Does the 500 have any rear side lights? I've worked out the Day Lights at the front, but theres nothing on the back. I've always liked having some lights on when you're driving at dawn/dusk, or in the rain, where it isn't dark enough to have the headlights on (without blinding people and looking a bit daft), so side lights were perfect. I have my Day Lights on all the time, but I'm conscious that there's no lights at the back. Is that right? Or am I just being thick and haven't worked out how to turn them on?

ps. What are 'follow-me-home lights'?

A) Properly adjusted headlights will never dazzle anyone whilst they're dipped

B) Read your manual, no "side light rear lights"

C) IIRC it's against the highway code to drive with sidelights on. Ergo, if it's too dark for no headlights put your headlights on

D) People driving with sidelights on annoy me. Is other peoples safety not worth the extra power drain/risk of blowing bulbs?

Thanks for clearing that up
A) The headlights on my 500 are adjusted as low as they can be whilst still being useful & safe, however, they do dazzle. I don't know why, but 500's do dazzle! Must be something to do with the positioning.

B) I read that, it seemed strange to me, as every other car on the road does have rear side lights, so I asked on here for clarification.

C) Actually, the highway code (section 113) states that it is compulsory to have side lights on whilst driving between sunrise and sunset, and headlights as well after dark.

D) It is also suggested in the highway code that the car displays some lights during weather conditions such as rain. However, it is also a compulsory element of the advanced drivers test to display car courtesy and environmental awareness. This means not using headlights, or other electrical appliances, where it isn't necessary. So, the safest, and best way to drive under these conditions would be with sidelights, and no headlights unless it is dark.

Thanks for your reply though

zanes said:

A) Properly adjusted headlights will never dazzle anyone whilst they're dipped

B) Read your manual, no "side light rear lights"

C) IIRC it's against the highway code to drive with sidelights on. Ergo, if it's too dark for no headlights put your headlights on

D) People driving with sidelights on annoy me. Is other peoples safety not worth the extra power drain/risk of blowing bulbs?

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Are you sure it is against the law to drive with sidelights on? Highway code seems to say it's ok just to use these in a lit 30mph area at night, not that I'd recommend that.

Audi LEDs are well annoying, and let's face it a lot of headlamps are very poorly adjusted.

I agree totally Draven Crow.

I can't see why fiats DRL's are not rear like on Volvo and now all new VW's. Doesn't make sense. It's like they only provide half the function.

Murano16v said:

Are you sure it is against the law to drive with sidelights on?

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No, hence the IIRC.

Draven Crow said:

Does the 500 have any rear side lights? I've worked out the Day Lights at the front, but theres nothing on the back. I've always liked having some lights on when you're driving at dawn/dusk, or in the rain, where it isn't dark enough to have the headlights on (without blinding people and looking a bit daft), so side lights were perfect. I have my Day Lights on all the time, but I'm conscious that there's no lights at the back. Is that right? Or am I just being thick and haven't worked out how to turn them on?

ps. What are 'follow-me-home lights'?

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DC, I notice that you didn't really get as much of an answer as you hoped for so if I can offer the following:

"Follow me home" lights are actuated by using the headlamp "flash". Pull the stalk back towards you AFTER you have switched off ignition and lights. This will put the headlights on for a period of 30 seconds after which they will then go out.

Very useful for illuminating the path to your door on a dark night. This assumes that you haven't garaged the car and shut the door, lol. If you want the lights to stay on longer each operation of the flash increases the duration another 30 seconds. Not sure though how many times you can increment this though.

As you've already discovered, the DRLs only function on the front and if you want the rears on then you have to use headlights.

There are sidelights per se but they will only operate when ignition is switched off and so no way of driving on sidelights.

^Thank you for that While I'm disappointed that the feature doesn't exist, I'm glad that it wasn't just me failing to work it out!

That was also a very good description of the follow-me-home lights! There seems to be quite a lot of thing which are mentioned in the manual, but which the writters assumed we would already know all about. It's just a bit vague.

Thank you again

Think about it like this. On a single carriageway NSL road with one car doing 50 mph and another doing 60 the closing speed is 110mph which is very quick..... so cars seeing other oncoming cars is imperitive. If a car travelling 60 mph comes up behind one doing 50 then the closing speed is 10mph. So you've got 11x more time to spot the car from behind. This is why DRL's work on the front but not from behind.

