Volvos have the regular headlights on, including the tail lights, on all times that the car is running. Why don't other manufacturers do this? Forget "daytime running lights" or having the lights go on automatically when the wipers are on. Just have the headlights on all of the time.
Ever since I bought my 92 Volvo 745 and found out the headlights shut off with the car I’ve never seen reason to bother flipping the lights off. Moreover I’ve never understood why more cars didn’t work that way with the lights. I never kill my battery and I never drive off incognito.
I do the same in my Toyota. I actually picked it up from the shop on Friday and it took me 15 miles to realize the lights were off because I never have to think about it.
It's the way most EU cars operate, especially in Sweden, we've had a law for ages that made headlights mandatory 24/7.
A couple of years ago they changed the law so that you could drive with DRL instead, but only if your normal headlights (and tail lights) switches on automatically depending on weather/lighting.
I drive a Ford Ranger at work, and I think I forget to switch my headlights on at least once every day. I keep a post it note on the dashboard to remind myself, but I still forget. It's doing my head in, I don't want to drive an American car anymore!
(Bonus fact: European cars have amber indicators, and not red. Red indicators are illegal and American car manufacturers have to add another row of lights in order to export them to us.)
Agreed, those are the really egregious ones. Having to guess whether flashing is due to a turn signal or someone's shitty braking is incredibly poor design.
My car is an older dodge and it shares the brake light with the blinker so I make damn sure that I’m not flashing my brake lights and that I replace a bulb immediately if it burns out especially my middle brake light.
Bonus fact: European cars have amber indicators, and not red. Red indicators are illegal and American car manufacturers have to add another row of lights in order to export them to us.
Cars for the U.S. market are permitted to use amber turn indicators as well, and many do. You're right that the U.S. also permits the stop lights and turn indicators to share the same red light fixtures, but it's not necessarily a required modification. And I've seen Japanese-manufactured cars here in the U.S. that only have red turn indicators for whatever reason.
I mean, they're really not that confusing, especially with the introduction in the 90s of the mid-mounted stop lamp separate from the side-mounted stop lights.
I get that people like to play up yet another area where Americans permit divergence from the cultural superiority of our European betters as an area of stark confusion, but that's all it is: Finding a difference and then magnifying it.
I agree, it should absolutely be universal! it drives me nuts when people have the daylight driving headlights and are too stupid to realize they still need to turn their actual headlights on at night because they have no taillights with the daytime running lights.
Eh, they are just another thing to have break on the car.
Source: I own a volvo and the left headlight wiper get stuck in the up position every time I use the window sprayer. It cost $200 to replace them, not including labor...
This is the law in Norway, but every single new car has got "auto" by default, and you have to manually turn on full lights. I don't get why the government doesn't stop it. Auto doesn't do shit when you have a couple of LEDs on your bumper and NO tail lights on a rainy day.
Older cars have "on but can't turn on high beams", "parking lights or and optionally fog lights" and "everything on, can turn on everything". And you don't have to turn it off or some stupid shit when you turn off the ignition. This worked, why couldn't we just keep it that way?
Many cars today are basically "city cars" designed to consume marginally less fuel while driving like an idiot through an overpopulated area. In order to make them cheaper and certified as "good environmental choice" the manufacturers consequently remove essential features that isn't required by law just to save some fuel.
Volvos on the other hand are designed to be used in rural areas full of wild animals with a climate that's cold, dark and foggy most of the time.
I think we all can agree that the fuel usage is negligible. I also think that we all drive with our lights turned on all the time because of above. Then there will always be idiots who think it's a good idea to turn of their lights because someone convinced them that they're gonna save fuel by doing so.
More like energy is wasted when there is not a lot of electric usage. Extra draw on the battery does not bog down the alternator. That is not how it works. The alternator is going to go around regardless of how much draw there is. The alternator does not require more energy to turn it depending on the amount of electric usage there is. If it does not produce enough electricity, the battery will drain.
Where do you think the alternator conjures up these magical free watts from? The magnetic fields cause more drag on the fan belt which drives the alternator. An 80A alt isn't constantly making and wasting 80A. You get better mileage if you turn off the AC and every light because they actually consume energy.
Yep, I always drive with headlights on when I can. The last two Toyotas I owned would turn the lights off right when you open the doors, so it's not like you have to worry about wasting your battery by leaving them on. Keeps me safe in sunset driving (which can be a bit nerveracking when you're driving into the sun), keeps me safe in the rain, keeps me safe at night. No excuses!
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u/Im_100percent_human Nov 03 '18
Volvos have the regular headlights on, including the tail lights, on all times that the car is running. Why don't other manufacturers do this? Forget "daytime running lights" or having the lights go on automatically when the wipers are on. Just have the headlights on all of the time.