5 ms·

I've never understood why there's no standard position for the indicator stalk on cars - some are on the left of the steering wheel, some on the right...

TallGuyShort 17y ago
I imagine it's now a problem of personal preference. I've mainly driven Toyota's, and so there standard controls are second nature to me. If I drive a Chevy, for instance, I get confused about cruise control, etc... So brands tend to remain the same so their customer's feel comfortable staying with them.
jacquesm 17y ago
Funny, I have driven quite a few cars, even right hand drive ones and they all had the indicator stalk on the left hand side. What brands have the indicator stalk on the right ? I've seen different arrangements for the wipers and the headlight switches though (sometimes on the stalk, sometimes on the dash, left & right).
- yangyang 17y ago
  A friend's Hyundai had the indicator stalk on the left, this was several years ago though.
- xelfer 17y ago
  Almost every single car in Australia (besides exotic/rarer european imports) has it on the right. From personal experience, my father had a ferrari which had it on the left, my brother had a Smart car which had it on the left, but everything else I've driven (20+ cars) had it on the right (all right hand drive cars).
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    Neat! Do they switch the place of the pedals as well ? 'Normally' (depending on your definition of 'normal') it is clutch on the left, brakes in the middle and accelerator on the right foot. Funny how they would do that different than even in the UK, where all cars I've seen had their indicator stalks on the left. It seems to be more of a regional thing than anything else. Makes me wonder what Japan is like... (they also drive on the left).
    - GeneralMaximus 17y ago
      AFAIK, nobody messes with pedal positions. In India, all cars are right hand drives with signals on the right, but pedal positions are still: CLUTCH BRAKE GAS BTW, you can still find some old cars on the roads here which have the gears on the left hand side of the steering wheel :O
      - jacquesm 17y ago
        > BTW, you can still find some old cars on the roads here which have the gears on the left hand side of the steering wheel :O I have one like that :), not sure about your definition of 'older', but it is from 2004. It's a RHD Copen.
    - jac_no_k 17y ago
      Hello from Tokyo Japan. On Japanese cars ( right hand drive ), all the stalks are reversed from the exported left hand drive model. This means that Japan cars have the turn signal on the right, upward motion signaling a left turn and downward a right turn. The shifter is of course in the middle console, so is on the drivers left. The wiper control stalk is on the left. The ignition control is on the right. I am curious if the motorcycle controls are reversed though. I guess I'll find that out in a few months.
      - jacquesm 17y ago
        So, my little Copen is actually not the same as the Japanese model. Interesting. There are only 30 of these in the country where I live, and they were imported from Japan before they made a left-hand-drive version available. But it looks like they did change the controls over for this. Thank you for the info!
      - shrikant 17y ago
        Remembering "upward - left, downward - right" is a pain, imho, the WRONG way to do it. Much easier to remember any turn indicator for cars is always in the direction of the turn of the steering wheel. This helped me immensely when I moved back from Oman (cars and roads the American way) to India (everything the UK way). And also, this way I only had to re-learn the location of the indicator stalk, so that I could avoid flipping on the windshield wipers :-) p.s: Are there ANY cars that do not follow the "direction of steering wheel" rule for their indicator stalks? Would be interesting to know this..
jgrahamc 17y ago
When I first moved to the US I had this sudden fear that I was going to be unable to drive a US manual car because I figured that since the steering wheel was on the opposite side of the car, that the pedals would have been reversed. Thank goodness they are exactly the same, but I do wonder how that piece of standardization came about.
- hybygvuy 17y ago
  Gradually! Some classic Jaguars had the pedals switched - including the famous one in the Inspector Morse TV series which led to a few accidents on set. Porsche also made some race cars with the accelerator on the left to make it quicker to do 'Le Mans starts' - where the driver must run to the car and start it.
  - pbhjpbhj 17y ago
    Didn't they used to jump in, either over the side door or through a window, both feet would reach the footwell at about the same time; arguably from the angle of attack the right foot might be first to the pedals. I suspect it's more to do with gearbox placement or similar.
JimmyL 17y ago
I would think that it's standardized nationally by whatever body approves cars for sale - as in I've never seen a car without the indicator stalk on the left in Canada, aside from a Saleen import I saw once. For this one, I suspect it falls under an import exemption, in the same way you can get right-hand drive cars here with some special paperwork.

