Foglights [was: Cats and Audi's and rear fogs]

[Zsolt]

I am wondering how many regions of the North American continent have
conditions where rear fog lights would be an advantage. I am guessing
the coasts, and by the Great Lakes.

Here in Alberta, Canada we rarely have fog, and even if there is, it has
never been that bad that rear fog lights would have been essential.
(that is since I lived here since 86)

In Europe however I have seen fog so thick, that I had to open the door
to see where the line was on the road and I could barely see beyond the
nose of my car.

In fog like that one should really have the rear fog lights on, unless
they want to get rear ended.

The front fog lights (in my opinion) should only be used when one can't
see properly with the regular headlights. The regular headlights light
up the fog in front of you and it becomes a "white wall". Fog lights on
the other hand are positioned low, they scatter the light instead of
projecting it, and low wattage. They will allow you to see through the
fog and see the road, which is what you will concentrate on because you
don't know where you are going.

The miss use of fog lights really annoys me. The front ones most people
have on for the "cool factor". (Really. how much cooler is it going to
make you?) I bet in case of rear fog lights, majority of the people who
have them on are not even aware of it. The rear ones are a bigger
problem, because they are way to bright to be used under normal
conditions and they are easily misread to be brake lights as well...

...but maybe it's just me.

Zsolt


Larry C Leung wrote:

> 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
>>
>>
>