Another bit of shallow thought from “Deep Thought” (better change my handle).
Dear auto manufacturers and fashion-conscious drivers. Please explain to me what the actual use of those “driving lights” or “running lights” or whatever you call them is.
You can’t, can you? The reason is they are nothing but a fashion accessory, apparently designed solely to dazzle the crap out of anybody not driving something high up like an SUV (in itself a fashion accessory).
To the manufacturers: stop fitting the damn things.
To the regulatory folks: please outlaw them as useless and dangerous.
To the drivers: switch 'em off, they do not light up the road, just my retinas!
How about cheap-ass Xenon lights? The expensive kind (like those on new BMW’s and Mercedeses) are fine, and merely provide more light without blinding me.
But if I see one more fucking budget-Opel with christmas green-red-blue-flickering Xenon coming up behind me, I’m gonna push them against the guardrail. Jesus Christ. A recent test even turned out that most cheap Xenons produce LESS light than halogen lights. You need the expensive ones (Philips, Osram) to get more effect. The rest is crap and only flickers and blinds.
But they look soooo cool, of course :rolleyes:
Ditto for idiots using their fog lights in broad daylight. Often, these are the same dolts, even. No, shitferbrains. You coul try fitting the entire Eiffel Tower lighting system to your car, and I STILL won’t move to the right lane until AFTER I have passed this truck. What is so hard?
YES YES YES! The only thing I hate more than SUVs are teenagers with stupid little blue lights and big rims and spoilers and nuclear stereos and clear brake lights with red tiny bulbs and 2 inches of ground clearance. These all should be illegal.
Please dip your lights for oncoming traffic.
It isn’t in your interest to blind the driver of an oncoming vehicle when driving on a narrow winding road.
Those damn “driving lights” can’t be dipped, they’re either on or off.
To expand the rant a little, and trash an even wider area of the population G. Another fun thing about SUVs, (with or without the Christmas lights turned on), is listening to someone who just paid $43,000 for one with a V8 5.3 motor complaining about the price of gas.
Bright lights that can’t be dipped ought to be banned, as you say. I was just weighing in with a mini-whinge about drivers who won’t dip their regular lights — especially when they’ve just had new brighter headlights fitted and those lights aren’t adjusted to the right angle.
Amen to that. I come from one of those yuppie towns where just about everyone seems to own an SUV large and durable enough to help protect the US from foreign invasion. There’s nothing more annoying than having to deal with those darn things, especially when some soccer mom (or dad) decides to see how far up the tail end of my car she/he can go with their 6000lb vehicle, often with driving lights on. As for gas mileage, I agree: these people have no right to complain. Those things burn gas half again as fast as I do, which I find pretty surprising when I consider that my car’s city gas mileage is crap. Those people shouldn’t spend that much money on a car if they can’t afford to put gas in it.
'Round these parts “kids” are getting Honda Civics, and making modifications. They install hard shocks, and skinny ass tires (like 175/2 R13) and these after market exhaust kits that put a big bulb of a tail pipe at the end of the car. They think they’re so cool, but they don’t realize that it makes their high quality car sound like a weed-eater!!
And speaking of lights, remember those Neon under car kits? Pretty cool pink or blue light glowing from under the car. That is until you travel over some loose gravel!! HA-HA!
You only need the extra driving lights on back roads, so why use them anywhere else?
I have them on my truck (which is actually used to haul stuff and get dirty), and being a first time truck owner, I remember what it was like when some dufus would blind me with his driving lights. I keep them off 90% of the time. Recently, on a trip through some Pennsylvania backroads, I switched them on and found them very helpful.
As for hot rodded Civis, I see them as cute little cars very symbolic of today’s effeminite male driver under the age of 25. The little mufflers are cute, as are the little boys driving them around. Very symbloic of the inneffective-minumum-wage-earning, average-looking-girl- getting, recently-off-clearasil-Eminem looking teen boy, or want-to-be-teen-boy who has no clue what interests anyone outside their click of five friends who are all working at the mall for hopes of a better sound system and dreams of being approved for another credit card so he can charge his new muffler and never pay it off.
They aren’t, of course. They’re not much more than station wagons with high centers of gravity.
My wife is thinking about getting one. Just to see the look on the salesperson’s face, I’ve always wanted a chance to take a new SUV on a test ride and turn into the first open land we come to. I may get this chance. Wish me luck.
Love to. But either my daytime running lights or on or the regular headlights are on. Period. Every time I start up the car, the running lights come on. They only turn off when I flick the regular headlights on. I can’t shut them off otherwise. Unless I missed something in the driver’s manual. And I have a 1996 Saturn SL2, which is hardly an SUV (heck, the thing seems to sit lower than the other cars my family has. No, I didn’t “opt” for the lights; the car was bought used and they were one of the options (or maybe they were standard on the upper end Saturn sedans at that time). I’d be happy to just get rid of them; that little green “your running lights are on” light on the dash gets on my nerves.
I can’t turn 'em off on either of my vehicles. I’ve got a '97 Venture (gasp - Mini Van) and a '00 Blazer (double gasp - SUV) and each has daytime running lights as a standard feature. The Venture are just amber lights to the side, but the Blazer are the regular low beam headlights. In fact, the headlights on both turn on automatically when it is dark and I can’t turn those off either.
I believe the daytime running lights are required by law in Canada, and I get a discount on my insurance for having them here. Can’t say they bother me one bit.
By the way, before anyone gets snotty… I’ve had the Blazer for three months now, and yes, I HAVE taken it off-road (and plan to frequently).
ARGH! I hate those lights! Even as a passenger I cannot stand them. It starts my migraines off like a shot! Those damned fancy bright lights, be they blue-tinted, green-tinted, yellow or just that dazzling flashy white that is just as bad as “Brights”. It is very difficult to drive when everytime you look in your rear-view mirror, you are blinded! Who came up with those f***ers anyway?
I have a '97 Saturn SL2 and was told that daytime running lights are standard on their cars. They’re standard on a LOT of cars, now, probably because they are required in Canada. I can live with them, though that indicator freaked me at first. “Whaddya mean my lights are on…oh yeah.”
What REALLY bugs me is the local custom of driving around right before sundown with your PARKING LIGHTS on. Hello? That’s ILLEGAL, people. Turn on your damn headlights!
That’s the sound of Philster hitting the nail on the head with:
My neighbor’s son, Nick, is the person described above. He even had the Honda custom painted with some sparkly, vaguely camouflage-looking greenish puke paint. We always know when he’s coming up the street thanks to his stereo’s bass notes rattling our windows. Alas, the little fuck wrecked the Civic last weekend. It sits, a piece of decked-out worthless shit in the driveway at this very moment. Nick, however, walked away physically unscathed. Yes, I’m thankful he wasn’t hurt (I’m not that evil!), but I can’t suppress a grin whenever I drive past their house.
As to the driving lights–yeah, those blue ones are a pain in the eyes. I have crappy night vision and driving after dark is something I try to avoid. It’s bad enough when oncoming drivers won’t dim the highbeams, but the blue ones are especially difficult.
Daytime running lights are there for maximum visibility during the day. It’s been proven time and time again that they cut down on people being hit by cars.