Daytime running lights...what's the deal?

It's a bit like sitting on a train and some wild or drunk passenger tries to get himself noticed. You probably best look the other way and avoid eye contact at all cost.

I think a lot of this has to do with the stupidity of 'reverse logic' in lighting design which sees modern car front lights have everything integrated into one unit, and the headlights are often two seperate lamps which means not only is there more to fail, but when something fails you often have to replace the entire cluster and they're very expensive. Then again I'm sure that when new, classic 900 headlights (since they are unique and not used on any other make/model of car) priced out at a bit dollar figure. Especially the H4 e-code lights which were used all through Europe and here in Oz, but not in the US/Canada until the 'facelist' 900's appeared.

Craig.

I did the same with my '97 900. In addition to the other issues noted about having the headlights on whenever the ignition is on, there are two situations I frequently encounter when having headlights on at night is considered extremely poor judgement:

• when driving near a group of amateur astronomers at a star party
• when approaching the guard station for a military facility

Astronomers don't like it because it takes only an instant for the human eye to lose its dark adaptation (for examples, watch any decent war movie scene on the bridge of a navy ship at night; that's why red lamps are used). Recovering dark adaptation takes far, far longer.

And military guards -- especially these days -- tend to get a bit testy if a car approaches them at night with bright lights that make it impossible to see what's going on in side the car. I was reminded of this because shortly after I bought the car I had to drive onto the grounds of the Naval Observatory -- where the Vice-President's residence is located. Double whammy...and a prompt trip to the dealer.

Joe Morris

What's done in Canada where the headlights with the ignition are required and have been for 20 years or so?

That's not an issue - they don't have a Vice President.