If you can not figure out how to turn your headlights on, then maybe you should be removed from the gene pool.

I don't need one more big brother feature to make me safe.

Also keep in mind that some people's eyes are better than others. They might have been able to see just fine in that rain storm, so they obviously did not have an accident. They should have had some lights on for others to see them though.

Nothing frustrates me more than people who can't see while driving in the rain spreading out side by side on a highway and slowing down to a crawl while those that can see get stuck behind them and cause a more dangerous situation.

 

Frankly, I was a little bothered by this just the other day. I normally have mine on auto 24/7, but the other night around 2am I was driving along, stopped at a traffic light, had some random guys crossing the street pointing at the front left corner of my car and saying something about a light, then a cabbie on the other side yelled something too, and finally I realized that my headlights were out. I did notice that the console lights seemed brighter than usual, but it was a dry night, well lit road, I had no clue that the lights weren't on. And once I did realize it, since I never work the lights (remember "auto 24/7"?) I couldn't even figure out what position it was in, or the other positions, because I was driving at 2am, it was dark, little light coming in from outside, and the control isn't lit at all. Yeah I agree there might be something more that could be done. If the car's going to beep and light the MFD every time you shut the car off with the moonroof open, you might think there'd be _some_ blatant indication that you're driving along at 20+ mph, in the dark, with no headlights.

 

I drove without lights at night at least twice already, totally my fault, I didn't check lights indicator, didn't notice that my dashboard was very bright and didn't pay attention to the fact that my headlights didn't reflect off the cars in front (brightly light up streets, so the headlights didn't do anything for me anyway, just making me visible to the other drivers). Just about similar mistake to mixing up breaks with accelerator pedal, you could also say the pedals are so close to each other and are confusing. Driver's fault is driver's fault and lets not blame it on everybody else. I also believe there has to be way to shut off DRL when the driver wants it to. Until my car can drive itself and I'm there as a passenger I want to have full control of the car, lights on or off included. As far as not finding the position on the switch for the lights on at 2 AM in the morning , you got to be kidding, it's all the way up, you can find proper DRL settings in the morning.

 

Why is it so hard to believe that never actually using or looking at the controls it might somehow be unclear what the correct position is supposed to be, or if I'm already in it, when I can't see it? Get real, heh. There's no way this compares to mixing up gas and brake, now that I have to say you've got to be kidding to. You use those pedals all the time, every single time you drive. I hadn't touched the headlight controls in probably a year or more, or even thought about them, because they're always in the same position and never require any attention. Pick any other control in the car that you never use and tell me you could close your eyes and find it and change the setting on it correctly blind.

 

Okay,

How long does it take for them to turn off (auto setting) once you park and power off the car?

 

Just takes.. I dunno, longer than you expect sometimes but not that long. And you can always hit the lock button on the fob and it'll shut them off, too. I'd say under a minute but I'm used to it enough that I usually either just walk away and not think about it, or manually hit the lock button on the fob to turn them off, so couldn't really give a solid estimate.

 

I believe that the factory default is 30 seconds. BUT- the 30 seconds doesn't start until all the doors and the trunk are closed. If you close the driver door but dig around in the trunk for 3 minutes, they will stay on until you close the trunk and 30 seconds pass.

Like said above, you can turn them off immediately if you have all the doors and trunk closed and you press the lock button on the remote fob.

 

Here you and I must disagree.

• Cannot figure out how to figure out how to turn on headlights --
  • ALMOST agree -- however -- In '96 I purchased a new '96 Grand Am w/ always on DRL (like in Canada) and Auto lights and sold it in '07 for TCH. I left the controls in Automatic ALL the time. Only turned manually controlled switch once a month (possibly every other month to make sure that the circuitry worked.) In an emergency, could I select Auto/Manual/parking lights: NO, because I always it set for full AUTO. Now I have the TCH. The light controls are in AUTO all the time. Do I know which dial position I need to set it to for Parking lights only? No, for the same reason. DRL? No. etc. Can I drive the car safely? IMHO, yes.

• As far as being frustrated in rainstorms: Stand by if you're behind me.
  • I'm from Florida. (And now live in Virginia.) Florida, like in many other areas, MANY times has rainstorms (or VA w/ snow) so heavy that you can't see far ahead of you. So, what do you do? Continue driving at 70 miles per hour even though you cannot see 50 -> 100 feet ahead of you? Or do you slow down to a safe speed. Me, I'll slow down. Also, even if you can see safely, the road conditions may be ripe for hydroplaning (or skiing in VA). I try to drive within the speed limits, but I (almost) always err on the side of caution.

The time the lights stay on can be set by the dealer. I have mine set at 30 seconds.

 

The the first case you do know how to turn on the headlights, you have them set to auto. Done, no user intervention required. If someone does not know this, they should not be driving!

In the second case, I don't mind you slowing down, but I do mind you slowing down to the same speed as the car next to you and sitting there. If you want to go the same speed, then fall in behind them.

I also agree that you should not go faster than the conditions, but each car can handle the conditions differently. One car has new tires on it and weighs a lot, the second car has four may-pops on it, and it is a light weight.

Should the person who properly maintains their car have to go excrucingly slow because the other driver does not maintain their car?