Riddle me this mr. Mustang

[arrie]

So I decided to quickly zip through to Centurion (kinda part of Pretoria) today, and on the road my eye caught something really interesting.
There it was, in it's shouting yellow splendour.
A brand new Ford Mustang GT soft-top convertible.

But wait a second...... these are not sold in South Africa. What the....
So I did a couple of tricks, caught up to it, luckily the driver was not in a hurry, and there it was, left hand drive, no number plates, no signage, nothing.

But wait a minute, it's against the law to import such a vehicle here, you see, we drive on the left hand side, like the Brits I believe, so the driver sits in the right hand side of the vehicle. How did this happen, how can this be, how did this car end up here??? 'The Law' prevents this chap from rubbing it in my face, he is driving something I'm not allowed to.

I passed it very slowly, so my wife can get a better look at the car, because she said that it's ugly.... I mean, how can it be ugly, drool... drool... drool.

I have a theory about this car, someone else want to take a stab about the alien.

 

[Torben]

I didn't know that it's illegal in SA to import a left-hand drive vehicle. In the part of Canada where I live, right-hand drive vehicles are becoming quite popular, even though we drive on the right side of the road. I think it's supposed to be some kind of status symbol or something (although for some it appears to be because you can small efficient trucks from Asia which appear to come only in right-hand drive).


Torben

 

[Mickster]

Seems a certain someone is "Above 'The law'."

 

[arrie]

Some years back it was okay to have left hand drives, but these vehicles caused a lot of accidents during overtaking manoeuvres, so gov banned them basically.
If you already own one, it's fine, but you're not allowed to bring in a new one. It has to be converted.
I understood that some bloke bought one (Mustang) from America, then sent it to Australia, where it is being converted to right hand drive, and finally here.
But I think you must have your head examined. If you import any such vehicle, you basically buy gov one as well with the crazy import taxes.

I would stay clear of most cheap asian and indian vehicles for now, very poor quality and very dangerous in emergency conditions.
Small Asian trucks have not yet proven their reliability over here, so there is another question mark.

 

[arrie]

Seems a certain someone is "Above 'The law'."

Either he has slipped some gov official a handy amount of cash, or my theory comes into play, and the vehicle was specially brought here for some car show.
Now some ford employee is cruising around in it a bit.

 

[Leftyretro]

Maybe he's waiting for his diplomatic plates to arrive

Actually you scratched up a sad memory for me. I owned a brand new 1966 Yellow fastback Mustang in my young years but sold it for $1,500 in 1970 as I was starting a family, etc. I sure wish I would have kept that car, fun to drive, good power without being crazy and unstable. Oh well I'm holding out for a good looking, yellow, affordable electric car with good performance, someday maybe

Lefty

 

[3v0]

Make that yellow, electric, and carbon fiber

Maybe he's waiting for his diplomatic plates to arrive

Actually you scratched up a sad memory for me. I owned a brand new 1966 Yellow fastback Mustang in my young years but sold it for $1,500 in 1970 as I was starting a family, etc. I sure wish I would have kept that car, fun to drive, good power without being crazy and unstable. Oh well I'm holding out for a good looking, yellow, affordable electric car with good performance, someday maybe

Lefty

 

[rjvh]

But wait a second...... these are not sold in South Africa. What the....
So I did a couple of tricks, caught up to it, luckily the driver was not in a hurry, and there it was, left hand drive, no number plates, no signage, nothing.

But wait a minute, it's against the law to import such a vehicle here,


No it is not iligal to import that car

No is not iligal to drive that car in south africa

It is probably iligal to drive it on the public road

and it is more iligal to do that without registration plates, beeing bucled up in the car, insurance and the obligationary road tax

on a closed circuit you can drive whatever you want

Robert-Jan

 

[arrie]

No it is not iligal to import that car

AS far as I have it, it's against the law, but I'll double check for you.

No is not iligal to drive that car in south africa

It is probably iligal to drive it on the public road

True, but that was kinda how I saw it, otherwise I would have struggles driving from Harties to Pretoria on a race track.

and it is more iligal to do that without registration plates, beeing bucled up in the car, insurance and the obligationary road tax

Exactly

on a closed circuit you can drive whatever you want

Suppose so, but I'm sure I can confirm that for you as well

Robert-Jan

Still, this chap can not get a speed fine, cannot be reported to the cops for poor driving, not that it'll help, and I doubt the charging officer would know what a yellow mustang is.
But, how many yellow mustangs are driving around in RSA - probably not too many.