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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

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..
- superkarn 17y ago
  Direction of the TOP of the steering wheel. Doesn't work if you look at the bottom.
  - Nwallins 17y ago
    Eh? If the stalk is mounted radially from the centerline of the steering wheel, you move the it in the same direction (clockwise or counter-) as the steering wheel. e.g. To turn left, you turn the steering wheel counter-clockwise and likewise with the turn indicator. The 'top' or 'bottom' of the wheel is irrelevant.

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..

superkarn 17y ago
Direction of the TOP of the steering wheel. Doesn't work if you look at the bottom.
- Nwallins 17y ago
  Eh? If the stalk is mounted radially from the centerline of the steering wheel, you move the it in the same direction (clockwise or counter-) as the steering wheel. e.g. To turn left, you turn the steering wheel counter-clockwise and likewise with the turn indicator. The 'top' or 'bottom' of the wheel is irrelevant.