A right-hand-drive model is scheduled to reach the market here before the end of the year.
Smart solved the issue by designing a 'mirror image' floorpan for right-hand-drive models.
But no American-made cars are sold in that category here, and right-hand-drive models are still scarce.
Apparently so, for the Americans dutifully churned out some right-hand-drive models and set some lofty sales goals.
Chrysler now has only one right-hand-drive model available in Japan, the Cherokee sport utility vehicle.
Today, Ford followed with right-hand-drive models of its Probe, a sporty car made in Flat Rock, Mich., and Mondeo, a so-called global car made in Europe.
On right-hand-drive models, a linkage allows the right-hand wiper to move outwards towards the corner of the windscreen and clear more area.
At the very least, selling some right-hand-drive models will remove a Japanese debating point, namely that the American auto industry has not been serious about balancing trade by entering the Japanese market.
Our auto producers make millions of right-hand-drive models for other left-side markets like Britain's.
Retail deliveries are scheduled to begin in Europe early in the third quarter of 2013, followed by the right-hand-drive model destined for the UK and Asia at the end of 2013.