[jasmeetsingh]

This was the case more seen in earlier products of all the manufacturers due to lack of competition and R&D specific to Indian market. So when the things are constantly changing they will take time to change, change may be for good.
Not blaming the manufacturers alone the customers will also have to change, saying this with respect to choosing the models with better safety features.

[nipun dhingra]

Originally Posted by sandeepmdas

The Punto. It has no place to put a 2L water bottle properly. Guess the Italians never get thirsty...

NOT an answer to your question, but I've seen a program in Discovery a couple of years back that featured a Honda plant in Japan that can assemble both LH and RH cars. A highly-robotized, flexible assembly line.

My indica vista does not even have space to keep a 500 ml bottle. Even a totally homegrown company failed to realize it. So you can definitely ignore the punto

[amit_mechengg]

Originally Posted by sandeepmdas

The Punto. It has no place to put a 2L water bottle properly. Guess the Italians never get thirsty...

europeans hardly drink water. they love small cans and so are the small can holders in front.

i faced a lot of problem when i was in europe. i used to drink water from those small pep bottles and mostly cold drinks from cans

[rajeev k]

Hood release on left hand side making it quite a stretch to reach

The Ambassador which has its ancestry in a RHD market, the UK, had its boot release on the LHS till 80's.

will VW have the rear tunnel in our market, only to route the exhaust pipes?

It can add strength as a reinforcement to the floor pan too.

Lucky that the LHD & RHD synergy doesn't result in LHD cars having the accelerator placed on the left and the clutch pedals to the right.

[AVR]

Originally Posted by JustCause

Hood release on left hand side making it quite a stretch to reach

Does any vehicle sold today or till recently have this?

Originally Posted by JustCause

LHD style ORVM . The right side mirror is more concave than the left. Generally, the one away from the driver is more convex to allow a greater Field of View.

Interesting. Never thought about this. Which car in India has this issue?

[EagleEye]

Originally Posted by JustCause

4)Front windshield defogger on the Mondeo. This one feature was a real blessing on wintry days. This, IIRC no other car company has tried to incorporate in its products.

Our Hyundai Verna has this. It just opens the AC vents at the bottom of the windshield like the vent-control knob does on any other car. Not a heating kind of defogger if that's what the Mondeo has.

Originally Posted by AVR

Does any vehicle sold today or till recently have this?

All Figos have the hood release on the left side.

Originally Posted by rajeev k

Lucky that the LHD & RHD synergy doesn't result in LHD cars having the accelerator placed on the left and the clutch pedals to the right.

[sidoza]

What about Headlight Washers? Are they needed at all in our country?

The position of the turn indicators is one of the most prominent ones I guess. The manufacturers would have thought about the cost vs. convenience trade-off and come to a conclusion that we guys can learn the position.

Also the spare tyre size, but that is down to cost savings more than anything else. Car manufacturers would prefer putting no spare at all if they though they could get away with it.

Originally Posted by drmohitg

The left hand placement of stalk is again a very gross carry over and its becoming more and more prevalent.

Even my daughter's VW Golf 2.0 TDI AT in Australia - a RHD country like India - has LHS stalk for indicators and external lights along with one reverse light. All European cars including FIAT have similar spec. But, my Linea has twin reversing lights instead of one in Punto!

[JustCause]

Originally Posted by AVR

Interesting. Never thought about this. Which car in India has this issue?

I don't recall the manufacturer. Maybe the Merc/BMW experts can help here.

Originally Posted by sidoza

What about Headlight Washers? Are they needed at all in our country?

On a rainy day journey, the mud from heavy vehicles directly comes to the headlight/hood region of most cars. Therefore, these get covered with a layer of grime which reduces the efficiency of the headlamps at night. A headlight washer is mandatory for HID setups in Europe to reduce glare & excessive light scattering by grime. This feature is there for safety reasons, even when the Indian regulations don't explicitly state their requirement.

[basky]

Originally Posted by sandeepmdas

.. a program in Discovery a couple of years back that featured a Honda plant in Japan that can assemble both LH and RH cars. A highly-robotized, flexible assembly line.

Actually, quite a lot depends on the home market of the manufacturer. Japan has a RH home market and exports heavily to LH markets. They thus design for both markets. European and US markets are LH and they, till recently, never bothered much of the RH export market. Only UK and Australia figured in their sights as RH markets.

Till recently, India was seen as a nation of half naked fakirs on flying carpets. I think Y2K changed the perception of India as a nation of starving beggars. Now India is seen as a major booming RH market but most LH homemarket manufacturers are reluctant to retool for our market. That is the root cause of the problem.

I would also add to the list the poor lighting and horns of European designed cars. They have well lit highways without pedestrians, dogs and cows crossing at their pleasure, as we have.

[simplyself]

Originally Posted by basky

I would also add to the list the poor lighting and horns of European designed cars. They have well lit highways without pedestrians, dogs and cows crossing at their pleasure, as we have.

Nor do they have this large a country nor this many people. You see, to keep themselves warm and comfortable, they colonized much of the world where people are until recently half naked fakirs.

The truth of the matter, however, is that a car maker worth his wheel bolt should adapt to the market, not the other way round.

I remember Opel India head bragging that the Indians need to learn shifting gears of their Astras as the Indians are used to shift them by the sound of the engine and the Astra was super silent. We know the worth of the car and what happened to it.

First generation European/US car makers got everything wrong. AC wouldnt cool the interiors well in the summers, rear door windows do not roll down completely.....the list is long.

Well -lit roads or not, LH wiper configuration for RH cars is, to say the least, absurd. Would the RH wiper configuration have been allowed in France?

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by basky

I would also add to the list the poor lighting and horns of European designed cars. They have well lit highways without pedestrians, dogs and cows crossing at their pleasure, as we have.

True on the lighting part, but horns need to be certified by ARAI hence could be different than used in Eu.

Cheers!

[basky]

Originally Posted by simplyself

Would the RH wiper configuration have been allowed in France?

True. The French refuse to speak English too. After all, most of Europe thought that they were at the epicenter of the known universe - till they ran out of young people.