Are both your car headlights working?

I am accustomed to new cars looking unfamiliar but cannot recall ever seeing so many ugly new cars. Hopefully DRLs will become less silly when the novelty wears off.

We now have mood lighting appearing in some cars. At present it’s confined to interior lights but I’m sure the manufacturers will be keen for us all to appreciate how clever they are if they can get away with pretty coloured exterior lighting.

The car remains an important status symbol – well, at least the manufacturers think it should which is why they are constantly trying to tweak the styling and glamourise the shape in the hope of appealing to a particular market segment. The advertising seems to be directed mainly at 20-30 year olds [the PCP purchase arrangements help in this respect] even though this group is usually more concerned about getting a roof over their head and raising a family. By the law of averages, most drivers are in an older vehicle, usually second- or third-hand; they must regard the new models which will be in their price bracket in three-four years’ time with a degree of apprehension if they want something practical, manageable and maintainable.

Nowadays you are no-one if you don’t have a quality or executive car with automatic adjustment of seats and other ego-massaging features. Perhaps it would be more useful to issue a reminder to look check the lights etc. The driver could be rewarded with an nice tune once they had complied.

I like that. Traffic signals, before they went LED, used to have a second lower wattage bulb that activated if the primary lamp failed – I am surprised this hasn’t been introduced in cars, not for the driver’s convenience but to ensure that two lights are always showing to oncoming vehicles.

I haven’t tried auto-adjusting seats; do they have a personal memory with pre-sets for the wife, the M-i-L, and other regular passengers? What I would appreciate in all cars is auto-adjusting head-rests in the rear seats as they always seem difficult to get right and some car owners don’t like people playing with them so they keep them at the lowest possible level which apart from being uncomfortable is illegal if the back of the head does not align with it.

DRL’s aren’t adorning ‘many’ new cars. They’re adorning ‘all’ new cars. As of February 2011 it has been mandatory for all new vehicles to have DRLs in order to pass type approval.

I appreciate that Will. I was specifically referring to the ribbons of LED lights that have been designed into many new cars as their compliance with the regulations. Other cars, and I particularly mentioned BMW’s, have much more sensible DRL’s.

Last week I found myself behind a car with a working number plate light but no tail lights. We were approaching traffic lights so I pulled into the other lane, wound down the window and shouted to alert him to the problem. He thanked me but was still driving without lights when I turned off a mile further on.

Thanks George. A simple post like this provides encouragement because we have no idea of which topics are being pursued.

Wavechange if there was two of you in the car (you did post “we”) your passenger could have taken his number and you could have reported him to the police who in turn, could have traced the offender through the DVLA. Problems arise when you are the sole occupant and like me, your short term memory may not be as good as it used to be 🙂

Now that vehicles with Daylight Running Lamps are more common, I notice many with only one illuminated. This is strange, since most are LED’s which supposedly last a lifetime. Is this because they are so bright, perhaps overloading them? In any case, no-one seems to be enforcing the requirement for both to be lit all the time.

I have noticed that as well. I thought it was possibly because the surrounding brightness of the sunshine was making one of the lights imperceptible, or because the angle of my observation was good for one side of the vehicle but not so good for the other – I don’t know whether the LED day running lights are aligned in any way. Drivers have a responsibility to check their lights but, as this Conversation has shown, many don’t and of those who do a proportion do not rectify a fault. For many cars with day running lights a failure would be within the warranty period.

Beryl – Sorry, my comment was ambiguous. I was alone and ‘we’ referred to the drivers.

I have frequently drivers if they have a faulty light or an under-inflated tyre when I have followed them into a supermarket or other car park. If we were invited to report cars with faulty lights I would be happy to oblige, but it’s not something I have ever reported to the police. I have reported car numbers when I have witnessed incidents such as cars shunting others when parking. Many years ago I approached a driver who was putting a note on the windscreen after I witnessed him hit a neighbour’s Morris Minor in icy conditions. It turned out that the car had already been hit and another driver had left a note. I wonder how the insurance companies sorted out that.

Perhaps a website could be set up to allow us to report problems, location and time/date.

I wonder if the automatic number plate recognition system could also identify cars with faulty lights so the process is automated in the same way as speed cameras, so that we are not reliant on anyone reporting faulty lights.

I must say the “big brother” approach does not appeal to me. It can lead to vindictive reporting or, at least, a holier than thou approach. When someone will not know they have a faulty light it is surely sensible to try to inform them rather than report them to the police (who have better things to do given their austerity budgets, particularly in investigating things that happened 30 years ago. And I thought “New Tricks” was just fiction, with a small cast). Particularly when you cannot easily replace many lights without a trip to the garage.

However, helping when there has been a “bump” is something I support. Whilst I think we are (all) too precious about the slightest mark on our beloved cars – why not have rubber panels like some vans; ah, it’s style isn’t it – the villain who really damages your vehicle and disappears without trace needs dealing with. Particularly those who ensure they are seen leaving a note on the windscreen – with a false address or phone number.

There is also the possibility that the lamp had failed very recently. I once checked my lights in the MOT waiting area and when tested ten minutes later, the number plate light was not working. 🙁 The tester showed me the problem, and the lamp worked, but my next journey was to the dealer to buy a new lampholder.

Unfortunately a bump can cause hidden damage even if it is invisible. I do agree about rubber strips, preferable at a standard height. Unfortunately they don’t sell cars.

Hopefully Which? is looking at the problem of cars where an obligatory lamp cannot be changed without tools at the roadside. It is amazing that the motor industry has not tackled this irresponsible behaviour long ago.