WTH is up with GM daytime running lights?

[Don Vito Corleone]

I have been driving a lot of GM vehicles lately (I have been on the road for business for most of the last few months, and they are government vehicles), and I am a little puzzled by the daytime running lights. It seems as though the headlights are on at the same intensity, whether the switch is in the off, parking light, or headlight position. The only difference I can tell is that they stay on when you remove the key if they are in the headlight position. Why would you ever even touch the switch?

For what it's worth, I dislike them because I resent the idea that GM thinks their car knows better than I do - other things being equal I prefer manual switches on things (though I like the automatic setting on my Nissan, which automatically turns the lights on when needed).

 

[tweakmm]

DRLs are only the front beams right? You still need tail lights in the evening.

 

[MattCo]

During normal daylight conditions, only the daytime running lights are on. When you turn the light switch on, the tail lights, running lights, parking lights, and the dashboard lights come on.

Why would you want to turn off your daytime running lights? If it increases the visibility of your car to others, there is no benifit in turning them off.

-MC

 

[MikeMike]

the positioning of the lights is different i do believe. the DRL's are just to show you are there, and not project outwards and at the ground, but just be there, the night lights are to be able to see.

and GM's cars do know better than A LOT of ppl who neglect to turn on their lights when it is raining out. i hate those ppl

MIKE

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: tweakmm
DRLs are only the front beams right? You still need tail lights in the evening.

I didn't know that. I would think that anytime headlights improved safety, taillights would be even more important. If that's true they are even dumber than I thought.

 

[RagingBITCH]

When it breaks down it's easier for the tow truck to find.

 

[The Stigenator]

DRL run at 25-30% at High Beam.. and hence.. is seen in the day time.. however you can always tell a new driver or a rental driver.. they are driving at night with DRL and no lights.

how stupid are they.. dont they check the car befor ethey get in to see what switches are where?

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1
the positioning of the lights is different i do believe. the DRL's are just to show you are there, and not project outwards and at the ground, but just be there, the night lights are to be able to see.

MIKE

No, I know that's not the case (at least not on the S-10 I am driving this week). They are the same lights as the headlights. I was behind a car with chrome bumpers at a stoplight, and the same lamps were on regardless of where the switch was.

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: Don_Vito

Originally posted by: tweakmm
DRLs are only the front beams right? You still need tail lights in the evening.

I didn't know that. I would think that anytime headlights improved safety, taillights would be even more important. If that's true they are even dumber than I thought.

to a point yes, but i dont wanna argue.

MIKE

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: The_good_guy
DRL run at 25-30% at High Beam.. and hence.. is seen in the day time.. however you can always tell a new driver or a rental driver.. they are driving at night with DRL and no lights.

how stupid are they.. dont they check the car befor ethey get in to see what switches are where?

True, but to me that makes them more dangerous than not having DRLs at all. I am not impressed that they have any real safety impact, and to me they are just another example of dumbing cars down to the target consumer. Meh . . .

 

When I first bought my S-10 new back in 95 DRL were pretty new. I had never heard of them. So I freaked after I drove home and noticed that I couldn't turn the freakin' lights off. I thought my truck was broke.

I promptly called the dealership and they had a good laugh at my expense.

 

[XZeroII]

You guys must be using old cars. My car (2003 Grand Am) has DRL, but there is a photo sensor of some kind and when it gets so dark, it will automatically turn on the fully headlights, dashlights and tail lights (as if you turned the switch on).

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: XZeroII
You guys must be using old cars. My car (2003 Grand Am) has DRL, but there is a photo sensor of some kind and when it gets so dark, it will automatically turn on the fully headlights, dashlights and tail lights (as if you turned the switch on).

Those automatic light sensors are the most annoyingly stupid things ever. GM was stupid not to make that easily disabled. There's very little more annoying than driving a car like that through a tunnel and having it turn the lights on, then having to wait a couple minutes after I'm out of the tunnel for it to turn the damn lights off so that I can see my radio and climate control displays again.

ZV

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

My mom drove a 2000? Buick Regal that had lights that automatically came on when the light level was low enough. The problem was that just when you entered a tunnel, you momentarily were blind until the lights came on.

 

[jsbush]

In Quebec Day time running lights are required to come on automatically on cars new then 95 or 96 or something like that. I find it does a great impact on saftey, especially in small roads with dangerous passing lanes, Much easier to see the cars.

