In the last year, I've travelled to Singapore, Japan, Bahrain, Australia and several cities in the States. It seems everyone is at it, foglights blazing in clear weather, sidelight and foglight combos etc.
In Japan, the manufacturers all seem to be adopting very large low slung "driving lights" as standard. They look like large foglights to me, and certainly dazzle oncomers. It seems the incorrect use of these lights isn't restricted to the UK but has now become a worldwide fashion. Looks like we'd better get used to it!
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Ha, why do they do it? I haven't the foggiest.
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I noticed it in California - half the cars on the freeway had their front foglights on.
Turned out I did too! The Kia Amanti barge that I hired had the stalk switches arranged so they tended to come on together. I only realised after a few days when I parked against a wall.
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This morning it was very foggy around my parts, and as usual, I got depressed at the number of cars coming in the opposite direction with either no lights at all or sidelights, which are pretty much useless in dense fog.
I found myself wishing that the police would be out catching these fools when lo and behold a police traffic car appeared inthe opposite direction, driving with only sidelights on.
God help us!
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I was going to make a pun about razzle dazzle but I thought better of it!
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L\'escargot.
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My eyesight must be going as I have yet to be dazzled by fog lights of oncoming cars. Aren't foglights aimed lower and designed to give a wide beam of light?, not really sure how they could dazzle someone unless they were bending down and looking at them.
If you don't like them simply because they are not necessary then thats a different matter.
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I am not even sure what fog lights do. It was foggy here the other morning and I could see the normal headlamps as well as I could see the fogs! I mean, it is not as if you see them before the others is it?
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Fog lights don't dazzle per se, but are often of poor opticle quality with lots of diffusion and light-spillage, and being mounted lower in the car, means they are more likely to dazzle.
Foglights are also mounted in flimsy plastic valences, and are subject to being out of adjustment and are not annually tested in the MOT like headlamps.
Foglamps also cause twice as much glare, as 4 lights are twice as many sources as 2.
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We had fog the other night and my huge foglights were a waste of time. The throw of the beam is not far enough. The road was lit up at best ten foot in front of the bonnet. Maybe of some use on a road with no street lights, on a dark night with a real 'peasouper', but otherwise regular headlights are more than adequate.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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> We had fog the other night and my huge foglights were a waste of time
I doubt the fog was thick enough to use "foglights". Properly designed foglights are meant to be used only in the dark in really poor visibility, ie less than 100m. We very rarely get fog of that depth. I notice people tend to switch their foglights on when the viz is anything less than 1000m as they think it's "foggy".
With the residual heat in a tarmac road, fog is usually lifted a few inches off the surface, hence the practical use of a low slung light that doesn't shine into the fog ahead, scattering and dazzling you. Take a look at the visibility to the sides of a motorway or other busy road next time it's foggy and you'll see how much of it's lifted by the heat from the road/vehicles.
I also wonder why people insist on leaving their rear foglight on in any visibility. The worse the weather, the worse the effect. Surely as soon as you are in visible range of the car in front, his job is done and it should be switched off, leaving only the "tailend Charlie" to need the extra rear illumination.
Of course, foglights are not really designed as such, they are simply fashion lights rather than a properly designed lamp for the purpose. The tiny Ford/Audi types don't really bother me other than allow me to form an instant (negative) opinion of the car's driver, but it's the huge things on some Japanese cars and tarted up Nova's that are a pain in the retina.
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I also wonder why people insist on leaving their rear foglight on in any visibility. The worse the weather, the worse the effect. Surely as soon as you are in visible range of the car in front, his job is done and it should be switched off, leaving only the "tailend Charlie" to need the extra rear illumination. Of course, foglights are not really designed as such, they are simply fashion lights rather than a properly designed lamp for the purpose. The tiny Ford/Audi types don't really bother me other than allow me to form an instant (negative) opinion of the car's driver, but it's the huge things on some Japanese cars and tarted up Nova's that are a pain in the retina.
I think the idea is that you don't get to close to the car in front with fog, but I must say I have in the past if driving along a road with no sideroads to deviate on to I will turn the tail fogs offs.
We have a Japanise 92' inport this comes with front fogs as standard fit (100 watt bulbs) the rears are aftermarket to compliy with the MOT and SVA - where the fronts should be "put out of use" for it to pass. These are very effective and have yellow lenses, The other feature is turning on the front fogs brings on the sidelights automatically- no headlights as the handbook says headlights reflect the fog and should not be used in dense fog
I think we only have front fogs in the UK because of all the inports where front fogs are used as standard (like Japan)
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In the mornings I have to turn out of my village on to a fast bypass road, the junction being in something of a shallow dip, where fog tends to collect.
I reckon you can definitely see cars with front foglight before you can see the same cars headlights, but with car travelling even as slow as 40MPH the difference is absolutely marginal.
People driving with them on all the time doesn't really bother me, but I did come face to face in a narrow city-centre street the other evening with a Chrysler PT Cruiser and it had large foglights that were pretty dazzling.
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On my '94 Passat you cannot switch on the rear foglights unless the front ones are already on. The light switch turns clockwise one notch for sidelights, two for headlamps. In either of those positions, pulling the switch out one notch turns on the front fogs, pulling out further adds the rear fog.
Cheers, SS
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