Shite lights

[caffeine]

  On 05/01/2025 at 11:24, bunglebus said:

H it seems

I thought the G ones looked good when they appeared in the late 90s, one of the first to use a shaped reflector for diffraction with a clear lense

Expand  

I actually quite liked the ‘frosted’ white

 The Saab 9-3 estate had a similar thing going on:





As for the humble Astra H, they did eventually ‘bottle out’ on the facelift version:





 

[bunglebus]

Bentley Bentayga has giant '39 Ford teardrops

[PhilA]

The red rear white front thing was also Canadian market lighting.

Still to this day they love their red rear tuen signals. Often a dual purpose brake/turn, but the individual light for the indicators being red, not orange is common there.

There were a few I could remember normally but I'm dosed up on DayQuil right now and am having trouble remembering simple things. Ford and GM like to accommodate that layout though. 

[MiniMinorMk3]

  On 16/01/2025 at 12:37, bunglebus said:

Bentley Bentayga has giant '39 Ford teardrops

Expand  

More like 356

[bunglebus]

Tenuous VW group link then I suppose!

[Barry Cade]

  On 16/01/2025 at 14:28, PhilA said:

The red rear white front thing was also Canadian market lighting.

Still to this day they love their red rear tuen signals. Often a dual purpose brake/turn, but the individual light for the indicators being red, not orange is common there.

There were a few I could remember normally but I'm dosed up on DayQuil right now and am having trouble remembering simple things. Ford and GM like to accommodate that layout though. 

Expand  

My Astro was like that originally, but now uses the reverse lights as indicators. Front indicators flash alternately with the orange marker lights. I have to take the bulbs out for the MOT..

Following a new "Mini" home last night, I noticed the Union Jack tail lights are the correct orientation,  wide stripe to the top left, on the left light.  The other light has the thin stripe to the top.

 

 

[caffeine]

It was previously mentioned in this thread how ‘crystal’ tail-lights (with clear lenses and reflector diffusers) became fashionable from the late ‘90s, largely replacing the ‘smoked’ rear lenses that had been fashionable from the late ‘80s through much of the ‘90s, with the Astra G (1998) being cited as the first example.

This brings me to a car whose existence I was reminded of in a recent collection thread, the Daewoo Nexia (1995)





Largely a re-hash of the mk2 Vauxhall Astra, I don’t suppose it spearheaded any particular automotive ’firsts’

Or did it…









'Crystal' rear lights, on a car launched in 1995?  I struggle to think of an earlier example.


So there you have it, that most unlikely of automotive trailblazers, that’ll be the Daewoo, maybe...

[bunglebus]

I'd say that was still a diffused lense rather than reflector, but definitely a more modern look than the Astra it's based on

[caffeine]

  On 16/01/2025 at 22:30, bunglebus said:

I'd say that was still a diffused lense rather than reflector, but definitely a more modern look than the Astra it's based on

Expand  

Think it might be a hybrid of sorts, where the reflector has vertical ‘ribs’,  paired with an inner lens that is ‘fluted’ horizontally, so together it creates a sort of reflective grid effect

The Peugeot 406 (also quite modern looking for its time, I thought) had similar…



And coupe ...