"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
alan_m wrote:
If factory fitted (and possibly self fitted) they must be working for a
MOT. There may be only one rear fog light (drivers side) although on
some cars there may be just a reflector on the passenger side without a
light.

It's a legal requirement in some countries that there is only one rear
fog. Presumably to avoid confusion with brake lights.

I wondered if that was the case, given that a lot of recent cars have only
one fog light. My previous cars had two white lights in the clusters for
reversing and two red lights for fog, but there was no bulb in the nearside
fog light - so I added one, on the grounds that (IMHO) *all* front and rear
lights should be in pairs, to define the car's width. My current car has
only one white light on the nearside (which is a bugger when reversing at
night and the offside of the road behind is not lit) and only one red light
on the offside. I tend to put my fog light on when reversing at night, so
both sides of the car (eg walls/hedges that I'm reversing between) are lit
up in either white or red.

I think the "some countries" are making a very serious safety error in
mandating only one foglight. I find in fog that it is essential that I can
see both rear lights (and fog lights do the same job in fog as tail lights
in clear conditions, in defining the width of the car when seen from a
distance) and so can judge (from the apparent spacing) how far away the car
is when all I can see of it are its fog light(s).


My ideal grouping of rear lights would be:

- indicator
- side
- fog
- reflector
- brake

in that order (or the opposite) so the indicator is some distance from the
brake and fog lights, and so the fog and brake lights are separated and
therefore can be distinguished (I always look for the third high-level brake
light if I'm unsure whether it's fog or brake). I'd group side and fog,
except that this would place the bright fog light right next to the
indicator, making it hard to see the indicator if the car has its foglights
(or brake lights) on.

Those considerations *far* outweigh any aesthetic rules about how "pretty"
the clusters look.

VW are terrible: the rear indicator is a ring around the side/brake light,
so it's almost invisible if the brake lights are on.


Bring back nice simple clusters, maybe even separate housings on the
rear/front body, and definitely don't put the front indicators anywhere near
the headlights! Lights are meant to be clearly visible in all conditions,
not to look pretty!