BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

So, couple of observations, why has there been an increase in drivers who have a headlight with either no dipped beam or actually out. This morning counted at least 6 cars with duff lights in a 5 mile drive.


Second, in fog the muppets who do not realise automatic lights only put on front running lights and not their tail lights. Technology is great, but in the case of fog and its not dark, their main lights do not come on!


Rant over  8)

I am one of those muppets..


Both cars have automatic lights, which means I never need to think about turning them on or off.


I noticed yesterday, that they hadn't switched on in the fog. I only noticed when I saw that the dash wasn't illuminated.  I didn't need them to see, but I did need them to be seen. I can of course override them... when I remember.

My car also has automatic lights, but on the dash it shows a green headlight when the main lights are on  8)  And you can't switch on rear fogs unless your main lights are on, so if the fog isn't bad enough to warrant fog lights then you might not know.

Well this morning out in the car in the gloom with my auto lights having switched on dip and back light (French technology at its best), suddenly out of nowhere was a bike coming the other way.  No lights , rider all in black except for his jeans.
Muppet drivers, muppet riders.

RTman10 wrote: Well this morning out in the car in the gloom with my auto lights having switched on dip and back light (French technology at its best),suddenly out of nowhere was a bike coming the other way.  No lights , rider all in black except for his jeans.
Muppet drivers, muppet riders.

It must have been dark then, my Jap auto lights are not smart enough to switch on if its light but foggy. They do if its dark though. Even the radio station was telling people with auto lights to switch to manual.

No what it is, mine being French, when I start up under the car port they switch dip on but are too dumb to switch off again until it senses sun.

Then there's the tossers who mistake 100 metres visability for 1000 metres visability or just think there fig lights look cool so never turn them off

It's not just Japanese cars. I was out in the fog the other day in my BMW 5-series and suddenly realised that the automatic lights were not on.

One minor annoyance of the e61 is that the green light that tells you if the lights are on is hidden behind the steering wheel so it's not easy to tell one way or the other if the lights are on.

My  Jaguar has adaptive LEDs and puts running lights on the front in good light and rear lights are on permanently, good light or bad. It sees around corners with extra lights also, God knows how much to replace them if stone shatters them! 

I have more of a problem with the idiots who have fog lights on when there is no fog, or those who put large wattage bulbs, or hids with reflectors that scatter light and just blind oncoming traffic.  >:(

To put another slant on this, as motorcyclists are the most vulnerable in a rear end collision why don,t bikes have rear fog lights.

To put another slant on this, as motorcyclists are the most vulnerable in a rear end collision why don,t bikes have rear fog lights.


Come to think of it.  A few years ago lots were fitting them.  These days you only seem to hear about stacks of extra spot lights or multi  flashing brake lights.

Sullivj wrote: .....
Bsoth cars have automatic lights, which means I never need to think about turning them on or off.... I can of course override them... when I remember.

On my (German) car, I have to switch from auto to manual lights to get rear lights and the option of a rear fog light. Since the lights are on auto 90+% of the time it's almost guaranteed that I will forget to switch back to auto before parking up. Two things will then happen - the lights will go off when the key comes out and a warning buzzer will sound to remind me to switch back to auto. Seems pretty foolproof to me.
My rant would be about people driving without lights in very poor light (eg rain and black clouds everywhere) - some of them in cars with automatic headlights (switched off ?!?) or on parking lights (the ones we used to call sidelights) - parking lights often become visible a second after I can see the vehicle !
There, I feel better now .....

It's probably time for cars to go the same way as bikes.  No light off switch and the rear always on.  Havnt yet found a way of totally switching off all my car lights though. Turn the knob to Off and the running LEDs stay on.

misuse of rear fog lights is one of my pet hates


some people seem to think they should be on at the slightest hint of mist


they should only be used in heavy fog, otherwise you end up dazzling everyone and people cannot tell if you're braking


also, i see a lot of cars with front lights on and rear lights off. i did not think that was possible, but it seems newer cars have the ability to do this, quite why you would want your front lights on but not your rear baffles me




The Highway Code says that you should only use your fog lamps when the visibility drops below 100m. If you're not sure when that is, a good rule of thumb is to work out whether you can see the tail lights of the car in front of you. If you can't, you (and they) should probably be using rear fog lamps.

Our car (Ford) also has automatic lights.  SWMBO is the designated driver - far too many wheels for my tastes - noticed that in fog the lights were not one, so she switched them to manual & then activated the fog lights.

As a wife to a bike rider she is aware of the dangers, and tries to take reasonable steps to avoid a car / auto mating.

I agree with the point about the lack of fog lamps.  You can get front fogs, but not rear.  Really does not make any sense!