anawanahuanana

They are fog lights. Idiots who drive with them on when they know they shouldn't will insist on calling them "driving lights". Knobs. If the button to turn them on and off has a picture of a light with a wiggly line infront of it, then it should be pretty obvious what they are. Of course if the manufacturers handbook calls them something different, that is another story.......

Pollyana

We have some really thick ones on the northside ocasionally too. Drivers still belt down Gympie Road in it at 100km with no lights on at all though.

spartacus

Beggars belief . . . no lights when they need them (fog, heavy rain) too many when they don't!

Its madness . . .

ABCDiamond

That's the West for you

ABCDiamond

Oh... is that what a wiggly line means.... ~~~

Actually I am trying to work out why someone would associate a wiggly line with fog

I'll have to look for something that turns them off now.

Antney

Maybe they're for the dust storms!!!!

slipshot

OK, it's Friday later pm and I'm going to write my essay on car lights now...

Fog lights are for fog and Australia does not have laws requiring them as part of the ADR's - either front or rear. Some car manufacturers (foreign) either ship the cars with the fog lights as they are sold in other countries too, and just leave them on. It's not illegal to have them, in the same way it is not illegal to not have them.

Australian built cars (like the Falcon) have no rear fogs and no space for them at all. Like some Japanese cars which, when imported into the UK, had to have an additional rear fog light fitted as there was no space or wiring for one.

Fog lights are for pointing into the ground more than the distance and will illuminate the space around you and shortly in front of you.

The UK, for example, has a law that says every car must have at least one rear fog light.

Some manufacturers, like some Subaru's for example, change the rear fog lights to become additional brake lights, or re-wire the car so while the UK version would have a combined tail and brake light, and separate fog, the Aus version would have separate tail and brake lights and no fog.

Driving lights are lights that can be controlled separately or come on with your main beam. Think rally cars - they project long beams into the distance and are for long range use. Most people who have them will wire them into the main beam since they will dazzle you more than main beam will.

Very very few manufacturers sell cars with driving lights. Front fog lights are solely used for the aesthetics of the car and because people associate front fog lights with a higher specification (low spec cars will not have them, higher spec often will), as well as helping you in fog (as little as there is in Australia).

Daytime running lights are something else again. Volvo's used to have them, then stopped and made it more optional. A number of manufacturers have introduced them as a way of making their cars stand-out. Audi being a key one and the first to fully introduce it on many cars. These are 'supposed' to make your car stand out, but it is also a case going through Europe that did say (I could be wrong) that by a certain date every new car had to have daytime running lights, which in effect means your cars lights are on all the time, whether sidelights or headlights.

Therein lends the lesson from a sad old man who knows far too much about cars and lights....

rocket01

I don't know why they bother with rules anyway, as the majority of people over here cant f in drive anyway.

moneypenny20

5am? I know 5pm but this other one has me beat

sparkley23

I've seen Fog in Brissie once in the 3 years I've been here. Went to put my rear fog lights on, searched and searched and realised I didn't have them!

Pollyana

Horrible time and only exists for me when seen from the point of view of "its nearly the end of shift and time for bed!"

ray2gill

You just like your bed tooo much Safin to be up early enough to see it! Fog that is.

Safin

Pollyana

Guess what guys - thick fog in parts of Brisbane this morning - definitely around Kedron and on the northside, also reported around Toowong!

steve`o

they drive the roman way

ie the quickest route between points a & b being a straight line
regardless of whats in the way be it roads, grass, other vechiles, pedestrians, you get it now
that back tarmaccy stuffs just a guide to get them where their going quicker