A colleague was pulled up and breathalysed last night for driving with fog lights. He was asked the inevitable question to which there is no acceptable answer - "do you know it's an offence to use foglights in these conditions?"
Yes, there are more dangerous pastimes such as tailgating, but it's a start.
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Yay! Rejoice! They've started on the inconsiderate bar-stewards!
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Shouldn't you be paying more attention to your old boiler rather then posting in here...? ;-)
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Oops,
Confession time.
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=71...1
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Tee hee...
Rob, get back in your bus. Bloomin' cheek. It's sorted now.
Dave, hahahahahaha!
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Interestingly, I was idly browsing through my younger brother's cataglogue for people who like to "modify" their cars by adding tacky blue windscreen washer nozzles and the like.
Came to an enormous section for what was clearly fog lights, only to find them referred to there as "Driving Lights".
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I always understood "Driving Lighrs" to be auxillary supplements for main beam. I remember on the classic Range Rover Vogue, these came on with main beam .
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Good for them, if it was the rear Fog lights.
They are far more dangerous than the fronts, where they blind you with glare and no matter what distance you are away from them, you don't see their stop lights when they are built in within the cluster.
Otherwise when are driving lamps classed as Fog lamps??
Autumnboy
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"rear Fog lights.They are far more dangerous than the fronts"
It really annoys me off that there is a little bit of mist in the air and then for the next 3 weeks, people are driving around with their fogs on... People do not know the highway code.
Front fog lights are everywhere in my area, people just do not realise they are doing wrong,,, The difference between fog and driving lights are that driving lights come on automatically with your heads, and are pointing in the same direction, they are not the ones, you get the little "green" light on your dash for and point towards oncoming traffic causing glare..
Whilst I am here I am also going to rant about, badly asjusted lights, does anybody bother to check these during mot's these day's .. it doesnt seem that way.. !
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Whilst I am here I am also going to rant about, badly asjusted lights, does anybody bother to check these during mot's these day's .. it doesnt seem that way.. !
This one does get me going too. Full MOT's are 3 years after a new registration-in this time you could have (ineptly) replaced the headlight bulbs, your wiper blades split etc and this will go unchecked for upto 3 years.
Why can't we have a minor MOT/safety check every year from when the car is new?
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Why can't we have a minor MOT/safety check every year from when the car is new?
In theory there is. It's called "main dealer servicing".
Stop choking on your coffee! I'm serious! It just seems to have escaped the attention of many dealers that a couple of extra minutes noting some of the above may actually improve customer satisfaction.
How many posts have we seen here that go along the lines of "went to garage xxxx for xxxx service and two miles down the road xxxx failed. Why couldn't they have picked it up at the service, I'm never using them again"
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I'm amazed that not one car manufacturer that I know of (standing by for that inevitable correction!) makes a vehicle with self-cancelling fog lights. A system could easily and cheaply be implemented to do the following:
When switched on the fogs would stay on for (say) 10 minutes, then automatically turn off with an audible 'blip blip' warning. This should be long enough to drive through a fog bank - it's rarely completely continuously foggy. If it's still foggy when you hear the 'blip blip', just turn them back on.
The system would quickly deter the muppets from driving with front fogs on all the time - too annoying to keep re-activating them. It will also act as an aid for those with memory loss and poor sight, who can't remember that they've turned their fogs on and are unable to see the light on their dash.
Cost? Probably less than a quid in production.
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Was travelling up the M1 late on Friday night. A Nissan Primera closes in on me, front fogs (or should that be driving lights?) blazing. It goes past and, yes, rear fogs also on.
5 minutes later, just south of Luton there's a police car on the hard shoulder - who had he pulled over?!!
There is a God after all!
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> In theory there is. It's called "main dealer servicing"
Not in VAG's case. Most of their cars are supplied with variable servicing intervals now. It's quite possible it will be two years before the car is lifted onto a ramp or the oil changed.
I wonder what general condition these cars will be in by that time?
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Just try to console yourselves with the fact that fog light abusers are muppets.
Front fogs are only of use after dark and with headlights off. Rear fogs are only of use in severely reduced visibilty when there is no traffic visible in your rear view mirrors. Simple, logical - if they don't get it, they are stupid.
The police should be dealing with this, but where are they? I can't recall the past time I saw any police vehicle on the M4 and I use it every day. (No, not all of it! ;-) )
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I'm really pleased to see that other people are equally cross with people who drive with front fogs on. They make my evening commute at this time of year (30 miles on A-Roads) very uncomfortable.
I suspect that many owners discover them by accident, think - "Wow those look cool" and then just leave them on for evermore (or until they are pulled over by the police). Sadly, they only look cool to other offenders doing the same thing.
Perhaps a solution for manufacturers could be a message such as "FOG LIGHTS ON" displayed clearly on the dash rather than just a little green light - at least that would clear up this Fog Lights vs Driving Lights nonsense.
Adetri.
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Interesting - I get very irritated by rear foglights left unnecessarily on (to the point of flashing full-beams and even leaving them on, on occasion) but I can't say I have ever been bothered by front fogs. And, being near-sighted, I am prone to being dazzled by strong lights. In fact, I would go so far as to say that, the way many people's dipped-beam headlights are adjusted (NOT!), front foglights - which tend to be pointing fairly low and to the sides - are a distinct improvement...
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I'm amazed that not one car manufacturer that I know of (standing by for that inevitable correction!) makes a vehicle with self-cancelling fog lights. A system could easily and cheaply be implemented to do the following: When switched on the fogs would stay on for (say) 10 minutes, then automatically turn off with an audible 'blip blip' warning. This should be long enough to drive through a fog bank - it's rarely completely continuously foggy. If it's still foggy when you hear the 'blip blip', just turn them back on. The system would quickly deter the muppets from driving with front fogs on all the time - too annoying to keep re-activating them. It will also act as an aid for those with memory loss and poor sight, who can't remember that they've turned their fogs on and are unable to see the light on their dash. Cost? Probably less than a quid in production.
Well, SWMBO drives a, much maligned, Vectra and although it doesn't do quite as you ask it does turn off the fogs when the ignition is turned off. When engine is restarted the fogs need to be physically turned back on, not quite the answer to the problem but does prevent the muppets driving around with them on for weeks after the slightest misty morning. If every vehicle had this system at least it would be clear that the driver must have conciously turned them on, for whatever reason.
Personally I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of times I've felt the need for front fogs. I think they are the most superfluous items on modern cars, with the possible exception of cup holders; where were the designers coming from with that one?
Cockle
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For the ordinary lights, my Leon and Passat both have the rather shrill "lights on" warning, which sounds if the door is opened once the engine is turned off, even if the key is still in the ignition. If the fogs are also on, they switch off automatically as soon as the main light switch is turned off, and don't come on again unless you specifically pull out the headlamp switch. But I do like the idea of foglights that would self-cancel after ten or fifteen minutes of driving, so long as there was enough advance warning.
andymc
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