What's with all the new Right Hand Drive JKs?

[jeeperguy21]

Last week I went to a local Dodge dealership to lust after the many JKs they have there. I noticed that at least 5 were right hand drive. This seemed odd to me seeing as how we're in the USA and they didn't appear to be modified in any way to be specialized for some purpose.

Today driving home from work I saw someone driving a RHD JK that was recently purchased. Still had the dealer plates on it. What's the lure to these and why are there so many?

 

[98xjjeeper]

Postal? I have seen two postal JKs so far.

 

[jeeperguy21]

I don't think these are postal JKs. Seem way too loaded with goodies to be postal. Trust me. I'm a letter carrier.

 

[afbond03]

Yea lady my wife works with has one that is pretty loaded out as well.

 

[xcm]

sooooo... how bout an explanation?
i didnt think jk's could get any gayer, but a vanity rhd, yep, that does it!

 

[RaVenCCorax]

dude i would love a rhd 2 door renix xj with a manual transmission

 

[RCP Phx]

Weve got a ton of them at work,XJ's,TJ's,and now JK's!

 

[wolfpackjeeper]

why would you want a RHD jeep otherwise?

 

[jeeperguy21]

The only one that I have seen used commercially is the one the city has for the parking tickets cop so he can be on the same side of the as the parked cars. But that is a 2 door version. The ones I have seen driving around and at the dealership are 4-door versions. So anyone have a good reason to have one of these?

 

[IslanderOffRoad]

Maybe they're still having issues keeping up with the demand in the US, and they're using export RHD ones to fill the gap?

 

[kastein]

I think it's to reduce fatal accident stats... when the owners drive them into oncoming traffic because they are texting while drinking a latte and fiddling with their ipod at the same time they get a few extra feet of clearance between the driver's seat and the oncoming vehicle.

 

[BenDiesel]

id rock a rhd xj

 

[joe_peters]

It is a safety feature for driving in high fog areas--much easier to see the fog line on the road.

Those are intended for the Japanese and U.K. pilots of the U.N. Black Helicopters that are stationed in your area.

 

[RichP]

Our postoffice has 3 XJ's and 2TJ's, getting a bit long in the tooth, the next one down the line has 6 XJ's in the parking lot in the early morning when I go by.
All of them are either sports or classics, no SE's, the carriers buy them themselves and I guess get reimbursed. As for a patriot or compass, nope, they need vehicles that last.

 

[Hammered]

My area post office is 3 xjs

 

[camarors8992]

We only have these around here.

 

[stewie]

We only have these around here.

same

 

[kastein]

likewise... not rural enough I guess (I knew that, sadly)

 

[Mosephus]

Maybe call the dealer and ask?

 

[jeeperguy21]

Maybe call the dealer and ask?

That's a good idea. I guess I failed to mention that I am also a Rural Letter Carrier for the US Postal Service. The Post Office does NOT buy these. In fact, it will be very interesting to see what they do once it comes time to replace all the current LLVs (name of the postal vehicles we all commonly see, that stands for Long Life Vehicle.)

Some rural carriers do have to drive their own vehicles, but the post office doesn't buy them for the employees. The employee simply gets paid a certain extra amount based on the amount of miles the route has for using their own car.

A lot of rural carriers actually pay to have their vehicles converted to RHD, which is a waste, IMHO. They never recoup the costs to have it done. I had to drive my XJ for a couple of years when I first started, but just reached over with my leg and arm and it worked just fine. Kind of weird to get used to, but it's fine once I learned how to do it.

No rural carriers that I know of have any plans on buying a new JK to deliver the mail in... probably because their cars get trashed delivering the mail and nobody wants to trash a brand new vehicle, especially one so purty and expensive.

With how few rural carriers there are around here, I highly doubt that the dealership has that many RHD JKs to target such a small market. My wife thinks that people want them just to be that much different than all the other JKs around. That seems like the best explanation I have heard so far. What do you guys think?