I'm perfectly calm. But you couldn't seem to fathom in your earlier post while anyone might drive during the movie. Sometimes I don't have as much patience as I should for short sighted folks.
Well, considering I used to run all the time with the lights on in my old truck, it's not much of a change for me. The switch on the old truck was easy to hit and was on the way to the brake release and back, so it was nothing to turn full headlights on (no DRLs on the 94 Jimmy).
I agree, I can't tell you how many times I see a GM vehicle cruising around with the amber DRLs on when they should have full headlights, especially in the rain, and both my parents have been guilty of this, I've even suggested they turn the lights on a few times. It was a little weird getting in my dad's Durango back in July when I had to drive it at night and I actually had to turn the headlight switch to turn the lights on.
I liked what GM did back on the early Grand Prix Sedan's (90+). The DRL's were in actuality the headlights on full brightness. Once it got dark, the only difference was that the tail lights, fog lights and the bar lights came on.
This is how my S-10 is, the DRLs are the low-beams on full brightness. I have a ZR2, having the DRLs as high beams (not sure if they were reduced brightness) failed to comply with an FMVSS code, so they changed them.
I don't know of any insurance company that gives discounts for DRLs. Certainly not any that I've checked with, nor the one that wrote my current policy.
I don't know about you, but the visual "signature cue" I go by is whether the dashboard lights are on. In the dead of night, you can bet that if for any reason I was stupid enough not to turn on my headlights, the fact that I can't see the gauge cluster would be a "cue" that I forgot something.
Then what exactly was she driving beforehand? Even though there's an auto headlight feature on a Grand Am, the manual procedure for turning on headlights in a Grand AM is the same as any other late model car: rotate the ring on the headlight stalk (left hand side of the steering column) to the ON position; reverse direction to switch it back to Auto. If she didn't know this when she drove the Grand Am, then I doubt she knew this beforehand, or "forgot" how to drive somehow.
I reject the idea that somehow having auto headlights makes drivers shed IQ points all of a sudden. If they're having problems and must put their whole faith in an auto-headlight system, and then either can't or won't determine when the car has misjudged when it should be appropriate to turn on the headlights and do it themselves, then they simply didn't have the skills the begin with.
Many cars have cruise control; do these same people assume the car knows how fast it should be going when it reaches a construction or school zone?
I have discounts for DRLs, ABS, airbags and theft deterrant on my S-10. I live in NY, other states may differ. Insurance company is Nationwide, but I think Progressive gave me the same discounts...
I've seen many "late-model cars" that have a different method to turn the lights on. A knob on the dash panel that you either pull or turn to activate the headlights. Most, if not all, Buicks fall into that category, as well as vehicles from other makes..
One would think that the dash lights should be a good indication...although I've known people to turn the dash intensity down to almost off as a preference (I keep them about half way dimmed)...it probably would be a problem for them unless it was pitch black out. But remember also, you're dealing with the general public. Some percentage of them will use the headlight "visual cue" method, not the dash light "visual cue" method. A good reason for engineers to use the KISS method to design (Keep It Simple Stupid) as well as keep functions and controls across lines and manufacturers that operate to a fairly industry-standard way is so that as people (in general, not well aware folks such as yourself) when they move from vehicle to vehicle, the confusion factor is minimized (and intuitive habits do the job). They used to do that..they apparently don't any more.
| >I don't know of any insurance company that gives discounts for DRLs. | >Certainly not any that I've checked with, nor the one that wrote my | >current policy. | | I have discounts for DRLs, ABS, airbags and theft deterrant on my | S-10. I live in NY, other states may differ. Insurance company is | Nationwide, but I think Progressive gave me the same discounts...
The New York state legislature mandated the discounts for DRLs several years ago...which, as is typically the case with lawmakers, was not based on any insurance loss data. If it had been, they would not have mandated the discount. GM probably lobbied for it and they bit instead of actually asking the insurance companies for the data to see if they really make a difference in reducing loss.
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