vyse

I don't think it's supposed to grab your attention; that's not a good thing You should be looking at the road!

o2bsurreal

Yes and No - I generally detest DRL's, and I usually refuse to use them. My opinion of them is that they are one more thing that some governments have tried to make mandatory (or have made mandatory as in Canada's case) to protect the stupid from themselves. Once the government makes turning on your headlights mandatory, what's next? It is just one more thing that people will no longer have a choice of doing. I think that is one of the reasons why making them the law never really caught on in the states. GOD BLESS AMERICA

However, with that said, I have found that they really help on my commute since I live on a very curvy country road, and I'm always meeting large farm trucks. I would always turn on my headlights and just realized that I might as well use the DRL's. I also have found that, in interstate driving, they somehow encourage people to get out of your way - must be those big pretty Mercedes lights shining at them .

As a sidenote, I think the auto lighting system in our cars is really sophisticated. However, I have to mention that I'm disappointed that, when the DRL's are on, the activation of the wipers will no longer cause all of the lights to come on. As a result, you may have lights in front, but drivers behind you can't see you any better since your tail lights are not on. Seems like a big oversight, but it doesn't matter. I still love my car.

BlackC230Coupe

I happen to hate DRL's also i am glad my cars dont have them.

Lynn

My headlights and taillights come on with activation of the wipers when the DLR's are on. At least the instrument lights come on, so I assume the headlights and taillights are on, too.

avlis

I've posted on this subject before.
The first few months I owned my coupe I didn't use DRLs. I got cut-off so many times that I seriously considered buying my truck back (never got cut-off in the truck). I was actully run off the highway into the breakdown lane one morning. It was like my car was invisable.

Fed-up, I turned on the DRLs. It could be coincidence, but I have yet to be cut-off since. On many occasions I see drivers start to make a move for my lane. As soon as I can see their eyes (which means they can see my headlights) in their passenger side mirror, they correct themselves move back into their lane.

So I'm sold on the DRLs.

BTW: What is it about DRLs that some of you hate so much? So the lights are on...who cares?

MB-BOB

Could this be the blue car phenomenon?

If cars are cutting your Orion Blue coupe off but now see you with the drls, could it be that the blue car is hard to see?

Don't laugh, but I've read in several places that blue is one of the most invisible colors on the road. I had a blue car once, and in 6 years of ownership, had 4 accidents (none my fault). Although I'm not convinced there is anything to the theory, I've always avoided blue cars since, and have had no accidents with other colors.

I'm not knocking on all the fine Orion Blue cars on this forum... just wondering if anyone else has this visibility perception problem with their car?

tommy

Was the car your daughter hit blue? Maybe it wasn't her fault at all, and she deserved better than that Neon!

MB-BOB

She hit a black PU with a kelly green Toyota. It was her fault. The Neon runs like a charm, and no complaints about faulty fuel gauges, bunching up roller blinds and drifting to the right issues. It comes with an in-dash CD, and I didn't have to shill out $640 extra for metallic paint...

MarkL

Are you sure your light switch was set in "auto" position? If so, there may still be a reason you were led to this conclusion. If you're in rainsense (intermittent) wiper mode and the light switch is in "auto", the lights won't come on unless the "intermittency" of the wipers is pretty frequent. I think they do this to avoid the lights coming on and off. Also, if the frequency of wipes diminishes, the lights will go off. Try it again by putting the wipers in the full "low" position.

This confused me when I first got my car. I had sworn that the lights came on when the wipers were in rainsense mode, but another time they didn't. Then I realized that there's a threshhold for intermittent frequency which controls the lights.

MarkL

You can use the "city" lights at any time by moving the headlight switch to the first position past "auto". Am I missing something here? You can also add the foglights to the city lights by pulling the knob out. Maybe you're talking about having the city lights on w/ the headlights -- Oh that must be it :p .

o2bsurreal

Yeah, I thought of that. The day I came to the conclusion that they didn't activate with the DRL's, the rain was coming down hard enough to make them run steadily (no intervals). I waited for what seemed like forever and they never came on. Finally I just turned them on myself. It could have been just a fluke so I'll check it out tonight with a hose or something .

phattbam

well to be a little more descriptive, what I meant was to have DRL activated and not have to turn the knob. I hope that makes sense if not I'll have to rethink what I just posted.

TimmyC230boy

yes, Phattbam, you can set the DRL in the steering wheel controls.

Lynn

You may be on to something, MB-BOB. My experience is similar to that of Avlis. I have noticed several cars start to cut me off then go back to their own lane. I get cut off much less in the blue cars with DLR's than I did in the white 280z without DLR's.

avlis

Just for the hell of it I'm going to turn off my DRLs for the drive home tonight and see what happens. The Friday afternoon commute here is always the most "dangerous" becuase a lot of "amature" drivers rush north for the weekend.