Shite lights

[Rusty Pelican]

55 Imperial by Chrysler had these for rear lights , weird but it works 

[MrBiscuits]

Did anyone else have a light up badge?

 

[High Jetter]

9 minutes ago, MrBiscuits said:

Did anyone else have a light up badge?

I thought there was another one at least, but all I can see is that Subaru did domestically, in the 80s. https://www.goodwood.com/grr/road/news/why-dont-car-manufacturers-light-up-their-logos--axons-automotive-anorak/

The big question is, why didn't more do it?

[EyesWeldedShut]

4 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

The big question is, why didn't more do it?

Probably the sales guys have done a customer poll that shows the majority think it looks cheap and tacky?

"Do you think an illuminated manufacturer's badge on your car would look:
A. Cheap and Tacky
B. Like a Pimpmobile
C. Just Tacky"

Guy I worked for as a teen had a Wolseley 6 Land Crab and we could tell it was him coming down the road for ages at night as absolutely nobody else in the area had a similar bonnet decoration. I rather like them.

[MrBiscuits]

45 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Probably the sales guys have done a customer poll that shows the majority think it looks cheap and tacky?

"Do you think an illuminated manufacturer's badge on your car would look:
A. Cheap and Tacky
B. Like a Pimpmobile
C. Just Tacky"

Guy I worked for as a teen had a Wolseley 6 Land Crab and we could tell it was him coming down the road for ages at night as absolutely nobody else in the area had a similar bonnet decoration. I rather like them.

You're probably right. Thinking about it, I had a Lexus with light up badges in the door sills which I always felt were a bit vulgar

[chaseracer]

16 hours ago, Urko said:

There's a set of rear lights that do that infinity effect you used to get in old disco lights - I can't recall or find by Google - I thought it was DS3 or RR Evoque - the tail lights have a see through mirror coating (internally) so they look as though they extend into an infinite "hole"

DS3.  

Domestic Management's car has them.  I think they came in with the minor facelift when the Citroen badge was dropped - 2016??

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, MrBiscuits said:

Did anyone else have a light up badge?

 

I made one for my MK1 Fiesta, couple of sidelight bulbs behind it after sanding the blue off 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Probably the sales guys have done a customer poll that shows the majority think it looks cheap and tacky?

"Do you think an illuminated manufacturer's badge on your car would look:
A. Cheap and Tacky
B. Like a Pimpmobile
C. Just Tacky"

Guy I worked for as a teen had a Wolseley 6 Land Crab and we could tell it was him coming down the road for ages at night as absolutely nobody else in the area had a similar bonnet decoration. I rather like them.

Wolseley tacky? Wash your mouth out?😀

[Leyland Worldmaster]

4 hours ago, bunglebus said:

MINI certainly like to include a lot of British imagery on their cars, in an attempt to link back to the original 

And the bast thing about this is what US Customers have to tolerate:

Yaaaaasssssss! 😅

 

[willswitchengage]

Always thought the Corsa C's black rear lights were cool, the Saab 9-3 had something similar. Must have been a GM theme at the time.

 

[Barry Cade]

10 hours ago, Urko said:

I loved the lights on my Dad's 1973 and 1976 Granadas - the rear lights had an extra tail light bulb each side which was quite rare - also there was a clear lens on the inside  on each side so the boot was illuminated when the tail lights were on.

The headlamp/indicators were used on Duple Coaches for a while I think? 

 

And the De Tomaso Longchamp!

[NorfolkNWeigh]

2 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Probably the sales guys have done a customer poll that shows the majority think it looks cheap and tacky?

"Do you think an illuminated manufacturer's badge on your car would look:
A. Cheap and Tacky
B. Like a Pimpmobile
C. Just Tacky"

Guy I worked for as a teen had a Wolseley 6 Land Crab and we could tell it was him coming down the road for ages at night as absolutely nobody else in the area had a similar bonnet decoration. I rather like them.

All of the above.

I’ve actually seen a few of these in real life.

[bunglebus]

I'll just leave these here

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

https://www.autoledtech.com/collections/led-emblem-logos

[adw1977]

I've always thought the round headlight behind a rectangular piece of glass on early Volvo 300 series was a bit odd.

Replaced with proper rectangular headlights on later examples. 

[adw1977]

Vauxhall had an intermittent liking for punishing buyers of the lowest trim level with obviously inferior looking headlights:

Cresta PC standard with single headlights instead of the double headlights on the Deluxe.

Astra E with round headlights instead of trapezoid.

Ford tried to get in on the act by giving the Transit Popular round headlights while the rest of the range had square:

Mind you, they also charged extra on the Popular if you wanted the thing actually painted!

[PhilA]

On 18/09/2024 at 01:11, bunglebus said:

They are nice - but why didn't Vauxhall make the outer, curved lense the indicator?

