Yes, a right hand drive car is legal in the US. No federal safety standard prohibits the steering wheel being on the right side of a vehicle, and no state bans driving one on public roads. The complications sit around the car, not in it: getting it imported properly, titled by your state, and insured by a company willing to write the policy.
What Federal Law Actually Says
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration addressed this directly in a public interpretation letter. Manufacturers are free to install the steering wheel on either side of a vehicle because no Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard bans a right-hand drive configuration.1National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA Interpretation – Right-hand Drive Vehicles A right-hand drive car built in Japan, the UK, or Australia can be driven on American roads just like any left-hand drive car, provided it was legally imported.
Right-hand drive vehicles also exist on U.S. roads for reasons that have nothing to do with imports. Mail delivery trucks are the obvious example, built that way so the driver can reach curbside mailboxes. The steering wheel position by itself is not a legal problem anywhere in the country.
Driving a Right-Hand Drive Car on U.S. Roads
No state has a law specifically prohibiting right-hand drive vehicles. Your legal obligation is to follow the same traffic rules as every other driver. What changes is the view out of the car.
Sitting on the right side of a vehicle in a country that drives on the right puts you in the passenger-side position relative to the road. Left turns and passing on two-lane roads are where that matters most. Your view of oncoming traffic is partially blocked by the car itself, and judging gaps from the far side takes practice. Some owners rely on a passenger to spot for them, or avoid passing where they can’t see clearly. Convex mirrors on the left help, and some states may require specific mirror configurations for adequate visibility.
Toll booths, drive-throughs, and parking garages are built around left-hand drive vehicles, so you’ll be reaching across the car or stepping out to grab tickets. These are friction points, not legal issues, and most regular drivers report the adjustment period is a few weeks.
Importing a Right-Hand Drive Car
This is where most of the real work lives. A right-hand drive car that was never built to U.S. standards has to come into the country through one of a few specific legal paths.
The 25-Year Rule
The most common path is the 25-year exemption. A vehicle 25 or more years old, measured from its date of manufacture, can be imported without meeting current Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.2eCFR. 49 CFR 591.5 – Declarations Required for Importation This is why the Japanese domestic market scene in the U.S. skews heavily toward models from the late 1990s and earlier.
You file an HS-7 Declaration Form with U.S. Customs and Border Protection when the vehicle enters the country.3U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Requirements for Importing a Personal Vehicle or Vehicle Parts The manufacturing date should appear on a permanent label from the original manufacturer. If that label is missing or unreadable, you can use an original sales invoice, a foreign registration document showing the car was registered at least 25 years ago, or a statement from a recognized vehicle historical society.4National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Importation and Certification FAQs Without age documentation, Customs will not release the vehicle.
EPA’s Separate 21-Year Rule
Emissions sit under a separate agency with a different clock. The EPA’s age-based exemption kicks in at 21 years from the vehicle’s original production year.3U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Requirements for Importing a Personal Vehicle or Vehicle Parts To qualify, the vehicle must be in its original, unmodified condition.
That condition requirement catches people. If the car has a replacement engine, it doesn’t qualify unless the replacement is identical in model and configuration to the one originally installed.5Environmental Protection Agency. Learn About Importing Vehicles and Engines A turbocharged engine swap or a different displacement motor fails the test even if the car itself is decades old. Importers file EPA Form 3520-1 at entry alongside the NHTSA HS-7 form; both are required before Customs will admit the vehicle.
Note the gap. A vehicle between 21 and 25 years old meets the EPA exemption but not the NHTSA one, so it still has to go through a Registered Importer for the safety side.
Newer Vehicles
If the car is less than 25 years old and wasn’t originally built to meet U.S. safety standards, importing becomes considerably harder. NHTSA must first determine the vehicle is eligible for importation, and a Registered Importer has to handle the process.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 49 USC 30141 – Importing Motor Vehicles Capable of Complying With Standards A Registered Importer is a business NHTSA has approved to modify non-conforming vehicles into compliance.
NHTSA will generally approve a vehicle for importation if it is substantially similar to a model already sold in the U.S. in the same model year and can be readily modified. When no similar U.S. model exists, the agency needs destructive crash test data or equivalent evidence before granting eligibility.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 49 USC 30141 – Importing Motor Vehicles Capable of Complying With Standards Modification costs through a Registered Importer can run into thousands of dollars depending on what needs to change, which is a big part of why the 25-year path is so popular.
Temporary Visits
If you are a nonresident visiting the U.S., there is a separate pathway. You can import a vehicle duty-free for personal use for up to one year, as long as the vehicle arrives in conjunction with you. It doesn’t need to conform to U.S. safety or emissions standards during that period, but it must be exported before the one-year deadline.7U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Returning to the United States With a Vehicle and Household Goods The vehicle cannot be sold in the United States, and CBP does not grant extensions on the export requirement. Miss the deadline and you are looking at seizure.
Titling and Registering Your Imported Car
Clearing Customs is not the finish line. You still have to register and title the vehicle through your state’s motor vehicle agency. Requirements vary, but the pattern is consistent. You’ll present the stamped CBP Form 7501 as proof of legal import, proof of ownership such as the foreign title or a bill of sale, and copies of the federal HS-7 and EPA forms filed at entry.8American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. Imported Vehicles
Most states require a physical inspection before issuing a title. At minimum this involves a VIN verification, where an inspector confirms the number on the vehicle matches the import paperwork. Many states layer a safety inspection on top of that, covering lights, brakes, mirrors, and tires. States that mandate emissions testing may require that too, though vehicles old enough for the EPA exemption often fall outside state emissions windows as well.
Plan for the process to take longer than registering a domestic used car. DMV staff don’t handle foreign imports every day, and the unusual VIN formats on Japanese and British cars can trip up state systems. Organized documentation shortens the wait.
Insurance
Every state requires liability insurance before you can legally drive on public roads, and right-hand drive cars are no exception. Many mainstream insurers won’t write policies on imported right-hand drive vehicles. The non-standard driving position, unusual VINs, and difficulty sourcing replacement parts make these cars harder for standard underwriters to assess.
Specialty insurers that focus on classic, collector, and imported vehicles are usually the practical option. Many offer agreed-value coverage, where you and the insurer settle on the car’s value when the policy is written, so a total loss pays that figure rather than a depreciated number an adjuster calculates afterward. For a car whose replacement value is hard to pin down through standard databases, that matters.
Premiums tend to run higher than for comparable domestic cars, though the gap narrows for limited-mileage collector use. Shopping specialty insurers before buying is worth the effort. Finding out you can’t get affordable coverage after the car is in your driveway is a problem better avoided.