TOT: Modern car lights: reasoning?

A year or so back we started noticing, when driving in twilight, that "That car in front hasn't got its lights on -- pillock!". Then lo and behold when we'd overtaken it, it *did* have its [front] lights on.

It began to dawn on us that many, many cars now display front lights, but no rear lights.

What's the reasoning here? I mean: you have lights on in order to make sure your vehicle is seen by other road users: what's the point in only being seen from the front?

BTW I'm not moaning about the drivers, who presumably have no control over this: I'm moaning about the manufacturers.

Cheers John

Reply to
Another John
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Where've you been ???

Look up daytime running lights

David

Reply to
David

I haven't noticed this phenomenon. Could it be the horn beeping and glaring look you give them as you pass make them see the error of their ways?

I remember the Volvos that were first to have daylight running lights you couldn't turn off, although some drivers found it necessary to retrofit a switch.

Reply to
Graham.

Why thank you David .... I did, and the AA article is exemplary. However couldn't find the bit where it explains why front ones are lit, but not rear ones.

Neither could I find the bit, whilst we're on about them, which says that DRLs (to use the acronym) should be bright enough to dazzle oncoming drivers (as opposed to merely being bright enough to fix the vehicle's position in other drivers' circle of vision). (LED lights are a thorough pain in the backside; or rather: retina.)

I ask this question, btw, as a former Volvo 240 driver (we used to get flashed all the time by helpful fellow motorists). *That* car, sensibly, had rear DRLs lit as well as front ones. (Or am I dreaming? I'm sure that they had rears as well as fronts.)

John

Reply to
Another John

But on the front only?

Reply to
Graham.

Daytime running lights.

It is the road coloured silver grey cars that are the worst offenders.

Mine is inclined if left on auto to put the headlights on on sunny midwinters days because the sun is so low in the UK that it doesn't hit the sensor. It is fine apart from in Nov-Dec-Jan on sunny days.

See

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The advantages of avoiding some head on collisions is tangible.

Volvo started the ball rolling. It has been required since ~2011 in UK.

Reply to
Martin Brown

News to me - I have never seen a car that does not have its tail lights on if the front lights are.

Reply to
Tim Watts

Sorry John, I cannot remember about the older Volvos.

But the newer LED ones, I hate them.

On one of our cars, the LEDs cannot be turned off, and I have never had so many other road users pull out in front of us, but I found that turning on the sidelights dims the LEDs substantially. Many other cars we have had, they were able to be turned off. Heck, my neighbour's 14 plate Nissan can have them turned off.

As far as I can tell, they must be fitted on new cars from around 2012, but in the UK, their use is not mandatory.

Also, in the UK, I believe it is an offence to have full dipped headlights turned on when parked at the side of the road, especially when parked on the 'wrong' side of the road, but when using 'auto' lights, the car may have decided that it is dark enough for headlights thus putting the driver in jeopardy of getting penalty points. The same can happen with 'welcome lights'.

David

Reply to
David

(snip)

A while ago, I had a 10 year old Jag coupe behind me on a country lane, the sun was low in the sky, about 08:50 hrs, and about every ten seconds or so, its lights would turn on. At first, I thought I was being repeatedly flashed and wondered what was wrong. Then I realised it was the 'Auto' lights functioning.

In the handbook for one of our cars, it states that with regard to Xenon lamps, if they are turned on and off frequently, then components will have a reduced life. (As will some components of the 'Stop Start' system if that is used all the time.)

David

Reply to
David

Volvo and Saab both brought DRLs into the UK back in the '80s, possibly earlier. On Saabs, they used a dual filament bulb in the sidelight housing - 5w for parking, 21w for DRL.

But, yep, they definitely had the back lights on, too, not least because the Scandi legal requirement included them. The current EU DRL requirement is front only, so the manufacturers don't tend to put the tail lights on. There really ought to be a requirement for autolights to be fitted in parallel, if the tail lights aren't included in the DRLs.

Reply to
Adrian

I had forgot about the SAABs.

Volvo did stop fitting them (DRLs) for a while, and then brought us amber lights on the sides of their cars. I remember a report of an accident where a vehicle was waiting to emerge from a side road and thought that the volvo driver was indicating to turn into the side road - when it was not - and so pulled out of the junction into the path of the volvo.

David

Reply to
David

My objection to modern car headlights are that on some cars they are crap. Her new Corsa has totally inadequate headlights from a visibility viewpoint. It's almost as bad as a 1930s motorcycle unit. Her old one

1996 had superb lights. My impression is that small projector headlamps cannot achieve the beam spread of the old single large headlights with lensing built into the glass. On one foreign plastic headlamp car, I've fitted xenon discharge bulbs to improve the lighting.
Reply to
Capitol

They also have no control over it, it is a cunning European Onion plan to kill more motorcyclists in the interests of "safety".

Reply to
Peter Parry

That is the more dangerous end.

Reply to
Nightjar

In message , David writes

I've posted about this before, but here it's not auto lights, I don't think, but just idiots. The local council has approved the gradual conversion of a bunch of shops into restaurants that attract the lower classes and footballers with Ferraris to sit and pretend they are part of the cafe culture. The shops lead up to the brow of the hill, over which the now deserted-looking police station is situated. We give someone a lift home every night and have to pass the taxis and others at chucking out time, many double parked and many on the wrong side of the road parked with sidelights on. So cars sit forcing us out onto the wrong side of the main road with their dipped headlights pointing at us down over the brow of the hill. And we, of course are facing oncoming traffic coming over the brow.

It's an accident that is bound to happen. There is never any sighting of any member of the local constabulary.

Reply to
Bill

Not if the "front lights" are DRL.

Chris

Reply to
Chris J Dixon

It's news to me because I've not yet knowingly come across a car with that feature - probably because I seldom observe the front and back of the same car at any given time.

I see lots of funky stuff on other people's cars - but I don't know if it's DRL, decoration or the driver turning stuff on.

Reply to
Tim Watts

David has brought this to us :

It is an offence after dark to park on the wrong side of the road anyway, not just with your lights on. Lights just make the situation worse.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Capitol wrote in news:H snipped-for-privacy@brightview.co.uk:

Xenon Discharge Bulbs - Really? Or just bulbs with a Xenon name. A full xenon conversion is more than a bulb change as they work on a very high voltage - think arc light.

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Reply to
DerbyBorn

Where've you been hiding for the last decade?

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£22 for a complete bi-HID conversion for a pair of H4s, posted. Almost every other bulb fit available.
Reply to
Adrian

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