Engine swap or Dash conversion ?

[el fayce]

In the last few months, Importing cars from Japan became more and more popular here, Get a the same with lower mileage for the same price, That's fantastic for people in the market for higher end European cars (Left hand drive)
Which got me thinking, If I wanted a JDM spec vehicle, Is it better to replicate the vehicle or change the whole dash, For instance, This Sti Legacy, Priced at this website for 23,530$ + ~2500$ for Importing it + ???$ for converting it to LHD, A local Legacy ~10,000$ + An EJ207 + Stuff costs 14,999$ + ???$ for Importing and installing the engine.
So yeah, I'm not sure which is easier or/and better, That's I am asking for your opinion.

 

[Murcie_LP640]

Much easier to do an engine swap. To do a dash conversion generally you're pulling the motor out anyway so might as well make the most of it.

But really what you're doing in the conversion to LHD is stripping the dash all the way to the firewall, lengthening/shortening wires on the harness (which generally needs to be stripped from the car as well), cutting holes in the firewall to fit the steering column for an example, the ECU needs to be relocated to the other side of the car....and on and on and on.

While you may have to convert a couple of things for a RHD-market motor to fit a LHD car, it's far less of a headache, and it's going to be a LOT cheaper.

Just as an example, a conversion from LHD to RHD for a garden-variety Dodge Challenger is AU$33k (US$24k)