carrerafanboy

Having a lot of trouble finding a straight answer to this question, even after contacting my SA and scouring search results...

I have a North American 981 Boxster Spyder which is set up for right-hand traffic, and am considering importing the car to a country with left-hand traffic. The car wasn't specced with PDLS.

Is it possible to adjust the headlight beam pattern for LHT? If so -- how? I don't see anything in the 981 Boxster manual about this, whereas manuals for older models have a section on it, and it seems those older models had an "O/T" switch to accommodate switching between the two traffic patterns (although this may have only applied to cars sold overseas/ROW, and not NA?).

I did read on another forum that the beam pattern on 981 headlights is symmetrical, and thus the only adjustment is up-and-down. Not sure if there are any other changes between the headlights/lenses/beam pattern between NA/ROW and LHT/RHT cars though.

Any and all guidance would be appreciated!

storii

I once helped a friend who imported a North American Mercedes CLK63 to Japan. Because the headlights were not adjustable, he had to search for the LHT headlights. The friend said the price from Mercedes Japan was prohibitive (something like $2,000 per side) and they did not want to do anything with a directly imported car. He asked me to help find a set either in the U.S., U.K. or Australian market. It was a royal pain in the butt! The dealers in the U.K. or Australia wanted no piece of this business. I eventually found a dealer in Romania who agreed to ship the lights to Japan.

Considering the car is a 2016, it must be under the original warranty. Moving it to the outside of the country will surely void the warranty.

carrerafanboy

Suncoast quoted me ~$3,300 for headlights from a factory-delivered LHT car :x My understanding is that the original warranty is worldwide: "Warranty can be claimed from any Porsche partner across the world."

Between the modifications needed to legalize the car (headlight replacement, taillight replacement, window tint removal) and import costs, I'm looking at ~$16,000 or so.

I'd really love to take this car with me overseas (and plan to keep it regardless), but not certain it's worth it as I inch closer to $20k... What do y'all think?

storii

That's great if Porsche honors the warranty on a car imported outside of their network. However, you should be aware that the new car warranty is only for 2 years/unlimited mileage outside of the U.S. and Canada.

I would research how much the 981 Spyder would cost and/or whether it is obtainable at all in the country where you are considering to bring the car in. If it is substantially more expensive than what you paid for the car + the cost to bring it over or is not available at all, it may be worth the trouble. You should be able to recover the cost if and when you sell the car.

carrerafanboy

Ah, I wasn't aware of that! Thanks for pointing out the shorter warranty overseas...

Also appreciate that way of evaluating whether or not it makes sense to import the car -- thank you!