Cats and Audi's and rear fogs....

[Larry C Leung]

Probably the lowest common denominator method of traffic code design (as
evidenced by this) is why US manufacturers don't even bother with
including rear fogs.

LL -NY

On Sun, 9 Dec 2001 14:45:45 -0500 (EST) Brett Dikeman <brett at cloud9.net>
writes:
>On Sun, 9 Dec 2001, George Selby wrote:
>
>> At 09:13 AM 12/9/01, you wrote:
>> >That is a great point, I suppose we can point the blame at the
>sales goons
>> >that are not informing the buyers of all of the features these new
>cars come
>> >with, and their proper use..
>>
>> I don't think it's the salesman's responsibility to go through the
>owner's
>> manual with a new owner page by page to explain the vehicle to the
>new
>> owner whom just purchased it.  It is the owner's responsibility to
>READ the
>> owner's manual, and understand the product he just bought.
>
>Actually, you're BOTH wrong.  Joe Fritz spent a few years at Ira Audi,
>and
>we occasionally did lunch when I was in town.  One time, I was making
>noise about the morons in the area leaving their rear fogs on, and
>why
>didn't the dealers do something?
>His response(from memory so it may not be word-for-word):
>
>"We DO.  When they come in to pick up the car, we spend about an hour
>with
>them going over everything in the car, top to bottom.  We emphasize on
>the
>front+rear fog switches etc."
>
>"Ah."
>
>"However, we'll get a call from them a few weeks later.  'Hi, this is
>so-and-so, this Audi's already got a broken taillight, I want it
>fixed.'
>No, sir, thats your rear fog light.'  'No its not, its the brake
>light.'
>'Sir, go downstairs, turn on the car, and push the little button with
>the
>light picture on it and the yellow light in the middle, its on the
>center console, up top.' <clump clump clump. <long pause> <clump
>clump
>clump> 'Well, Ill be damned.'  'Have a nice day, sir.'"
>
>Personally, I think the solution to the problem is to spread an urban
>legend about how inner city gangs go into the 'burbs during the night
>and
>go looking for people with their rear fog lights on(aka, the whole
>urban
>legend about gangs driving around with their headlights off and people
>who
>flashed at them would get shot at etc.)  As demonstrated by the fact
>that
>everyone on the planet has heard this little urban legend by now, I
>think
>it would work great :-)
>
>Another option, of course, is for NHTSA to get off their lazy asses
>and
>revise stuff on the books regarding automotive lighting.  A big step
>would
>be to "sync up" with canada/europe/australia/japan on the
>subject(accounting for RHD/LHD of course), the same with crash
>standards.
>Take one guess why this will never happen...US automakers would have
>even
>MORE competition, and we wouldn't want that, now would we?
>
>If I recall, parts of Europe have stiff penalties for improper use of
>fog
>lights, front and rear facing.
>
>B
>