I would prefer to have my headlights on during the day as is the case with many new cars of late. Mazda does this with other cars they make but not the RX8. Why?

I would love to make that happen for my yet to be RX8 BUT would also like to make the lights turn off when I turn off the car. In the past, I have forgotten to do this and paid the price in the way of a dead battery.

Anyone else have any ideas (other than to turnn them on manually and NOT FORGET TO TURN THEM OFF MANUALLY

Thanks,

Claude H.

 

Sun up. Lights off. Thank you.

 

They are fugly.....keep em away

 

Daytime running lights are lame. I know when to turn my lights on and off, thanks.

But if you want your lights on in the daytime so bad, just turn them on. Mazda isn't taking away the choice, and I applaud them for that.

 

Turning them on is easy, remembering to turn them off is the problem.

And by the way, lame to some of you perhaps but having them on not only makes you more visible to others on the road but has been proven statistically to lessen the risks of getting involved in an accident.

And I thought we all wanted to be more visible driving our machines.

Anyone with some useful information? It would be appreciated.

Claude H.

 

I think letting people make their own choice is the correct decision. But here's the "useful information" you were asking for:

The car chimes if you take the keys out and the lights are left on. It's pretty hard to forget.

 

Actually unless the cdn car is different the chime doesn't chime until you open your door.

Oh but in Canada we have daytime lights they aren't the same as the headlights and they look rather cool actually!

Makes the car look MEAN

 

I guess you're right, Wing. I usually open the door about the same time I remove the key. Either way, it serves the purpose. It's pretty hard to forget the lights are on when the car is singing to you.

 

Daytime running lights only useful when visibility isn't permit due to weather (such as location where isn't getting much sun). In the sunny Southern California where I live, we need no dam light in the day time :D. Though daytime running lights are/should be little dimmer when it's on compared to regular night driving light, in which isn't available as an option for our RX8 for sure.

 

Pro-choice wrt the headlamps here - thx Mazda.

Your best defense against accidents is proactive, defensive -style driving. This technique will far outweigh any benefits of daytime running lights.

However, if you really wanted, you could wire up the headlights to always be on when the ignigtion key is in and turned on. You could do it yourself, if you're so inclined, or get someone else to do it for you. In either case, make sure to get the schematics from the service manual, to minimize the experimentation factor

 

Also, one of the major drawbacks to DRLs is the fact that as dusk approaches, most people do NOT physically turn on the lights since the headlights are already on. This is bad, however, because the tail lights do not illuminate with DTRs. The result is folks driving around at night with no tail lights. Not good.

One thing I hate about DTRs is that when approaching the gate of a military base at night, I can't turn off the damned lights and the guard gets very annoyed.

 

I'm not sure about the 8 but my hyundai had DTRL and the tail lights were on as well!

The DTRL are A LOT less bright than headlights, it's a different system.

 

In clear conditions, in full daylight, if you cant see a car without its lights on you should get off the roads.

This whole DTRL stuff started with volco's etc because in their home country it was made law, as their weather usualy gives poor visibility.

I'm glad mazda havnt installed them on the RX-8 - people need to grow a brain.

 

That's why cars should have auto on/off headlights as well as DRLs - I had my IS300 configured to have the HIDS come on within 10secs of entering a tunnel or covered carpark (and off again 10secs after entering sunlight, with DRLs remaining on). I am not sure why the RX-8 doesn't at least come with auto-off headlights like most other Mazdas instead of the silly chime.

I am normally a big proponent of DRLs just because of the safety stats from Europe. But in my particular case in sunny Texas if someone doesn't see my bright red car from a mile away they won't see it with DRLs either.

 

I love that feature (auto-on/off) My parents have a 1997 pontiac transport and it has that!

And that was the base model with manual windows and manual everything, but the lights are auto.

Only thing is they don't seem to come on when it's rainy and cloudy. But if you enter underground parking they do, basically you NEVER have to touch the light switch.

 

My 2k Celica had DRLs and the 'auto on' feature. The DRL were the high beams at low power.

As I started to drive other cars (after my accident), I found it very, very odd that I had to manually turn on the headlights - guess I got soft. lol

 

What's wrong with everyone here? If someone wants to put a mohawk on their car and glue pennies to the doors, it's their money and their car. Being excitied about cars period is great - who cares if it's not to your taste?

