"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
idual.net...
On Thu, 15 Oct 2020 10:40:59 +0100, NY wrote:

Given that tail and fog lights serve the same purpose, of defining the
presence and width of the vehicle as seen from behind,

They might now but at one time a single fog light was allowed. The
rear light clusters having that single fog on the (off?) side and the
reversing light in the same position on the (near?) side.

I'd say that a single foglight on the offside is now *more* common than it
used to be. I'm not sure whether it's penny-pinching - fit as few reversing
and fog lights as you can - or whether it's a conscious decision not to pair
the reversing and fog lights, thus preventing a) both sides of the road
behind you being illuminated when reversing, and b) the fog lights acting as
high-power tail lights, defining the width of the car to vehicles coming up
behind you.

With the exception of a my first car (a Mark 1 Renault 5) and my present
Peugeot 308, all my cars (VW Golf Marks 2 and 3, Peugeot 306 x2) have had
dual foglights and dual reversing lights in the cluster, though in each
case, the car was supplied with only a bulb in the offside fog light. My
present Pug 308 (and the Renault 5) only have one reversing light (in the
nearside cluster) and one foglight (in the offside cluster) so I can't just
add the missing bulb to restore paired fog lights. When I'm reversing at
nigth, I tend to put on the fog light to illuminate the right-hand side of
my field of view so I can see *both* gateways that I'm reversing between.

I wonder if there are some countries (maybe France for the Peugeots and
German for the VWs) where it is actually *illegal* to have paired fog
lights, which is why a bulb is only fitted in the offside cluster of those
cars which have sockets in both clusters.

My feeling is that *all* lights, with the exception of the central
high-level brake light, should be paired.