Harks to the 1970 Pontiac GTO, from which it shares styling cues. The American rear lights house the side markers and side facing reflectors, so are red to the outer corners.

[willswitchengage]

Wasn't it an American requirement to have round lamps instead of a larger traditional glass headlamp unit?

[NorfolkNWeigh]

33 minutes ago, willswitchengage said:

Wasn't it an American requirement to have round lamps instead of a larger traditional glass headlamp unit?

Yes, but you’d barely notice aesthetically.

[bunglebus]

7 hours ago, adw1977 said:

Vauxhall had an intermittent liking for punishing buyers of the lowest trim level with obviously inferior looking headlights:

A bit like the early Metro with the sunken headlights and separate sidelights/indicators

Think the later ones were a little nicer aesthetically 

[bunglebus]

Why Ford, why did you do this to the Scorpio?

I have no idea what look they were going for, it didn't fit in with the look of the rest of the range. The back looked great, in an American way

[adw1977]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

A bit like the early Metro with the sunken headlights and separate sidelights/indicators

But flush headlights right from the start if you shelled out for one of the higher spec models. 

[MiniMinorMk3]

11 hours ago, adw1977 said:

Vauxhall had an intermittent liking for punishing buyers of the lowest trim level with obviously inferior looking headlights:

Cresta PC standard with single headlights instead of the double headlights on the Deluxe.

 

Ford did the same with the Escort, except for the "Fast Fords". Those cheaper round lamps were actually better than the Mk1 oblong and Mk2 square ones, so the likes of the Mexico and RS models got the cheapo round ones.

1100 L

1300 E

Mexico

RS2000

[MiniMinorMk3]

1936 Cord 810, the first production car with pop up lights

[adw1977]

All the Mark 1 & 2 Landcrabs had quite nice chunky chrome headlight surrounds and they continued on the Mark 3 1800:

But for some reason they were changed to black on the 2200:

And on the Wolseley, which looked pretty terrible, especially on light coloured cars:

[PhilA]

8 hours ago, willswitchengage said:

Wasn't it an American requirement to have round lamps instead of a larger traditional glass headlamp unit?

Yes, Federal lighting regulations (basically the lowest common denominator) were retained with the introduction of the 7" sealed beam headlight in the 40's in an attempt to unify and improve upon the rag-tag lighting fitted to cars pre-war.

That stuck well through Europe deciding that modern, stylized headlights that also conformed to lighting regulations were acceptable, and ended in rectangular and square sealed beams until finally the government buckled under pressure in 83.

Phil

[Sigmund Fraud]

On 19/09/2024 at 11:29, Dick Longbridge said:

Ferrari TestaRossa also did the grille thing nicely too. 

The XJ220, on the other hand, didn't :

[caffeine]

My earlier ramblings about faux-LEDs got me thinking - (without Googling) what do you suppose was the first mainstream or ‘ordinary’ car to feature LED tail-lights?

I remember, around 2002, reading about the then-upcoming VW Phaeton, and it seemed to make a big deal about having LED lights that would (in theory) last the life of the car - might be pushing the definition of ‘ordinary’ though.

The e46 BMW 3-series coupe, following the 2003 facelift, received new tail-lights featuring a diffused 'grid' of LED diodes.





Thoughts then turned to the VW Passat, perhaps the dictionary definition of ordinary, more specifically, the  B6, launched in 2005, which had tail-lights fairly similar to the aforementioned  Phaeton, featuring ‘rings’ of individual LED diodes arranged around circular reflector/ diffusers. Seemed pretty snazzy at the time, when even most contemporary 'premium' cars were still on halogen:





Unfortunately it seems they were a bit crap, and often multiple diodes would fail, soon Passats sporting indicators that resembled the dot matrix screen on an old Vauxhall were a common sight. Rather tellingly, when the b7 Passat (essentially a heavily face-lifted b6) arrived in 2010, they had reverted back to Halogen;

[bunglebus]

On 21/09/2024 at 11:47, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Ford did the same with the Escort, except for the "Fast Fords". Those cheaper round lamps were actually better than the Mk1 oblong and Mk2 square ones, so the likes of the Mexico and RS models got the cheapo round ones.

1300 E

I don't mind the round headlight MK1 (most seem to prefer them) but I really like the oblong ones more, especially on the Twin Cam

The really early cars seemed to have oblongs too, many years ago my kid's mum had a 1968 1100 Super with them.

The MK2 Sport, Mexico etc had round lights but they were flat glass H4 bulb units, not sealed beams. Not sure if any of the sportier MK1s were the same

[bunglebus]

Don't know if anyone else has noticed this, as I see them more often in Europe; Krone (crown) HGV trailers have a crown in the rear lights