TallGuyShort 17y ago

I imagine it's now a problem of personal preference. I've mainly driven Toyota's, and so there standard controls are second nature to me. If I drive a Chevy, for instance, I get confused about cruise control, etc... So brands tend to remain the same so their customer's feel comfortable staying with them.

jacquesm 17y ago

Funny, I have driven quite a few cars, even right hand drive ones and they all had the indicator stalk on the left hand side. What brands have the indicator stalk on the right ? I've seen different arrangements for the wipers and the headlight switches though (sometimes on the stalk, sometimes on the dash, left & right).

yangyang 17y ago
A friend's Hyundai had the indicator stalk on the left, this was several years ago though.
xelfer 17y ago
Almost every single car in Australia (besides exotic/rarer european imports) has it on the right. From personal experience, my father had a ferrari which had it on the left, my brother had a Smart car which had it on the left, but everything else I've driven (20+ cars) had it on the right (all right hand drive cars).
- jacquesm 17y ago
  Neat! Do they switch the place of the pedals as well ? 'Normally' (depending on your definition of 'normal') it is clutch on the left, brakes in the middle and accelerator on the right foot. Funny how they would do that different than even in the UK, where all cars I've seen had their indicator stalks on the left. It seems to be more of a regional thing than anything else. Makes me wonder what Japan is like... (they also drive on the left).
  - GeneralMaximus 17y ago
    AFAIK, nobody messes with pedal positions. In India, all cars are right hand drives with signals on the right, but pedal positions are still: CLUTCH BRAKE GAS BTW, you can still find some old cars on the roads here which have the gears on the left hand side of the steering wheel :O
    - jacquesm 17y ago
      > BTW, you can still find some old cars on the roads here which have the gears on the left hand side of the steering wheel :O I have one like that :), not sure about your definition of 'older', but it is from 2004. It's a RHD Copen.
  - jac_no_k 17y ago
    Hello from Tokyo Japan. On Japanese cars ( right hand drive ), all the stalks are reversed from the exported left hand drive model. This means that Japan cars have the turn signal on the right, upward motion signaling a left turn and downward a right turn. The shifter is of course in the middle console, so is on the drivers left. The wiper control stalk is on the left. The ignition control is on the right. I am curious if the motorcycle controls are reversed though. I guess I'll find that out in a few months.
    - jacquesm 17y ago
      So, my little Copen is actually not the same as the Japanese model. Interesting. There are only 30 of these in the country where I live, and they were imported from Japan before they made a left-hand-drive version available. But it looks like they did change the controls over for this. Thank you for the info!
    - shrikant 17y ago
      Remembering "upward - left, downward - right" is a pain, imho, the WRONG way to do it. Much easier to remember any turn indicator for cars is always in the direction of the turn of the steering wheel. This helped me immensely when I moved back from Oman (cars and roads the American way) to India (everything the UK way). And also, this way I only had to re-learn the location of the indicator stalk, so that I could avoid flipping on the windshield wipers :-) p.s: Are there ANY cars that do not follow the "direction of steering wheel" rule for their indicator stalks? Would be interesting to know this..

jgrahamc 17y ago

When I first moved to the US I had this sudden fear that I was going to be unable to drive a US manual car because I figured that since the steering wheel was on the opposite side of the car, that the pedals would have been reversed. Thank goodness they are exactly the same, but I do wonder how that piece of standardization came about.

hybygvuy 17y ago
Gradually! Some classic Jaguars had the pedals switched - including the famous one in the Inspector Morse TV series which led to a few accidents on set. Porsche also made some race cars with the accelerator on the left to make it quicker to do 'Le Mans starts' - where the driver must run to the car and start it.
- pbhjpbhj 17y ago
  Didn't they used to jump in, either over the side door or through a window, both feet would reach the footwell at about the same time; arguably from the angle of attack the right foot might be first to the pedals. I suspect it's more to do with gearbox placement or similar.

JimmyL 17y ago

I would think that it's standardized nationally by whatever body approves cars for sale - as in I've never seen a car without the indicator stalk on the left in Canada, aside from a Saleen import I saw once. For this one, I suspect it falls under an import exemption, in the same way you can get right-hand drive cars here with some special paperwork.