Daytime running lights... like or dislike???

[Harv]

When I took driver training (too many years ago /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif), the rule of thumb was to turn on your headlights when there were no "distinct shadows" visible. That covers the periods immediately after sunrise, before sunset and simply overcast days. The advice was from the highway patrol. The scientific explanation was that under such conditions the color contrast, which our eyes depend on for depth perception, was dramatically reduced.

Then there's the "daylight test" sections of the road where headlights are required in order to increase your own visibility. We see these a lot on dangerous two-lane stretches of highway where a head-on would result in a 130+ mph impact.

Headlights are required in most tunnels around here, too, even if the tunnels are well lit.

Bottom line for me is that I think the daytime running lights are a good idea.

Like Dick, though, I find the new bluish headlights somehow annoying. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Oh, yeah -- and if I remember correctly, here in California it used to be (haven't read the vehicle code in some years now) that driving with only your parking lights on was illegal.

 

[jwstewar]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Just set the parking brake -- no need to turn off the truck. )</font>

Nope, not true. If it is dark and the headlights are on, the only way to turn them off is to start the truck with the parking brake on. What you are saying was true on the older ones, but not with the Silverados - at least '99s. Once the headlights are on, they are on.

 

[Gatorboy]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( What you are saying was true on the older ones, but not with the Silverados - at least '99s )</font>

Looks like the '99s were a problem -- I found a discussion on this topic in this Automotive Forum

 

[jwstewar]

Yep, that is exactly the problem. I doubt that I pay the $90 though for the fix. No more often then I do it, I'll stop, e-brake, and restart. Sometimes though it would be nice to be able to drive w/ your lights.....not what you guys are thinking /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif....there are some drive thru Christmas displays around here that ask you to turn your lights out....gotta tell them that I can't.

 

[MossRoad]

<font color="blue"> What I wish for on my Silverado ('99) is a way to turn the lights off after dark and the truck is already running. i.e. stop at the store and one of us is going to run in while the other stays with the kids in the truck with it running. </font>

Our Impalla has the lights that come on automatically if it is dark, even with the switch off. When I go out to warm the car up in the morning, I just pull the switch to the first notch and the headlights then go off, but the parking lamps remain on. I can live with that, except it is then a signal to anyone that your car is running with the keys in it. So I hit the automatic door lock switch and all the doors lock, except the drivers lock pops back open because the key is in it. So I push the manual lock button and close the door. The automated stuff is sometimes a pain, but for the most part I like it.

Another nice feature is the auto dimming rear view mirror. Works great... and the compass that tells you it's NICE when the temperature is hovering around 32 degrees and you heading north. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Gatorboy]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( ...there are some drive thru Christmas displays around here that ask you to turn your lights out....gotta tell them that I can't. )</font>

I can't either with my Chevy K3500. They will go out when I have the parking brake engaged, but it's kind of hard to drive with that set. /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( auto dimming rear view mirror )</font>

Do any of the cars still have the automatic dimmer for the headlights; i.e., switch to low beams when meeting another vehicle, like my '55 Cadillac had, then switch back to high beams when no lights are shining into the front of the car.?

 

[pruntyc]

Course I guess they are good in that, when these people I see every once in a while driving down the road reading a Mag. or Book or shaving, or combing their hair, they are probably more apt to see you. They scare me, not paying any attention to driving, when it is pretty serious, it only takes a couple of seconds to kill someone with a car.

 

[Boondox]

I love em, especially up here in the snowbelt where conditions are often nasty and windshields are usually grimy from salt and sand...and where skiers drive like they're still on the slopes. Every bit of visibility helps!

Pete

 

[Chuck52]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( </font>( The only problem I have wih them is remembering to turn the lights on when I need them. )</font>

A good clue when it gets dark is that you can't read your odometer/speedometer because you don't have your lights on. )</font>

Doesn't seem to work that way with my '03 Impala. The only time I caught myself doing that, the dash was lit. I think this car has some kinda photo senser that it uses to se the dash light levels.

Chuck