OE Vehicle Lighting That Makes You Go "Ugh"

[The Municipality]

The tail lights on most Kias are up high at eye-level, except of course for the directionals - which for some reason are down at the bottom of the bumper where no one is looking. I have no idea how this even passed NHTSA standards. Must have a third brake light that's at or above eye-level, but never mind the directionals, no one needs to see those...

 

[-Virgil-]

At least the directionals in the pic you show are yellow (amber) -- that's a "rest of the world" model; the ones in North America have red in that same location. There is an allowable range of heights for the rear lighting functions, and no rule against this kind of giant separation. Land Rover did it, too, on one of their small models awhile ago. I agree, it's sub-optimal (at least!).

 

[don.gwapo]

Our 2013 RAV4 Limited have LEDs on top of the turn/park light, but there's no connection and completely shut so its useless. Yet, RAV4 in other countries have this as a LED DRL.

 

[Echo63]

I cant think of any vehicles whose headlights have made me think ugh.

i can think of a few that arent great behind the drivers seat though.

the company fleet corollas (2013 i think)
the lights dont flood wide enough, many times i have driven one and wondered what the heck i was turning into.
it needs more light to the sides.

and interiors

i love my forester, and loved my wife's impreza too (it had a red dash)
both vehicles will dim right down to almost nothing, reducing glare/distractions wile being easy to see still.

some of the company cars i have driven arent quite so nice

hyundai I45 - stereo LCD doesnt dim with the rest of the dash lights - it does have a dark button though, which turns them off

camry and corolla - bright green/blue backlit (EL) panels for the dash and stereo
the camry's HVAC controls have a huge EL panel behind it - if i get stuck driving a camry out in the country at night i head to the closest pub, and ask very nicely for a bit of cardboard to cover it up.

i drove the work corolla 2hrs back from a little country town the other week like this.





The prius also irritates me
the speedo is a nice green/blue digital display, looks like the old school alarm clocks
turn the headlights on during the day (reccomended on country roads) and you cant see how quick you are going.

 

[-Virgil-]

i love my forester, and loved my wife's impreza too (it had a red dash)

Red dashboard illumination makes me go "ugh". I prefer that red is reserved for crucual or urgent warnings: brake system fault, low oil pressure, tire pressure fault, that kind of thing. I also dislike bright blue dashboard illumination; it's too disruptive to night vision even when dimmed. I prefer dashboard lighting to be in the green/greenish-white/white/yellow/amber color range.

 

[TheIntruder]

The blue instrument lighting that VW used to use was also too much for my eyes. I also had a rental Hyundai that was too blue, but I think they've chosen more wisely with the Kia brand. Similarly, I don't care for the bluish cabin lighting that Virgin America had on their planes, but I don't know what they use now.

BMW amber (605nm) is fine to me, and I like the way they try to make all interior displays consistent in color and appearance. No glaring EL clocks to stand out from the rest. But their exterior lighting, particularly the rear, has regressed. I recently tailed a new X5 that, despite being modern LED, had one group of lights that would either flash, or illuminate steadily, based on function. And their reverse lights are now tiny slivers.

Since Virgil mentioned warning lights, I think randomly placing them in the gauge faces is a step backwards from having them grouped in obvious locations. And Mazda's red-on-black gauge markings were particularly hard to read for me, perhaps because of my color blindness.

 

[Echo63]

Red dashboard illumination makes me go "ugh". I prefer that red is reserved for crucual or urgent warnings: brake system fault, low oil pressure, tire pressure fault, that kind of thing. I also dislike bright blue dashboard illumination; it's too disruptive to night vision even when dimmed. I prefer dashboard lighting to be in the green/greenish-white/white/yellow/amber color range.

I understand what you are saying - i remember it being on the orange end of red, the warnings were a deeper red, and illuminated a bit brighter than the rest of the dash - i think i just liked how non glaring and easy to read it was on really dark country roads.

to be honest, i dont really care what colour the dash lighting is, providing it can be turned right down so it isnt a distracting glarey mess

 

[Franco]

Echo63, those pictures are hilarious! I love it. I've been in a latish Toyota (Camry, I think) as a passenger, and the infotainment system was H O R R I B L E. Even off, it bathed everything in light. If I had to be in that car often, I'd probably take tape and cardboard to it. Or a hammer. I might not get invited to get in that car again though.

Possibly killing two birds with one stone on that.

Red dashboard illumination makes me go "ugh". I prefer that red is reserved for crucual or urgent warnings: brake system fault, low oil pressure, tire pressure fault, that kind of thing.

Surprised to hear that. I do find a car with a lot of instrumentation in all red to be a bit much, but it might, sparingly, be my favourite color for instrumentation. I've never had any problems with missing warning lights either. Then again, I've only ever had one go on, for low oil pressure.

I prefer dashboard lighting to be in the green/greenish-white/white/yellow/amber color range.

I don't like that greenish white, though only for aesthetic reasons. I really don't know what it is about it...

I've never been in a car with amber instruments though. What car(s) had that?

 

[-Virgil-]

I'm probably showing my age, but that greenish-white was ubiquitous for many, many years, and it worked fine. Usually not too bright, usually not too dim, usually didn't cause any legibility or glare problems.

There have been various Audis and BMWs over the years with amber, and probably others as well.

 

[KXA]

Echo63, those pictures are hilarious! I love it. I've been in a latish Toyota (Camry, I think) as a passenger, and the infotainment system was H O R R I B L E. Even off, it bathed everything in light. If I had to be in that car often, I'd probably take tape and cardboard to it. Or a hammer. I might not get invited to get in that car again though.

Possibly killing two birds with one stone on that.



