even worth looking into ?

reason i ask is because 2nd hand cars are ridiculously cheap here compared to australia.

ie. i'll probably be getting a 97 3 series bmw with 100,000km on the clock for $3,500..so i was hoping to bring something like an m3 over.
i dont think i'd have problems with the import laws as i'll be owning the car here for a year etc. blah blah.


is it worth looking into? do u guys know anyone thats done this sort of thing from a left hand drive car ?

if you can work out what the front section of a simialr car is worth in parts here (google a few wreckers here in oz and ring them.) and work it out from there.

there is a felllow in brissy that brings theses things in though his tend to be e39s.

thanks for the reply,

r u saying the conversion process would be to look what got moved around in the engine bay with the steering? then dash and stuff obviously.
this will all need to be engineered obviously right? i mean if its inbetween 5 to 7g all up then ok, otherwise might not be worth it..

correct. then find whats different in the car from the RHD version. firewall will swap in spots as will brake lines and steering rack. this is where a wrecked donor will come in handy. only issue I see will be finding a unexploded dash (pass side) as you will have teh drivers side bag from your car when you do the swap.
if I understand your intention its a e46 you are contemplating. if so then I would look for a similar car locally (damaged) and lift EVERY bit off it thats needed for the L->R swap. memory being what it is I think they are easyish to swap providing you have a similar car as a base to work from. yes it would have to be engineered. I would have a look at vic roads sites on L->R swaps and see what is involved from the paperwork side.



also you will need to look at te dotars site as the ownership times have changed I believe.