Cars with no taillights!

[bowman316]

Driving home tonight I saw 3 cars with headlights ON, but no tail lights! These car manufacturers should not design a car where your headlights could be on, but not your tail lights. Sure the driver should know that only their daytime running lights are on. But they cant tell their tail lights are off. bottom line, If your headlights are on, so should everything else. I had a toyota camry rental once, and the dash lights would be on, and daytime running lights, but no tail lights! No way the driver would know that unless they walked around the car. Really ticks me off.

 

[Tnstratofam]

No body wants to think about pulling or turning a knob to turn anything on anymore. People almost expect their cars to turn eveything on automatically for them, but most dont realize things not turned on other than their stereo or phone when they drive down the road.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Doesn't the taillights turn on automatically when it gets dark enough?

 

[Tnstratofam]

The Admiral's 2008 Buick Lucerne has automatic lighting and it works fine as far as I know. I wouldn't be able to tell for sure if just the tail lights weren't on though unless I checked when it gets dark enough. Now I'm gonna be checking every time I get in the thing.:facepalm:

On a side note I owned a 1980 Mercury Cougar XR7 in high school that was loaded with features. Including automatic lights. They were supposed to turn on whenever it got dark enough. I would have to turn them on myself during the day when it was raining but otherwise they worked pretty reliably. It was a cool car with lots of cool features that I did without for many years as almost ever vehichle I owned from then till now was either a truck or Jeep. No creature comforts in most of them except air conditionig in a few of my trucks. Now that I'm getting older I have to admit the Admiral's Buick is a nice break from my warn out CJ or even my F150 most of the time.

 

[bowman316]

Most cars will turn everything on when it gets dark, but some only turn on the headlights. And these are new cars, only a few years old. My 2013 Chevy sonic turns the lights on automatically, I dont even think about it anymore. But mine was designed right, If my headlights are on, so are my tail lights.

 

[meder24]

bowman, I am with you 100% on this on. It is a shame people do not take the time to understand their vehicles enough or pay enough attention to what they are doing.
On a few of my auto forums people try to defend themselves by blaming their vehicle manufacturer for this but the bottom line is one should understand how their vehicles works. This plus the fact people do not pay attention while driving to anything but themselves is also an issue.

 

[bowman316]

Yea, the driver is ultimately responsible to make sure they are safe driving down the road. But its hard for them to know when their headlights and dash lights are on, they just assume the tail lights are on as well.

 

[littlerayray]

At least when it came to the old cars you could flick your lights on and off and they usually realists they were off now I encounter this a lot on my way to work I just give them a wide berth

 

[generator12]

I'm not a lover of federal regulation, but I'd like to see the feds make a regulation forcing auto makers to install a small indicator panel of some sort for all essential lighting; something a driver can scan to ensure that his head/tail-light bulbs are working and which indicate turn signals also. Fiber optics could do it and it wouldn't be very costly. I think that would be more productive than yet one more MPG target.

We get heated seats, internet capability, blue-tooth, entertainment systems that do everything but order pepperoni on your pizza, etc. Something like this could be really helpful for that one-percent of the time that we need it.

 

[dingbat]

Never heard nor scene such a thing. What models are you talking about? The lights on all our vehicles (Honda ) even come on when using the wipers

 

[gm280]

Maybe some folks have automatic lights that turn on if the ambient light gets too dark. I know that is how my lights work. But I also have daytime running lights as well. I usually never have to turn them on manually because they are on long before they are really needed. And once they do turn on, all the dash and mirror, radio, climate functions, and interior lights dim letting you know the night time lights have come on... My biggest issue is that the vehicle manufacturers now offer turn signals as an option and so many op out of buying them on their new cars... At least that is the way it seems anyways. And don't get me started on texting while driving... :argue: :facepalm:

 

[Tnstratofam]

Yeah gm I think ALLOT of people around our town have gone for the No Signal Lights option on their cars. It's funny this option seems to be available on several makes models and years. Weird I know!:der::facepalm:

 

[Harritwo]

Here in the PNW (Pacific North West) i see cars all the time with either DRL on or nothing on and it is not even Daybreak yet. Every Vehicle I have had since 95 has had Automatic Lights and they work perfectly. I might override them occasionally but they work. Even when I travel and have a rental, they have automatic lights. I am with you that there is absolutely no reason to not realize your lights arent on. I park in my garage and when I crank up in the morning, I can see that i have headlights, taillights, and brake lights. I check that every day.

In my GMC, it has Daytime lights, I can cancel them if i desire, but the headlights and DRL are always on auto. The Driving lights i have to turn on manually if i want them, I think some people just get in a zone and dont realize it anymore.

 

[Jeep Man]

We have had daytime running lights here in Canada for a few decades, long before the U S. DRLs do not turn on the dash lights or tail lights. I have had and currently have 1 vehicle with automatic lights which turn all lights on. DRLs have the headlights at approximately half power and when driving at night should be very noticeable that the headlights are not on, especially with no dash lights illuminated.
Some European manufactured vehicles have another feature that illuminates the drivers side brake light when the wipers are turned on. This caused me a bit of confusion for a while.