Quote:
Originally Posted by Fly320s
The dash lights are on because modern cars have electronic dashboards. Basically, they are computer screens. LCD screens. They need to be backlit to work. Very few cars have mechanical needles and gauges these days.
I put the blame on the government mandates that require DRLs. At night an average driver sees that there is some sort of headlight on and that the dashboard is lit up and just assumes the headlights are on. If the DRLs weren't on, then the driver might realize his mistake. Or if the dash was unlit that might also be a clue.
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I understand the need for a screen to be backlit. The vehicles I am talking about are the ones with analog instrument clusters that are lit up with the DRLs without lighting the tail lights and marker lights. There is a whole generation of these vehicles including my own 2010 VW Golf. I mean how hard could it be to send power to these lights along with the instrument cluster? When DRLs were first mandated in Canada the dash lights did not light up until you actually turned the headlights on when it got dark or when weather conditions dictated. It was some years later that the dash lights were tied to the DRLs. At that point the tail and marker lights should also have been tied to the DRLs but they weren't for some unknown reason. Well there are really two reasons that come to mind. The first is cost. But the wiring change to add a jumper to the DRL harness to power the tail light harness would cost literally pennies per vehicle. The second is mass stupidity on the part of the automotive industry in general. This could have been because no one thought to tie the DRLs to the tail lights or, management decided deliberately to
not tie them together. Either way it's a failure on the part of the manufacturers, IMO.
Edit: I also realize that this is a moot point since Canada has now mandated that tail lights and marker lights are part of the DRL system and must light when the DRLs are on on all vehicles sold in Canada, effective September 2021.