mr singh I have to correct you as your interpretation of the terms is nearside and offside are incorrect.
The terms nearside and offside are relative to the where the car is on the road; under normal driving conditions; as in distance from the kerb.
So irrespective of whether a car is LHD or RHD, in the UK the nearside is nearest to the kerb, and the offside is furthest from the kerb.
So no....keep the nearside and offside terminology.
G - if you think of it natively, it can be a bit silly.
Yes Mr Singh was incorrect but I still think his basis for his distinction (and mixup) between the two is right - based on native conditions for those cars.
in a right hand drive car -
when you're driving as we do on the left, nearside is passenger closest to the kerb... (as the car is designed to be)
when you're driving as the french do on the right, nearside is driver's to the kerb...
in a left hand drive car -
when you're driving as we do on the left, nearside is driver's closest to the kerb...
when you're driving as the french do on the right, nearside passenger's to the kerb... (as the car is designed to be)
It's all relative to the vehicle, where it was designed to be and where you are.
In the UK, fine. Nearside is kerbside and offside is furthest from the kerb.
But when you drive that car out of the uk into the eu or from the eu into the uk... all is reversed.
Just imagine trying to explain a crash using nearside and offside to a european recovery driver/mechanic on your right hand drive car when you're on holiday... or when trying to order parts for your car from germany... nearside to him is different to nearside to you.
With the 'Left and Right' designation, people may say - is that driver's perspective or looking at the car from outside?
.... but then again, we globally reference from the interior as 'LHD' and 'RHD' so that reference point is static on all cars, wherever the car was from and whatever country they are in.