Surprised to hear that. I do find a car with a lot of instrumentation in all red to be a bit much, but it might, sparingly, be my favourite color for instrumentation. I've never had any problems with missing warning lights either. Then again, I've only ever had one go on, for low oil pressure.



I don't like that greenish white, though only for aesthetic reasons. I really don't know what it is about it...

I've never been in a car with amber instruments though. What car(s) had that?

2001-2004 Toyota Tacoma's have an amber dash display lighting scheme. Me like lots!

 

[Alaric Darconville]

I'm probably showing my age, but that greenish-white was ubiquitous for many, many years, and it worked fine. Usually not too bright, usually not too dim, usually didn't cause any legibility or glare problems.

LOVED that light color. Even my '76 Corolla had it (but it also used an obnoxious blue high beam indicator).

 

[alpg88]

lexus nx200t has 3 tiny leds for brake light, if you are behind one at a light at night, you will have 3 dots burned into your retina for few minutes.

 

[-Virgil-]

Yes, I've seen that obnoxious Lexus setup. There are some recent Kia/Hyundai cars that have a similar "super bright central dot surrounded by very dim light" effect. It shows the uselessness of the current EPLLA specification in the US regulations (Effective Projected Luminous Lens Area). This specifies that there has to be at least a particular amount of lit area: 50 square centimeters for a stop (brake) light or a rear turn signal, 22 square centimeters for a front turn signal. It does not specify a measurement method, nor does it specify what "luminous" means in terms of how bright it has to be, all it says is Effective Projected Luminous Lens Area means the area of the orthogonal projection of the effective light-emitting surface of a lamp on a plane perpendicular to a defined direction relative to the axis of reference. It's more-or-less industry standard to regard part of the lens as "luminous" if it has 10% of the maximum light level. But this requirement was written back when all signal lamps had diffusing optics in the lens, so the whole lens area lit up more or less evenly. That went away when the optics moved to the reflector and the lenses became windowpanes; we started getting bright lines or dots surrounded by dark lines or zones, and although we can see the whole lens area from the same range of viewing angles as before, now if we're off axis we only see a tiny point of light because the windowpane lens doesn't glow like the old diffuser lenses did. And then we got LEDs with discrete points of light from any angle. Meanwhile, the regulation is completely silent on uniformity of luminance, so a super-bright central dot of light surrounded by "Hah! Knew it! The rest of the lens is just barely 10% as bright! heh-heh-heh". UGH!

 

[alpg88]

my 2011 sonata hybrid had such light, one very bright dot in the middle, but that was only limited to hybrids, none hybrid sonata had regular bulbs. that did lit up entire brake portion of tail light evenly.

 

[markweatherill]

I found myself behind a late-model front engined Ferrari (a California, maybe) yesterday.

When the driver hit his brakes, the CHMSL lit up, but the two signature round lamps didn't, which I thought was strange. Then I looked down and saw the actual brake lights - they were two thin horizontal red LED strips down at bumper level! Not only that, but they did double duty as turn signals!

I thought for a moment that these 'brake lights/turn signals' were some cheap aftermarket LED strips the owner bought on Ebay for his $200K Ferrari and I actually laughed out loud.

This seems to be because in the US market, those round lights aren't allowed to fulfil that function on the California.
(I used to wonder why US car designers loved those oblong headlights for so long; why US buyers would apparently demand the looks of a Geo Metro's oblong lights to those of the Suzuki Swift)

 

[Alaric Darconville]

This seems to be because in the US market, those round lights aren't allowed to fulfil that function on the California.

They're on the trunk's lid, not on the body proper, so if they were driving around with a lawnmower in the trunk and the lid couldn't close, it'd effectively render the stop lamps inoperative.

 

[-Virgil-]

They're on the trunk's lid, not on the body proper, so if they were driving around with a lawnmower in the trunk and the lid couldn't close, it'd effectively render the stop lamps inoperative.

Audi puts rear combination lamps on the hatch of their Q-series SUVs, and gets around that problem by putting redundant extra sets of rear lamps down in the bumper. When the hatch is closed, the bumper lights remain dark. When the hatch is open, the bumper lights work.

 

[Alaric Darconville]

Audi puts rear combination lamps on the hatch of their Q-series SUVs, and gets around that problem by putting redundant extra sets of rear lamps down in the bumper. When the hatch is closed, the bumper lights remain dark. When the hatch is open, the bumper lights work.

So why didn't Ferrari do that? (Also, who drives around with a lawnmower in the trunk of their Ferarri? Thomas Magnum, because Higgins told him to mow the lawn?)

 

[jaycee88]

(Also, who drives around with a lawnmower in the trunk of their Ferarri? Thomas Magnum, because Higgins told him to mow the lawn?)

I'd imagine if Magnum drove his 308GTS around with a lawnmower in the trunk, visibility of his tail lamps would be the least of his concerns.

I saw another tail lamp oddity the other day on a late model Mercedes sedan. The left lamp had what appeared to have a very bright red LED illuminated - brighter than the rest of the lamp. I guess it was the rear fog lamp. Are there photometric requirements for rear fog lamps? I wonder if the driver hit his brakes, would the rear fog lamp still be brighter than the brake lights?

 

[Alaric Darconville]

I saw another tail lamp oddity the other day on a late model Mercedes sedan. The left lamp had what appeared to have a very bright red LED illuminated - brighter than the rest of the lamp. I guess it was the rear fog lamp.

The rear fog lamp should be about 10cm (just about 4") away from any lit edge of a stop blamp, so if it wasn't that far from the stop lamp, it wasn't a real rear fog lamp.

Are there photometric requirements for rear fog lamps?

Yes.

I wonder if the driver hit his brakes, would the rear fog lamp still be brighter than the brake lights?

That depends on viewing angle and which specification the rear fog lamp(s) was(were) made to. UNECE R38, or in accordance with SAE J1319.