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Cars that are driving on the roads ( night/darkness) with a headlight or a tailight or a brakelight not working in my area Sheffield is almost at epidemic levels,old cars,newish cars,private hire taxis are these drivers not aware or just plain ignorant,whats wrong with checking all your lights are working at least weekly is not too demanding a job and most newish cars have bulb failure dash warnings.
Is there a shortage of bulbs or have they become too expensive to buy or too hard to replace,i flash every driver i see,i wonder what they think.
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I don’t see many cars with just one light out, but I see countless cars driving in very poor light conditions with no rear lights on and just daytime running lights (DRLs) on at the front. DRLs and digital dashboards have resulted in the unintended consequence of adding a new danger on our roads.
In the past, drivers knew that they didn’t have their headlights on because their dashboard was dark. When you were struggling to see your dashboard you had an obvious prompt to put your headlights on to illuminate it. In turn, this illuminated your rear lights. Whilst DRLs are a good idea, they have a major design flaw IMHO in that they don’t illuminate the rear lights as well. Many drivers don’t realise this. Furthermore, digital dashboards are always illuminated, even with all exterior lights off – so no obvious prompt anymore. Finally, although the majority of cars have auto headlights these days, some don’t activate in poor weather and many drivers don’t have the headlight switch on the correct setting to activate them anyway!
Whenever I am driving at dawn or dusk or in poor weather conditions, a high proportion of cars are running on DRL’s alone, with absolutely no rear lights on at all. Yesterday in the daytime I was driving on the motorway in a blizzard. Visibility was terrible, yet I saw many cars with no lights on. They were virtually invisible.
I would like to see all cars, motorbikes and commercial vehicles have DRL’s that are always on, can never be turned off and include rear lights. Until that happens the countless idiots on our roads continue to place themselves and others at considerable risk.
I think there’s just not enough police around to pull up those with lights out and those that are around I’m not sure are bothered.
DRLs and illuminated dash’s are certainly contributing to people not switching lights on. And in poor vis daytime I’ve inadvertently driven with no tail-lights like Glos Guy says. I too find it incredulous that manufacturers put only front DRLs on? Years ago Volvo had sidelights AND tail-lights coming on upon starting.
Our XC40 with lights on Auto has no indication of whether the headlight are actually on or not which is strange.
My Peugeot 306 GT Premium is excellent with regards to comments above. With lighting set to auto and running in day light, then yes its just the DRL and no rear lights.
However. If the light dims it will then switch on the headlights, along with Rear lights. This includes when its raining or what ever driving conditions dims the sensors react very quickly to those changes.
Joss
Current car: Peugeot 308 GT Premium 1.2 Pure tech Petrol.
Coming soon...BMW X2 sDrive 20i M Sport 5dr Step Auto In November 2025Our XC40 with lights on Auto has no indication of whether the headlight are actually on or not which is strange.
Our last VW had no dashboard indication that the headlights were on, which I felt was a design flaw. The headlight symbol above the actual switch would illuminate instead, but it was difficult to see as we had hand controls at the time that obscured it.
A problem I’ve noticed is how bright some lights are these days. I’m constantly having to turn my head to stop being dazzled by ultra bright lights.
There’s not even that on the XC40, Glos Guy. Have to look for a reflection back from the car in front if in close traffic. Or just have faith.
My Peugeot 306 GT Premium is excellent with regards to comments above. With lighting set to auto and running in day light, then yes it’s just the DRL and no rear lights. However. If the light dims it will then switch on the headlights, along with Rear lights. This includes when it’s raining or what ever driving conditions dims the sensors react very quickly to those changes.
Most cars do all of that now Joss (although some don’t react as soon as they should in the daytime when visibility is poor), but it all relies on the headlight switch being left on the ‘auto’ setting. The problem is that many people don’t have the switch on the correct setting and in fact I find that when cars go into dealers for servicing they often send them back with the auto headlights switched off, presumably so that the lights aren’t on when in the workshop!
There’s not even that on the XC40, Glos Guy. Have to look for a reflection back from the car in front if in close traffic. Or just have faith.
Thats dreadful. I’m amazed given Volvos reputation for safety and it’s bizarre given that they were the first manufacturer to realise that all cars should have lights on!
A problem I’ve noticed is how bright some lights are these days. I’m constantly having to turn my head to stop being dazzled by ultra bright lights.
Yes I’ve had a few people flash me thinking that I’m on full beam. If I flash them back they quickly realise that I wasn’t!
