DLR Daytime Running Lights

It's about time!

DRL's exist to sell more light bulbs. If any driver (surely no one in this group) is too sleepy or drunk to notice a yellow Dodge Ram Dually coming at him because its *lights aren't on*, he has other issues.

You do not need studies to make this call. All of us see cars clearly every day without their lights.

DRL's may be modestly helpful in dark snowy Scandinavian countries, but the rest can be trusted to turn our own headlights on when they are needed.

Of course, it's a free country, if anyone wants to pay for this 'feature', I do not object. However, I can divide humanity in to 2 parts: 1. rational people who do not need these, and 2. neurotics who wring their hands about safety continuously and need schlockmiesters to separate them from their money for one more gimmick to feel safe.

regards, Keith E. Loyd

My problem is that there is a 3rd group, people who should never be allowed to get a drivers license but still got one that seem to find a delight in having their lights off whatever weather it is and enjoy driving in my blindspots (don't care if they do that when I'm in my car, but with a bus or truck they are hard to spot). These people create the need for those things, more then group 2.

I find that very disturbing also. It is very un-informative and offers only opinions not facts.

Here is a source of some facts:

Is there a place to find protest against GM, GMC, BMW, Ford, Jeep, etc DRL's? DRL's are here to stay because it's a federal mandate thing. Maybe we wouldn't have this problem if responsible drivers would have their headlamps on after dark. Or , took the time to watch for other drivers before cutting in front of them causing accidents in daytime. Granted I don't even like some of today's headlamps at nighttime on some of the newer vehicles. The Feds are just trying to keep dumb drivers alive longer.

Just yesterday I saw someone in a VW pull away without their lights on well after dark. Their DRL's were on, as always, so the road ahead was lit...only problem is they were dark to the world that followed. Stupid people will find a way to foil all attempts at keeping them from harming themselves, so things geared toward aiding the morons of the world are a waste. I'd rather they focus on making things work for the rest of us...who operate with our heads outside our ass cheeks.

I have to agree with Baudolino and Woodchuck that certain knuckleheads benefit from DRLS and the government spends too much effort keeping them alive.

BUT

Most of you remember that Big Brother did not trust us to put on our own seatbelts in the early 1990's. New cars had motorized belts that put the belt on for you and caused all kinds of agrivation once they got older. Our Benevolent Overlords relented on this rule and let us have our normal seatbelts back. It is possible, and hope springs eternal in this holiday season, that DRL's will also be a fad that eventually dies out.

In either case, VW will give the people what they want.

regards, Keith E. Loyd

What I find very disturbing is the use of foglights under clear weather conditions. That's all we need...a midlife crisis driving around town in his moster SUV with all headlights blazing. Reminds me of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

As for lightsout.0rg, sounds like someone doesn't like VW.

Savages.

how dare you try to fool us with scientific, peer reviewed studies?

In Canada yes, but not in the US. They've become common in the US though.

And their passangers, and the drivers and passangers in the other car.

I like the motorized belts, at least the one I had in my Mazda. I understand many others were not as well designed.

I agree with this 100%...but around where I live, in addition to SUV's it is pretty much any car that has such lights that seems to have them on all the time.

You have it backwards. DRLs are not to protect dumb drivers who don't turn their lights on when they should. They are to protect THE REST OF US from those idiots. It's just like those annoying "backing up beepers" on commercial vehicles, which protect bystanders while (probably) driving the driver nuts.

This is where somebody will chime in and say "better education" or whatever to get the bad drivers off the road. But even if that was practical the fact remains that sometimes even very good drivers make mistakes.

What's disturbing about it? Those things are obnoxious if not dangerous. If they must have DRL, have them low wattage at least.

Some people have WAY to much time on their hands.

Especially against the Touareg ????? That site's been there for at least 4 years - I used it to disable my Jetta DRL's in 2001.

Seems you were even too lazy to click the link.

The feds of every country are simply catering to the lowest common denominator. The same people that swear by having DRL's are the same people whos lights burn out earlier and drive at night ( you know - that time when lights are actually needed) with only one functioning or, heaven help us, none.

Which is a pain in the ass if you're doing handbrake turns or "proper" hill starts, as you lights flash off and off. Looks kinda like when people hit the wipers instead of the signals!

Whatever - you can disable the DRL's with a Vag-com