Yaris Cross Speedometer Conversion (Euro Import)

[Timberfist]

Hi All,

My wife bought a Yaris Cross Hybrid new at the end of last year when we lived in France and we love it. We've since moved to the UK and we're trying to import our car. As part of the GB Conversion IVA process, we need to convert the speedo to MPH. Euro supplied cars do not have the option to switch via the settings option that UK supplied cars do.

We contacted Toyota through our local dealer and they said that they "are unable to advise on steps that take the vehicle away from standard specification." They did mention that "There are 3rd party specialists that offer conversion services."

Is anyone able to recommend a company that can carry out the conversion to the satisfaction of the Vehicle Certification Agency? The agency will only accept the following options:

a. That the factory fitted speedometer is dual marked as standard
b. The existing (digital) speedometer is, permanently, re-programmed, through a standard feature of the vehicle, to display the vehicle speed in mph
c. A miles per hour speedometer is fitted in-place of the factory fitted unit
d. A professional, single, miles per hour, overlay is applied directly to the speedometer face plate, not the glass front plate (the overlay must be durable and accurate, with markings visible in both day and night driving conditions).
e. A dual marked dial / facia has been added as a replacement to the factory fitted one

Thanks in advance,

David.

[Guest]

Sorry, I don't personally know of any such companies.  Although this forum is fantastic for all things Toyota, I'd say also sign up to some of the UK based 'Japan import' forums online as these people will be well used to importing rare cars from everywhere and all of the paperwork and messy jobs needed to drive them in the UK.  Then once you're all sorted, definitely come back and share how it went. 

Might be a few people on here who have done it before who could give advice but I'm not sure 🙂 

[Mojo1010]

Probably best to sell and buy one here, it's also LHD drive from France. 

[Stopeter44]

38 minutes ago, Mojo1010 said:

Probably best to sell and buy one here, it's also LHD drive from France. 

That was my first thought, but the OP's problem would most likely prohibit sale in the UK, so it would have to be taken back to France or, perhaps, another EU LHD country ?

[Mojo1010]

It's still in France according to the OP.

[jthspace]

I've used Lockwood dials on my Eunos, I can't see one for a Cross but call them and they may be able to help or offer suggestions.

https://lockwoodinternational.co.uk/dials/fascias-mph-scale/toyota-dial-mph/

[TonyHSD]

Before brexit happened LHD cars imported to uk were real treasures. 
There was very high demand for used cars LHD on uk plates since there were many people from Eastern Europe live and work in uk who bought and exported cars back to their countries, mostly RHD and if anything lhd were spotted was going like a hot cake, and prices were even higher than any other eu countries. Brexit totally destroyed this used car trade and now lhd cars are simply full stop and no one is buying them here as used cars anymore.  Think about that too. Best option is to sell and buy an official uk version with correct specs. 👍

[Cyker]

47 minutes ago, jthspace said:

I've used Lockwood dials on my Eunos, I can't see one for a Cross but call them and they may be able to help or offer suggestions.

https://lockwoodinternational.co.uk/dials/fascias-mph-scale/toyota-dial-mph/

Sadly its a digital dash so overlays won't work.

It's just stupid they didn't just leave the code in to switch units on other models - There's no good reason for it! It just means they have to maintain more codebases!

Best option would be to sell and buy a UK sec one; Unless you're some sort of elite hacker who can change the ECU code or somehow flash it with UK code, without Toyota's support there's no way to change the units on a digital dash...

[jthspace]

41 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Sadly its a digital dash so overlays won't work.

It's just stupid they didn't just leave the code in to switch units on other models - There's no good reason for it! It just means they have to maintain more codebases!

Best option would be to sell and buy a UK sec one; Unless you're some sort of elite hacker who can change the ECU code or somehow flash it with UK code, without Toyota's support there's no way to change the units on a digital dash...

Doh! That comes from trying to be too helpful!  I did see an article saying that a dealer can do it, article in the link below. It referred to a Primus but referenced dealer software.  Maybe if there is a knowledgeable dealer on here they could comment?

https://www.justanswer.co.uk/toyota/nei6j-change-km-mile-toyota-prius-2020-import.html

[Cyker]

You can never be too helpful! Your post may not help this person, but you may help someone else  

 

[anchorman]

Have you tried going into the settings?  Are we saying that no Toyota owners from Europe can legally visit GB?  Doesn’t stack up. 
 

You do it on the steering wheel.  

[Cyker]

I could be wrong but I think our Irish and EU owners have said there are no options to change the units on theirs; I know that was a thing with the older Yarisueisesieisosoueeses but am not 100% sure.

It's worth a look as there's no real reason to omit it so it may actually be there; Basically hunt through the settings and see if there is an option to change to using "mpg"

[Roker]

17 minutes ago, Cyker said:

I could be wrong but I think our Irish and EU owners have said there are no options to change the units on theirs; I know that was a thing with the older Yarisueisesieisosoueeses but am not 100% sure.

It's worth a look as there's no real reason to omit it so it may actually be there; Basically hunt through the settings and see if there is an option to change to using "mpg"

I'm only guessing but there must at least be chip that can be changed

[Timberfist]

Hi All,

Thank you all for all of your replies; I really do appreciate them all.