Cars here have day time running lights,
parking lights,
night lights,
and high beams.

when you turn just the parking lights on the day time running lights are still on. They only turn off when you turn your night lights or high beams off.



Simple.

 

[aircooled]

I like DRL's. In cars without them I tend to turn on the lights in the daytime just for better visibility of my vehicle.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: XZeroII
You guys must be using old cars. My car (2003 Grand Am) has DRL, but there is a photo sensor of some kind and when it gets so dark, it will automatically turn on the fully headlights, dashlights and tail lights (as if you turned the switch on).

Those automatic light sensors are the most annoyingly stupid things ever. GM was stupid not to make that easily disabled. There's very little more annoying than driving a car like that through a tunnel and having it turn the lights on, then having to wait a couple minutes after I'm out of the tunnel for it to turn the damn lights off so that I can see my radio and climate control displays again.

ZV

You mean you can't set the HLs to be always on? That is dumb. I really like the automatic light-sensing lights on my Nissan, but it also has full-off and full-on positions.

 

[C'DaleRider]

Our '02 Blazer has DRLs and they are indeed the high beams on reduced output...........and it also has the auto-on function for the headlights, so when it's dim outside, the headlights automatically come on.........and they also come on in fairly dark shadows, tunnels, etc....wherever the light is not daylight.

We rarely use the light switch any longer.......when it's dark outside, the lights come on the instant the key is turned. You must be driving either an older GM or one with a one-bulb headlight.

As for why GM does it..............because Canada requires DRLs and because GM assembles a lot of their cars in Canada and ships much of that output back to the US for sale, it was cheaper to standardize to Canada's requirement for DRLs than have two different headlight configs for the two countries. A savings of a few cents probably, but a few cents over millions of vehicles adds up.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: C'DaleRider
Our '02 Blazer has DRLs and they are indeed the high beams on reduced output...........and it also has the auto-on function for the headlights, so when it's dim outside, the headlights automatically come on.........and they also come on in fairly dark shadows, tunnels, etc....wherever the light is not daylight.

We rarely use the light switch any longer.......when it's dark outside, the lights come on the instant the key is turned. You must be driving either an older GM or one with a one-bulb headlight.

As for why GM does it..............because Canada requires DRLs and because GM assembles a lot of their cars in Canada and ships much of that output back to the US for sale, it was cheaper to standardize to Canada's requirement for DRLs than have two different headlight configs for the two countries. A savings of a few cents probably, but a few cents over millions of vehicles adds up.

Actually, I'm driving a Lincoln without DRL's. Ford's "AutoLamp" system has a sensor, but it is easily disabled by a prominant switch on the dashboard.

The problem is that if you go through an area with a lot of shade on a sunny day, the light sesnor will turn the headlights on. That has the effect of dimming the interior lights to a level at which they cannot be seen. In my Lincoln, I solved this by disabling AutoLamp and using the manual light switch. I have driven GM vehicles and have yet to find a way to disable GM's automatic light sensor. I have the exact same problem with the interior lights dimming in the daytime. And if I set the interior lights to visible in the say, they are far beyond the point of being too bright at night. I have talked with several people who own newer GM cars who have also complained about this.

ZV

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Don_Vito

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: XZeroII
You guys must be using old cars. My car (2003 Grand Am) has DRL, but there is a photo sensor of some kind and when it gets so dark, it will automatically turn on the fully headlights, dashlights and tail lights (as if you turned the switch on).

Those automatic light sensors are the most annoyingly stupid things ever. GM was stupid not to make that easily disabled. There's very little more annoying than driving a car like that through a tunnel and having it turn the lights on, then having to wait a couple minutes after I'm out of the tunnel for it to turn the damn lights off so that I can see my radio and climate control displays again.

ZV

You mean you can't set the HLs to be always on? That is dumb. I really like the automatic light-sensing lights on my Nissan, but it also has full-off and full-on positions.

Why would anyone want the headlights always on?

I have a manual switch I can use on my Lincoln, and I can override the automatic sensor by a button to disable it. In GM, you can only turn the headlights on when the sensor thinks they should be off, you cannot turn the headlights off when the sensor thinks they should be on, which creates annoying problems in tunnels and tree-lined roads.

ZV

 

[CraigRT]

I noticed this on my friends' Monte Carlo.. they are the exact same brightness as the regular low beams, the ONLY difference is the rest of the lights on the car aren't on

strange.