I can only imagine that the car will be quick to tell me if the lights are not working as designed. Seems to be the modern way…
There’s not even that on the XC40, Glos Guy. Have to look for a reflection back from the car in front if in close traffic. Or just have faith.
Thats dreadful. I’m amazed given Volvos reputation for safety and it’s bizarre given that they were the first manufacturer to realise that all cars should have lights on!
That may well have something to do with when Volvo was sold to Ford in 1999 and then to Geely around 2010. Saab from memory use to be the same untill it was sold to groupDutch Spyker and then General motors.
I find the cars that seem to blind you the most are the young fools that fit 6000k LED bulbs replacing the otherwise halogen or those that fit xenons without auto levelers and maybe the odd car that came out of the factory fitted with xenons and an auto leveler has failed or the beam pattern is out of alignment for whatever reason.
Then there’s the idiots that forget to turn the high beam off, thankfully many cars come with high beam assist today. Although lower end models should have them fitted as standard.
As soon as the weather gets a bit warmer and dryer I’m going to run a loop in wire to power the rear lights in conjunction with the front DRL’s.
It does get me that even with “Auto Lights” turned on it has to get really quite dark before it will switch the lights on and after seeing loads of cars with just the front DRL’s on in really horrible weather conditions on the motorway over the last couple of days I’ve decided to do something about mine at least.
What’s the betting the computer throws a wobbly, vinalspin?
The XC40 turns the headlights on too soon, in my view. In fact most modern cars I see do. Dark cloud in the middle of the afternoon and the latest cars are all lit up passing the end of the road here. Which of course leaves the older cars less visible.
Ridiculously, the Highway Code does not call for headlights, and therefore rear lights, to be lit at night if on a road which has lit street lighting.
This is, in my opinion, completely reckless of the Dept for Transport.
This is a copy and paste;
113
You MUST– ensure all sidelights and rear registration plate lights are lit between sunset and sunrise
– use headlights at night, except on a road which has lit street lighting. These roads are generally restricted to a speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h) unless otherwise specified
– use headlights when visibility is seriously reduced (see Rule 226).I do wish that the Dept For Transport would consult actual drivers when writing the Highway Code.
? I will be remembered for nothing but had great fun doing it ?
They found tgat to be an issue in Scandinavia,that DRLs with no rear lights was a problem with people thinking they had lights on when they didn’t, so now Scandinavian cars have DRLs but also rear light on with them.
around here we have the one eyed monsters driving around, but not enough police to patrol
i always flick my lights on of the conditions look ripe for it even if auto lights dont think so… i mean we aint robots we can think for ourselves. we had to before when there were no fancy auto anythings lol
Current Car: Hyundai Kona Premium EV...2 way 40kg hoist
Last Car: Toyota C-HR Excel Hybrid...4 way 80kg hoist
The new Peuguot 2008 is the first car I’ve had with Auto lights and they are very very good.There is the usual light indication on the dash so you can see what the lights are doing.
I tried the auto main beam setting and soon switched it off very quickly, it went against the grain having them switching main beam on and off.
By far the most annoying part of the 2008 are the rear fog lights, you have no control over them, they switch on and off by themselves. Condensation in the rear light module and they are ‘on’…lol.
As Jojoe mentioned turning the head slightly to try avoid dazzle, I find not just the head lights but the brake lights too.
Sat at the traffic lights when someone in front has the foot on the brake peddle while everyone behind got a pinkish glow and their car lit up red right up until the traffic lights change..?? ?
My last car, S=-Max, the DRL’s included the rears, it also put the headlights on if you used the wipers for more than about 30 secs. It was great for safety, you just left it on auto and it worked well in all conditions. Matrix LEDs as well, so no flashing from other drivers either.
Current car, Soul EV does not put the rears on with the DRL’s and the DRL’s are so bright/focused that you can easily see the road at night, so its easy to drive off thinking the lights are on. The auto setting doesn’t work in crappy weather, it stubbornly stays on DRL’s only regardless of visibility/wiper use etc.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
I’ve actually not checked if Kona puts rears on too. I kinda just thought they would
Current Car: Hyundai Kona Premium EV...2 way 40kg hoist
Last Car: Toyota C-HR Excel Hybrid...4 way 80kg hoistI’ve actually not checked if Kona puts rears on too. I kinda just thought they would
Which is one of the points I made earlier. I think that most people don’t have a clue that DRLs only provide some illumination at the front and nothing at the rear. A major design flaw IMHO.
My Tuscon doesn’t @struth so I wouldn’t think the Kona did either.
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