Aside from whether or not everyone likes or dislikes DRLs, there are kits you can purchase to refit a car that doesn't have them standard. It's law in Canada, so I'm sure a refit kit isn't very hard to find - you should do some google-ing and see what you find.

 

What Safety Stats from Europe??

The UK has the safest roads in Europe, and the ONLY cars to have headlights on in day time are the sweedish lot (volvo's etc).

Our roads are safe because we :[list=1][*]Use seatbelts[*]Dont drive drunk[*]Generaly have a decent driving standard[/list=1]

Its nothing to do with Headlights on in daytime.

Sure - its a lot of effort (both physicaly and mentaly) to switch them on if visibility is poor, but rewarding!

Honestly, if you cant see a car in reasonable conditions without its headlights on, in daylight stay off the roads. No ammount of lights or electronic gagetry should replace your brain.

now, motorbikes, thats a different story.

 

Day-time running lights are a definite safety feature especially if you have a Titanium Gray or Silver cars. Those colors blend in much better with the backgrounds and are harder to see than other colors.

In the Navy, if something is made out of steel they paint it "battleship gray". And if something is aluminum often they don't paint it at all.

In the urban jungle most of live in the gray cars blend in the most. Day-time running lights (which are only 20 Watts or so not full bright headlights.) help you remain visible in all lighting conditions.

It won't matter to me with my Yellow car on order, but for those with the more tame colors be extra careful when you are passing cars in the fast lane. They just might not see you.

-Mr. Wigggles

 

from my own experiences, i HATE DRL's...you can't just park somewhere without the lights being on...

for instance, say you're picking someone up from their house and they're still getting ready...well, you'd have to turn the car to the 1st on position to turn the lights off which is basically killing the engine...of course, now in hot weather you can't have the air conditioner on because it'll just blow hot air...because the rotary isn't made to be able to turn on and off at your leisure, DRL wouldn't be a prudent "feature" or lack thereof however you want to look at it..

like somesaid before, it's not a choice but the lack of a choice...i think the best approach Mazda could have taken is an automatic shut-off for the lights when the key is out of the ignition and the doors are opened...that's what i had in my Mitsu and it worked great...i never turned them off but when i needed to turn them off, ie. parked somewhere and needed the engine running, i could...

btw, i do not believe DRL are any different from regular lights...when purchasing my RAV-4, it was a $50 relay switch that was automatically added on...i would, however, gladly pay $50 more to get it off....

 

The UK is not that much better in terms of safety versus the US. They are almost identical.

In 2001, The casualty rate in the UK was 656 causulties (any type of reported injury) per billion Kilometers traveled. (vast majority were injuries due to car accidents)

http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/group...s_507488-3.jpg

http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/group...s_507488-4.jpg

In 2001, The injury rate in the US was 681 injuries per billion Kilometer traveled.

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd...3/Assess02.pdf

So the U.K. is safer and that is probably because the pubs have to close at 11PM correct? Also, there are certain demographics of people in the US that don't wear their seatbelts. They just don't do it for some reason.

The Swedes are the ones who pioneered the concept of having driving lights on at all times. Does anyone have any Sweedish accident data?

-Mr. Wigggles

Ps. I wanted to compare death rates but the UK data lumps deaths and "serious injuries" into one category thus inflating their figure. Also, deaths are about 1% of all injuries.

 

BRx8,

Did you try and pull up the parking brake to see if that turns off the DRL's? On most (if not all) GM vehicles, this works.

-Mr. Wigggles

 

Now this is getting interesting.

I will be getting a Titanium RX8 and I do want to have some way of having my lights on during the day AND equalily important, have the car turn them off if I forget to do so myself when I leave.

I had left the car lights on in the dealer showroom, with the hand brake on while I talked with the salesman. The lights remained on the whole time.

If there is an aftermarket solution or a google search to be made, what am I looking for?

Your assistance is appreciated.

Claude H.

 

Auto sensing headlights = cool, gadget-like

Daytime running lights = not cool, more safety crap shoved down my throat til I puke.

 

Seatbelts really cramp your style to don't they?

-Mr. Wigggles