Can I change UK clocks from mph to km/h?

If I import a one- or two-year-old car from the UK to Ireland, can the mph on the speedo be easily changed to km/h or is it stuck on mph forever?

Rory Mcgee (Dublin)

Mar 2016 Filed under: importing

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Expert answer

Hi Rory,

It’s tricky and it will depend greatly on the car you buy. Instrument binnacles these days are basically sealed units, in order to make it harder for unscrupulous sellers to alter the car’s mileage, so swapping one out will probably involve significant expense. If it’s a UK car then it should have a speedo graduated in both miles and kilometres though, and it’s perfectly legal to drive a car in Ireland on a mph speedo as long as you’re still sticking to the speed limit (30mph is 50km/h, 40mph is 65km/h, 62mph is 100km/h and 75mph is 120km/h). On some cars it will be very simple though – many brands now have a digital speedometer in addition to the analogue one and it’s simply a matter of delving into the settings menu to swap it over to km/h.

Neil Briscoe - Complete Car Advisor
@neilmbriscoe