Export Auris Hybrid Touring Sports to Europe

[Fedweb]

Has anyone moved to Europe and brought their Auris Hybrid with them? Did you have to replace your headlights from RHD to LHD and what was the cost. Just had a quote of 1200 euros per headlight plus fitting.

[FROSTYBALLS]

If the move is likely to be permanent or long term, it may not be worthwhile monetarily.

Other things to consider include: the lower resale value of a RHD car in a LHD market, if and when you come to change the car; if you currently have only one rear foglight, presumably you will also need one on the left hand side; the two year warranty extension to the new car warranty (taking the new car warranty up to five years) is provided by Toyota GB, and may not be transferable to elsewhere in Europe (the standard Toyota warranty in Europe is three years/60,000 miles).

[16_Auris_HSD]

I have experience of doing it the other way round multiple times.

It depends how stringent the local regs are. If yours is the top spec with LED headlights (I'm assuming judging by the price) then it's got a flat beam which might just be good enough for local authority to let you register it (it'd be good enough to be registered in the UK if it was a LHD car). If not then you're looking at new headlights, but you can flip the old ones to soften the blow. And also rear fogs would have to be flipped, so factor that in (also can sell your old ones). Also some countries require changing side mirrors, if they are different between LHD and RHD.

On the warranty, it depends how many years local Toyota offer. If they do 3 then you'd be covered for years 1 to 3 and years 4 and 5 you'd have to pay yourself but you should be able to claim that back from Toyota UK. That's how other makes do it and of course you should confirm with Toyota beforehand.

[Fedweb]

Hi Many thanks for the reply. Already in Europe and registered ourselves. So no going back now. Not planning on selling the car. At my age, it will probably be our last anyway. So resale would not be an issue. It was just the quote I got for the LHD headlights. I was expecting 500 - 600 euros but 1200 each, well that's quite a shock. I thought the new hybrids would have had universal headlights which could be adjusted for RHD and LHD. 

 

[Fedweb]

That's a good point. How will my 5 year European warranty be affected? Would the headlights (and other equipment change) be covered by that? Surely not!!!  Although I have heard about it but don't quite understand, the "flat beam" facility. Is a flat beam headlight supposed to be both LHD and RHD compatible? If this is the case, then that would be a relief. Less worry and less expense. But how do you find out???

[16_Auris_HSD]

The steep price quoted by the dealer doesn't surprise me, I was quoted 1.5k to do a UK compliant conversion (according to the dealer) that had cost me slightly over 200 quid when I did it myself, and I did it in line with all regulations using either 2nd hand parts or OEM parts sourced directly from the manufacturer of the part. E.g. lamps are typically either made by Valeo or Hella who design them on behalf of car manufacturers. They then make them as two versions, one branded as BMW/VW/Ford etc, second no name. Both are the same except the logo. And the huge markup that car manufacturers demand on the branded parts via their dealers.

That's why you need to look into it yourself, first make sure you understand what the local requirements are in detail (e.g. if a flat beam is allowed or not) then decide what to do.

On the warranty, you need to speak to Toyota GB customer services and ask them what their policy is.

RHD regular lights have a beam that looks like so

RHD flat beam looks like so

There's also a LHD flat beam that looks like so

[FROSTYBALLS]

The equipment change won't be covered under the warranty as none of the equipment is being changed due to a manufacturing fault.

[16_Auris_HSD]

It'd be covered under parts/accessories warranty though. Plus chances are they wouldn't care since it's the same part, hence speaking with Toyota is the only way to know

[Parts-King]

38 minutes ago, 16_Auris_HSD said:

It'd be covered under parts/accessories warranty though. Plus chances are they wouldn't care since it's the same part, hence speaking with Toyota is the only way to know

What would be covered? Swapping to LHD lights would not be covered???

 

[furtula]

I would look into finding some used lights, and replacing them myself. I doubt the dealer would notice, after that you can sell the ones you removed to try and regain some of the money lost.

[16_Auris_HSD]

3 hours ago, Parts-King said:

What would be covered? Swapping to LHD lights would not be covered???

 

New part will be covered by the warranty in the country where it was purchased.

And chances are they might not care too much and perhaps even not realise and so the new parts could be covered by the vehicle warranty. Notice that I mentioned it being possible if they don't happen to care or notice.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Would have thought they would notice a right hand drive car having left hand drive headlights.

[16_Auris_HSD]

Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't. Main dealers rarely employ mensa members. Also if they did it doesn't mean they would necessarily care. It depends on many factors. I had some radio repairs done to a unit that wasn't an original unit but an upgraded one from the same model (replaced myself). No questions were asked.

And if they notice/ask/whatever there's still the part warranty.

[FROSTYBALLS]

7 minutes ago, 16_Auris_HSD said:

Main dealers rarely employ mensa members

Apart from being quite a derogatory statement, which isn't called for, one wouldn't need to be a Mensa member to notice.

[16_Auris_HSD]

Judging by the posts in this topic I get this weird feeling that one needs to be a Mensa member to get the gist of what I'm saying. Even though I tried making it as clear as I could. Hope this wasn't too derogatory!

[FROSTYBALLS]

No, it wasn't derogatory, more like a failed attempt to be supercilious. At the end if the day the club has two members who are employed by Toyota dealers, and who provide a lot of useful help to members - all on a voluntary basis. The club would be a lot poorer without members such as these, and would be poorer still having more members with attitudes such as yours.

[Devon Aygo]

In terms of warranties:

The car will not benefit from years 4 & 5 of the current cover and the mileage is reduced from 100,000 miles to 60,000 miles ( unless to pop back to the UK for repairs )

as for parts purchased to convert the car:

Genuine parts purchased from a dealer will have a 12 month parts only cover unless you have them fitted by Toyota then you will have 12 months parts/labour cover

Parts purchased from any other source will not have Toyota warranty and could potentially affect the existing warranty if they should cause damage/faults.

[16_Auris_HSD]

28 minutes ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

No, it wasn't derogatory, more like a failed attempt to be supercilious.

It wasn't aimed at anyone personally. It was based on personal experience (decades worth of it) to which I think I'm entitled and allowed to speak about even though some main dealer employees might be members on here, thank you very much.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Others have decades of experience with main dealers - including myself, having purchased 21 new cars over a number of years, and having had them serviced by main dealers. 

As stated the forum can do without members posting derogatory or supercilious comments, especially where those comments may be interpreted by others in a different way to the way they may have been intended.