Fog lamps

[BUTCH1]

Mine are factory, (05 Chevy Malibu LT) and help some but not a huge difference at all..

 

[_Rick_]

What if the visibility is 51 meters?

And how does one know?

And 164 feet seems a bit short to me. If visibility is that low, driving must be seriously impaired.

In the UK it seems to be 100 meters.

On all German roads (outside town) there are posts every 50 meters.
If you see one post next to you, but not the next one, then reduce speed to 50 kph, and light rear red fog light.Any other use of the rear red fog light is not permitted/

The fronts, to my knowledge, are permitted in situations of "bad visibility" but not necessarily limited to the 50-meter-visibility case. (Wikipedia agrees: low visibility due to fog, rain or snow).
They are the only lights that are permitted to be yellow (old yellow main lights are no longer permitted in Germany)

This clashes a bit with the introduction of the lame "corner light" use case in recent models though, not sure how they are suddendly no longer "fog lights" when only a single one is switched on.

 

[JCH13]

Ever since I left Germany (Lived there a few years), it always bugs me to see people drive around with their fog lights on when there's no fog. If I remember right, German auto laws forbid the use of fog lights unless the visibility is 50m or less.

Nothing I can do about it but I guess I still have all those German auto laws ingrained into my head after all these years.

That seems silly. What's the reason for that law?

I use my fog lights all the time to illuminate the side of the road so that I can more easily see deer and the like.

 

[LTC8K6]

Sounds like an unenforceable law if it were the US. Fog is incredibly variable as far as visibility and judgement of what one can see through it. It can go from good visibility to no visibility to medium visibility in a mile.

Then again, it sounds like a good revenue generator for US cities. We generally know the low spots where fog banks appear. Cops could sit there and wait for drivers to fail to turn on their fog lamps. $50 fine. Instant revenue stream on a 1 mile stretch of road.

Sounds like quite an expense to put up a visibility marker every 50 meters.

Benz can probably make a "post recognition system" to automatically operate the fog lights at 50m visibility.

 

[LTC8K6]

That seems silly. What's the reason for that law?

I use my fog lights all the time to illuminate the side of the road so that I can more easily see deer and the like.

I actually refer to mine as "ditch lights".

 

[sdifox]

They are useful. I do question the people that drive with them on all the time. And I have seen many other with fog lights off in situations where they are warranted.

 

[dbk]

I leave mine on (Honda Fit). Its functional because I can see the sides of the road better.

 

[foghorn67]

Mine are factory, (05 Chevy Malibu LT) and help some but not a huge difference at all..

My 09 was a lifesaver the other day.

 

[phucheneh]

I love rear fog lights.

'Hay guys, what if we put some random useless lights on the back of the car to make people think your reverse lights are on when they're not?'

'Brilliant! *drinks Heineken from decorative stein*"

 

[DaTT]

I think my fog lights are useless, but I always have them on when my headlights are on, just habit.