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Welcome to the Aston Workshop news section. This section will update regularly, enabling you to keep up to date of changes and new information relating to the Aston Workshop and the Aston Martin Marque.
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As one of the leading specialists in classic Aston Martin motorcars, we are increasingly asked for left hand drive cars. The availability of such cars is extremely limited.
This is really not that surprising, when one bears in mind that only some 10% of those Aston Martins manufactured up until the introduction of the DB7 were produced Left Hand Drive cars. As a result, we find ourselves increasing asked "Can you do a right to left hand drive conversion?" We are perfectly equipped and always delighted to answer – "Of course"
Many customers may well think that changing the specification of any rare car, such as an Aston Martin, would detract from both its originality and value. This may be the case if major changes are envisaged to the appearance or there is a major deviation from the original specification in some major mechanical item, such as fitting a Jaguar engine into a DB4. Indeed many clients may recall that years ago when Austin-Healeys and Jaguar E-Types were returning to these shores from the United States, mane conversions lowered the value of the car concerned. This was, sadly, largely as a result of the poor quality and lack of adherence to the original specification, and DETAIL of the right hand drive product. Here at The Aston Workshop that has NEVER been the case.
We are, in fact, now routinely finding that valuable Aston Martins that have recently found new homes overseas, even to customers who normally drive on the right, are being bought and converted to Left Hand Drive and, in point of fact, that a premium is often achieved. As a result the value of a car converted from right hand drive to left hand drive is as much and often more than the cost of the conversion.
There are however, a number of clear provisos in making this claim. First and foremost, the conversion has to be such that the car is precisely as it would have been had it been manufactured from new as a left hand drive car. The second key point to make is that the quality of the conversion has to be flawless, at least the equal of what was being produced at Feltham or Newport Pagnell "in the day" and that the car has the precise appearance of an original "export market" left hand drive motor car.
Over the last year or so, the demand for these left hand drive conversions has risen substantially, particularly for the DB4, 5 and 6 models. Since the turn of the year we are seeing it increasingly now with the V8 models as well. As a direct result, The Aston Workshop have remanufactured or acquired just about all of the items that are required to do the "right to left" conversion. Be it on DB4, 5, 6 or a V8. Perhaps chief amongst these items is the Dashboard. As can readily be seen, the quality is superlative, and all of our dashboards are indistinguishable from the period correct, original items. Anyone contemplating a right hand to left hand conversion can be assured that the process is quite straightforward, taking no more than a few weeks to do, and that we are both experienced and skilled at doing them.
If a left hand drive conversion is of interest, please do not hesitate to get in touch. We can certainly advise and readily provide an extremely competitive quotation for all work involved.
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