As always, if you're worried about being visible then put your headlights on! Properly adjusted headlights will not dazzle anyone.

Draven Crow said:

Thanks for clearing that up
A) The headlights on my 500 are adjusted as low as they can be whilst still being useful & safe, however, they do dazzle. I don't know why, but 500's do dazzle! Must be something to do with the positioning.

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How are you going to drive it at night then?

D) It is also suggested in the highway code that the car displays some lights during weather conditions such as rain. However, it is also a compulsory element of the advanced drivers test to display car courtesy and environmental awareness. This means not using headlights, or other electrical appliances, where it isn't necessary. So, the safest, and best way to drive under these conditions would be with sidelights, and no headlights unless it is dark.

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Oh dear. No aircon/stereo/heater for you then. Oh wait, the "advanced drivers test" has no legal standing.

Draven Crow said:

Thanks for clearing that up
A) The headlights on my 500 are adjusted as low as they can be whilst still being useful & safe, however, they do dazzle. I don't know why, but 500's do dazzle! Must be something to do with the positioning.

D) It is also suggested in the highway code that the car displays some lights during weather conditions such as rain. However, it is also a compulsory element of the advanced drivers test to display car courtesy and environmental awareness. This means not using headlights, or other electrical appliances, where it isn't necessary. So, the safest, and best way to drive under these conditions would be with sidelights, and no headlights unless it is dark.

Thanks for your reply though

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A) Are you confusing people flashing you because your DRL's are on and they think they're fogs, for people flashing you because your headlights are dazzling.

D) Yes it's suggested that in bad weather you have some light on. How often have you been driving around through thick spray and suddenly there's another car coming up on your with the most pissweak lights on which do virtually nothing to make it more visible. Sidelights. In Scandinavian countries where I suspect they know a thing or ten about visibility with having a lot more darkness than us the HEADLIGHTS on their cars are on 24/7 and that's the rules. No rubbish sidelights for them.

In all but two of the cars that I have owned I've never driven with the sidelights on, either nothing or headlights.

The first exception to this was a Vauxhall Zafira that developed a wiring fault that meant the nearside headlight kept blowing after more than about half an hour's use, as it was the time of year when I was driving home at dusk I switched to sidelights rather than headlights until I resoved the problem (a knackered electrical connector).

The other exception is my TR7 which has pop-up headlights so I don't pop them up until I need to, preferring to use sidelights until that time. I know this is a silly reason but I don't care!

Not having side lights is a safety feature.... Dark - lights on, Light - lights off.
Many drivers out there don't know what side lights are for, they need to keep it simple for the lowest common denominator

neet said:

Not having side lights is a safety feature.... Dark - lights on, Light - lights off.
Many drivers out there don't know what side lights are for, they need to keep it simple for the lowest common denominator

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Too right. I just feel like banging my head against the steering wheel when I see one of these people who thinks that sidelights are for visibility when moving. It does sod all to make you visible. People think they're being smart when in reality it's a really stupid thing to do because it gives you the illusion that people can see you when it does sod all to make you visible. Headlights or nothing!

I do agree with what you are saying to a certain extent maxi. Just makes me wonder even more now what the point of DRL's actually is?! In essense it seems to be permenant sidelights on other DRL vehicles. So if it's headlights or nothing, what's the point of DRL's when as you say sidelights serve no purpose in a moving vehicle?

DRL's are a higher wattage bulb than sidelights. Ergo, they're much more visible.

It appears that way on a fiat but on the new VW's (like the scirocco I took for a test), the DRL's which were unable to be deactivated by user were sidelights. No extra wattage.

Drls are much brighter - you see them dim to normal sidelights when you turn on the headlights.

Love the way the main beam / flasher is on the smaller lense with the DRLs too - very cool

geo uk said:

It appears that way on a fiat but on the new VW's (like the scirocco I took for a test), the DRL's which were unable to be deactivated by user were sidelights. No extra wattage.

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Well I can't speak for naff German cars but in the 500 the DRL's are fairly bright and as someone else has mentioned they're dual wattage so when you've got your headlights on they step down to a lower wattage.

I used to always drive around with my dipped beams on as both of our cars were dark green and when driving down lanes and through the countryside in general people just don't see you. The 500 is the first car I've felt confident enough to not drive around with the headlights on all the time because it's bright white and it's got the DRL's which do their bit to make you more visible.