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Re: [T3] 1969 Japanese 1600 TLE brochure


Regarding the placement of a wing or fender mirror on the
right side of the LHD fastback and notchback in Japan, in
those days (1969) VW only mounted mirrors on the passenger
doors of Type36 Variants or squarebacks.  Both notchbacks
and fastbacks were only given mirrors on the driver's side.

As a result, the owner of a left hand drive notchback or
fastback in Japan would be at a distinct disadvantage in
Japanese traffic especially if he/she wished to check on
traffic coming up from behind in the fast lane to his/her
right before pulling out to overtake a car in front because
there was no mirror on the right side of the vehicle.  So,
it is logical that an owner of a left hand drive car there
would want to fit an additional mirror on that side.

But why did he/she not fit an extra door mirror from a
Type36 Variant or squareback?  Because in those days
notchback and fastback doors did not come with plugs
to remove and fit a mirror into a threaded hole.  To fit the
normal door mirror to a notchback or to a fastback passenger
door would have involved considerable effort and expense
to have a captive nut welded to the inside of the door skin
in order to receive the additional mirror.
(VW were very shortsighted in this regard and never took
into account drivers who might have to drive their car on
the "wrong" side of the road.  They made separate left hand
drive and right hand drive passenger doors for fastbacks and
notchbacks just to save a few pfennigs by not fitting captive
nuts to some doors.  VW used to do this with Beetles and
Karmann Ghias as well but not with Type2 Transporters and
Type36 Variants or squarebacks because they allowed for the
possibility of these vehicles carrying loads which blocked the
driver's view from central windscreen mirror.)

So, in Japan at that time, the cheap and logical alternative
was to fit the fashionable and easily available wing or
fender mirror onto the right side.

I have had personal experience of this kind of problem with
both a Type3 fastback and a Type1 Beetle when I lived in a
country with RHD cars when that country changed from
driving on the left side of the road to driving on the right
during 1972.  And, of course, thousands of visitors who
travel by car to countries which drive on the "wrong" side
of the road face this kind of problem everyday but it is a
more urgent problem if you live in a country where your
daily driver car has the steering on the "wrong side".

(And, in the case of the red car with RHD in the Japanese
brochure, the mirror is not a fender mirror but the proper
door mirror.)

Simon Glen
Toowoomba


>
> > On 27 Apr 2002, at 9:40, Everett Barnes wrote:
> >
> > > I put up a few scans from it in the "Literature" gallery category on my
> > > site:
> > > http://www.thesamba.com/vw/htmlscript/gallery.mv?view+40
>
> > What I find most interesting is that as you look at the fender mounted
> > mirror, the steering wheel is on the LEFT side of the car...Japan has left
> > hand traffic, with RHD.
>

Jim Adney wrote:

> You're right, and I missed that. The fender mirror was on the right and I just
> assumed that was the driver's side.
>
> The steering wheel on the red one is on the right, however, as is the fender (I
> think) mirror.
>

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