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This may be a daft question but it's been a long time since I took any notice of car features other than the ones on our old Seicento.

Several times over the last couple of weeks I have flashed (and tooted and waved) at drivers who are happily pootling round the M25 without lights on. Trouble is, when I reach the front of the car, their headlights are on. The first few times, I just assumed they switched them on as I was passing them but then realised that it was happening too often for that to be the case.

Is there some weird kind of light sensor on new cars that isn't quite sensible enough to turn the rear lights on when the front comes on?

It is not you, it is a silly system built into cars these days.

Many newer cars are fitted with what is called DRL or Daytime Running Lights which come on with the ignition and are displayed all the time.

Trouble is, only the front lights are displayed. You have to manually switch to headlights to get the rear lights to illuminate as well.

Drivers are lazy. DRL's being LED are bright, and so they not only can see ahead OK, but because the dashboard is illuminated they either forget or assume that the rear lights are also on.

I know what you mean. It frustrates the hell out of me.

I don't like hard wired headlights on bikes. detest DRL on cars even more

So having created an environment that allows even the most stupid to survive (the modern car), they then move the goalposts so they can't?
Got to be in the top 10 stupid ideas of recent times?

Speaking of environment, all that extra light DOES use extra fuel! Yet they're always nagging us about the blasted environment!

If DRL's switched on the rear lamps then I would say they are a good idea.
Car makers seem way to keen to sell the brand on gimmicks, morons buying them think there is less and less need for any driver input as it is all wonderful modern technology doing all the thinking.
Have you seen just how fucking big new infotainment systems are ?
Way too big,way too distracting.
I wish they would market them as a 'drivers' car rather than a car that drives you.
Major setback in road safety

T.C. wrote:It is not you, it is a silly system built into cars these days.

Many newer cars are fitted with what is called DRL or Daytime Running Lights which come on with the ignition and are displayed all the time.

Trouble is, only the front lights are displayed. You have to manually switch to headlights to get the rear lights to illuminate as well.

Drivers are lazy. DRL's being LED are bright, and so they not only can see ahead OK, but because the dashboard is illuminated they either forget or assume that the rear lights are also on.

I know what you mean. It frustrates the hell out of me.

I don't like hard wired headlights on bikes. detest DRL on cars even more

Looking for bit of advice, it concerns my van (VW Caddy 1.6 td registered in 2011) they have DRL and I want to disable it, is that legal? Also the BB (2004 model) has its lights hard wired in, I want to fit an old time switch to the handlebars is this allowed and is it straight swap?

Not sure about the van, although my guess is that there's nothing illegal about disabling DRL. As far as the BB is concerned, I'd be looking for a switch set from an earlier model that returned control to the rider. I don't believe there is any illegality in that, you're just undoing one of Mr Honda's 'features we never asked for'...

mangocrazy wrote: I don't believe there is any illegality in that, you're just undoing one of Mr Honda's 'features we never asked for'...

Many people believe that bike lights became hardwired because of some EU directive.

Total bollocks. The manufacturers hard wired the lights because it saved 50p on production costs. It has bugger all to do with safety. it is a cost cutting excercise, so nothing to prevent a switch back to manual on/off switch and riders discretion as to when they want their lights on.

As far as the van is concerned, (or any vehicle for that matter) I cannot see anything in the lighting regs that prevent the DRL's being de-activated.

There is no legal requirement to display DRL and so providing the switch's work and all lights operate, I see no issue.

Why they insist on lighting up the dashboard like a Christmas tree when the lights are switched off is a mystery to me. It used to be obvious that if it's getting hard to see them on the inside then it's probably getting hard to see your car on the outside.

And in most cars it seems the light indicator on the dashboard illuminates when you only have the side lights on.

T.C. wrote:

mangocrazy wrote: I don't believe there is any illegality in that, you're just undoing one of Mr Honda's 'features we never asked for'...

Many people believe that bike lights became hardwired because of some EU directive.

Total bollocks. The manufacturers hard wired the lights because it saved 50p on production costs. It has bugger all to do with safety. it is a cost cutting excercise, so nothing to prevent a switch back to manual on/off switch and riders discretion as to when they want their lights on.

As far as the van is concerned, (or any vehicle for that matter) I cannot see anything in the lighting regs that prevent the DRL's being de-activated.

There is no legal requirement to display DRL and so providing the switch's work and all lights operate, I see no issue.

Thanks for that, I have 2 jobs to do now hahahaha.

Gio, I think you will be able to switch off the DRL on your VW by the options on the ECU if you find a garage with appropiate scanner (VCDS, VagCom or VW dealer)

Wally

Wally wrote:Gio, I think you will be able to switch off the DRL on your VW by the options on the ECU if you find a garage with appropiate scanner (VCDS, VagCom or VW dealer)

Wally

VW dealers are not terribly helpful with that kind of thing from what I've read on the forums, they worry about invalidating warranties etc, better to go to someone else with those facilities.

I'll take it to my friendly mechanic who services it

T.C. wrote:It is not you, it is a silly system built into cars these days.

Many newer cars are fitted with what is called DRL or Daytime Running Lights which come on with the ignition and are displayed all the time.

Trouble is, only the front lights are displayed. You have to manually switch to headlights to get the rear lights to illuminate as well.

Drivers are lazy. DRL's being LED are bright, and so they not only can see ahead OK, but because the dashboard is illuminated they either forget or assume that the rear lights are also on.

I know what you mean. It frustrates the hell out of me.

I don't like hard wired headlights on bikes. detest DRL on cars even more

Just been out to have a look. Didnt realise that my lights worked like that.