So while we haven't completely given up hope, it is looking increasingly likely that we're going to have to dispose of the car in France. After Christmas, I'm going to have a ring 'round of a couple of dozen Toyota main dealers/specialists and see if I can locate one that's prepared to do the work. If that doesn't turn up anything, I'll drive it back to France and get a friend to dispose of it. C'est la vie 🤷‍♂️

Whatever the case, I'll be sure to come back and let you know how I got on.

David.

[Stopeter44]

1 hour ago, Timberfist said:

I'll drive it back to France and get a friend to dispose of it. C'est la vie 🤷‍♂️

You won't have any problem selling it on in France*. BTW, when I sold my previous car (6 year old Peugeot 208), I used a broker that was right next to the dealer I bought my Yaris from. I didn't want to be without a car before delivery of the Yaris, and I didn't want to deal with people trying to haggle with the price I wanted.

As it happens it was at the time of the used car shortage (last quarter 2021), so I had a following wind as it were. The broker gave me a great price. Two years on, on the delivery date of my Yaris, an e-mail shows up asking me if I want to buy a new Toyota and trade in the old.

You might simply consider asking the dealer who supplied the car in the first place what price he would pay you for your car, you might be pleasantly surprised (or not), but it's worth a try.

* I live in France.

[Timberfist]

That's definitely an option I'm considering Peter. Selling it to the dealer (or a dealer) would certainly save me a lot of hassle.

[TonyHSD]

I remember there were a couple of brand new Toyota for sale on eBay imported from abroad , perhaps Japan or another country that have RHD and use km , these cars were much cheaper and stood for very long time, the adverts pointed that was not possible to register in uk because of the dashboard readings in km and not possible to convert to mph only via software but a hardware change was needed and the cars been more suitable for export. 

[flash22]

you would need to swap the cluster for a UK one and correct the mileage it may also require modifications to the firmware, no one does it, especially on such a new car, I have only done 3 dash swaps on the mk3, and my first one took me many hours to figure out - the mk4 yaris and cross are even more complex and you need physical access to the car to work out the changes that need to be performed and to calibrate the needles

[Stopeter44]

14 hours ago, Cyker said:

I could be wrong but I think our Irish and EU owners have said there are no options to change the units on theirs

I went through the manual for my Yaris, and as far as I could find there is no way to switch the display from kph to mph. I thought, "how hard can it be ?", but the basic trims have an analogue dial for the speed setting, and the more expensive trim levels have kph written under the digital speed indication. The manual shows various display configurations, and underneath states that the units may be different depending on the destination market.

[Cyker]

If it has an analogue dial it's doable, as they can just put in a paper insert like we would in normal cars.

This is the one downside with digital dashboards; It's annoying, as in the UK, the Mk1, pre-2009 Mk2 and Mk4 Yaris had both MPH and KPH modes (Mk4 can change the mpg units to L/100km or km/L which also changes the speedo to kph, post-2009 Mk2s and Mk3 had an analogue dash exclusively IIRC), but every other country seems to be limited to kph only and I don't get why they removed the mph from the other ones.

It's especially daft since people with euro-spec models might want to drive into the UK, but now would have trouble since they can't change the units; It's a nonsensical oversight given it's just a few lines of extra code that they already have implemented!

[Mojo1010]

My guess is the European model doesn't have the ability to convert to mph is because it's deliberate. Cheaper for the same car than the UK, so it stop ppl from buying there and importing (drive back). 

[Stopeter44]

1 hour ago, Mojo1010 said:

Cheaper for the same car than the UK, so it stop ppl from buying there and importing (drive back). 

Yes, it could very likely have something to do with the grey market. For instance, in France, you can buy Belgian, German and WHY models from unauthorised, by Toyota France, importers. The specs are not uniform between the various EU markets, things like heated seats, or steel wheels, and whatever, will be higher priority for some markets than for others. So, if you really wanted heated seats, you could, say, get a Belgium spec model, instead of a French spec model.

[Stopeter44]

17 hours ago, anchorman said:

Are we saying that no Toyota owners from Europe can legally visit GB?  Doesn’t stack up. 

I really don't think it's problem for driving an EU spec model in the UK, it's importing and registering the car in the UK that is the problem. I don't think the OP would want to do this but he could try and pretend he's on an extended visit. After Brexit, I don't know for how long or even if, he could get away with that.

Way back in the day, I knew someone living in Paris, with a car registered in Turin, they never changed the registration on the car, not legal, but I think they never had a problem, but they certainly could have.

[MikeSh]

From UK.gov:

++++++++++++++

Temporary imports

You can usually use a vehicle with foreign number plates without registering or taxing it in the UK if all of the following apply:

• you’re visiting and do not plan to live here
• the vehicle is registered and taxed in its home country
• you only use the vehicle for up to 6 months in total - this can be a single visit, or several shorter visits over 12 months

+++++++++++++

This has been an issue for a lot of Ukrainians who were facing huge bills to get their cars 'converted'. Some took them back to Ukraine to sell. There was talk of an exemption or extension for them, but I don't know/recall what happened.

[dannyboy413]

My Irish car shows the speed in kph as our speed limits are in kph and mpg is shown as l/100kms, (or summat like that!). I have not found a way of changing any of this. Having said that, when I drive into Northern Ireland, the satnav shows the speed limits as mph, even though the dashboard display is still showing kph! So, if the camera sees a 40mph sign and I am only doing 50kph, the car tells me I am exceeding the speed limit even though the satnav says I am under the speed limit! 

Edited December 24, 2023 by dannyboy413
added a bit