Spotted: LHD 1st Generation Hyundai Accent

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Now this is something you don't see everyday. A left-hand-drive 1st generation Hyundai Accent 3 door. The car was spotted at a shopping mall in Kelana Jaya and looked pretty well kept. 

This model wasn't actually sold in large volumes in Malaysia too. I think there were some small numbers imported during its tenure (1994-2000) and no one wanted a small Hyundai in those days (It was the later 2nd gen Accent that sold decently well here in the mid-2000s). In those days everyone bought a Japanese car or a Proton and I have a feeling that this left-hand drive Accent was only brought in a few years back. Of course, any car with left-hand-drive in a right-hand-drive market is pretty unique as you are bound to suffer from the following problems:

• Paying for toll at toll booths - requiring a passenger to pay for you or subscribe for a autopass (smartag) electronic toll pass. Or inconveniently exiting the car and paying for the toll charges by walking to the other side of the car; 
• Collecting parking tickets at the entrance and depositing the ticket at the exit of any car park - again requiring a passenger to collect the ticket or again climbing out of the car to collect or place the ticket; and
• Makes overtaking a real pain. You may have to follow that JCB backhoe all the way to where you're headed if you're on a trunk road unless its a two-lane highway.

But, I wouldn't mind suffering if the car were a left-hand-drive only Ferrari F40 or a Ferrari Enzo. But this is a Hyundai Accent. I wonder what made the person, who must have been studying somewhere left-hand-drive (like America) and decided to use his student AP to import in a Hyundai Accent. It must have been dirt cheap to purchase (about a couple of thousand USD at the most) and the import tax and shipping charges to Malaysia may have cost more. All for the sake of a Hyundai Accent. 

I believe that if you do study in a foreign land where they drive on the other side of the road it may not be wise for one to bring back an automobile. Especially if it were a Hyundai Accent. A Hyundai Accent for Godssake! Who would want to bring back a econobox like a 1st Gen Hyundai Accent? Why waste hard earned money for a Hyundai that has the steering wheel in the wrong place? Why not bring back something with more street cred to compensate for the fact that it is left-hand drive!!!! (a Honda Civic comes to mind)? Answers elude me.

Then again, do we really, really need answers to questions like this in the first place?