Are DRL's a good safty feature that shouldn't be turned off?

[eyewhy]

Mine's got Xenon headlights. At £78 for a new bulb and £45 to fit (speaking from experience), i'll leave the lights for the night time.

[ivor940]

Hi, Don't forget its not just other drivers that need to see you, it is also pedestrians and cyclists who get extra warning. Even my wife ( who BTW does not like my 940 ) now drives her Ford Escort estate with her dipped lights on during daylight. She does like the heated seats on the 940 though.

ivor940

When was the last time you saw a jam-sandwich coloured V70 without its lights on?

If DRLs are good enough for the old bill then they're good enough for you!

[vjck_uk]

i have cut the wires on my phase one ,
all copcars dont have em and do you miss seeing them on the roads?
as for the insurance being invalid thats rubbish we havent a law in this country to say we have to have them.
one thing is the bulbs all go sooner and in theory you could get done for a faulty headlight at midday with the sun out as all lights have to be working at all times.
Another thing is more fuel used and correspondly more polution for what ?
its estimated another £26 of extra fuel a year with them on taking an average yearly mileage.
plus the costs of burnt out wiring and bulbs.
In short they get a big fat zero out of ten from me

[Nocomplaints1977]

Yeh invalidating your insurance?!? It is a feature of the car that you can have the DRL's on or off (as in the Volvo manual) and therefore is NOT modifying your car. Modifying your car entails changing the original specification which this is not and as above we have no law at the moment for using them.

[Fulcanelli]

The way it was explained to me was "it's one thing less to worry about."

I never have to remember to turn them off - or on.

There's never that "Oh, it's getting a bit dark/rainy/cloudy - shall I turn the lights on or not?" moment.

[Oli]

The insurance point is a valid one, but only for cars where the option to turn the DRLs off is not available. Cutting the wires could be interpreted as a mod, trivial though it may seem. This is the original point.

Personally, I think DRLs add a significant level of safety. In fact, I leave mine on the proper headlight setting, so that rear lights are on too. I've disabled them for use in the DRL position only because I travel over to France quite often, and one is required to turn lights off when traveling on the Shuttle.

One clear safety advantage is when the sun is bright and low. When driving into the sun, headlights coming towards you make cars much easier to see. And when using the rear view mirror, headlights will also stand out allowing you to see other cars more quickly.

Also, the visibility improvement is exactly why motorbikes use their headlights all the time.

And I almost never get flashed these days.

Oli

I also ride a honda blackbird motorcycle and have riden for years and years with my lights on (both volvos and bikes) it's also recomended by many police and advanced drivers/riders of both cars and motorcycles, when I passed my advanced riding course a topic of discussion was DRLS, all agreed its easier to spot a car or bike if it has some form of light aiding your visual perception of the vehicle.

[Viper_7]

Originally Posted by scottishvolvo

I thought I read on another forum on this site that all new cars after a set date in the near future must have them.
Alfonz, how did you get your lights off, My friend tried but never managed. Could you have a "cross-over" car between Phases 1 and 2.
Chris

Yes, all vehicles will have DRL's by 2010 by law.

Vipes

Edit ... hmm not sure where I got that date from now- can't find it again!!

[Viper_7]

Originally Posted by vjck_uk

i have cut the wires on my phase one ,
all copcars dont have em and do you miss seeing them on the roads?
as for the insurance being invalid thats rubbish we havent a law in this country to say we have to have them.
one thing is the bulbs all go sooner and in theory you could get done for a faulty headlight at midday with the sun out as all lights have to be working at all times.
Another thing is more fuel used and correspondly more polution for what ?
its estimated another £26 of extra fuel a year with them on taking an average yearly mileage.
plus the costs of burnt out wiring and bulbs.
In short they get a big fat zero out of ten from me

cut the wires! So your driving a vehicle with defective wiring.

Cop cars have them turned off so "they don't stand out" - that's one easy method of spotting an unmarked police car (if volvo)
If you have turned them off by means not provided by the manufacture then you have modified the car from standard - and some insurers will count this against you if you made a claim ( they look for anything these days to get out of paying). Most insurers don't care though - but they will all request you tell them so they have it on their records.

In theory you could get done for anything - but there's more people who don't turn them on at dusk than the few that have a bulb out during the day - which is never ever really going to have the police stopping you for.

They do use about 0.3% more fuel. but then ya heater/air-con/rear demister uses a damn site more than that - I guess we should ban car heaters too? Latest flavours of DRL's actually dim during the day to prolong bulb life and lessen the impact on fuel economy.
Yes, the bulbs do burn out more - but they have been proven again and again to be safer, the odd bulb here or there is better than an expensive collision.
big 10/10 from me!


Here's a nice bed time read: http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/group...ads_613618.pdf

This one's more easy reading : http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/cons...info/ECDRL.pdf