Memo to all Mercedes-Benz drivers...

Drivers of many other high-end German cars too, and even some Saabs and Volvos, I think.

I know that if you are like most car owners, your Owners Manual is a kilo or so of dead weight in the glove box.

But would you please take it out at your earliest convenience - as in IMMEDIATELY AFTER READING THIS - and check in the Index to see if your car has a 'rear fog lamp'?

If so, please also read how to shut the bleedin' thing off!

(The one in this photo is actually in a Porsche Panamera Hybrid).

This feature - typically only one of them, embedded in the left rear taillight - is designed to be used on the German Autobahn, sections of which are subject to very thick fog.

At the speeds they get to drive over there, you need to give all the advance warning you can to faster cars which may be approaching from behind.

But being Germans, the drivers there are disciplined enough to ONLY turn them on when there is thick fog.

The other night - a perfectly clear night - I was passed by an aggressively-driven Mercedes-Benz SLK whose owner (like so many others) presumably did not know his car had this feature, and/or did not know how to turn it off.

Possibly, he just didn't give a damn, but I like to think positively, that it was merely ignorance, not arrogance.

The light was very blinding, almost as bad as someone driving behind you with his high beams on.

Typically, this function is activated by pulling the headlight switch out a notch or two. It's easy enough to do by mistake, and while it does also turn on an indicator light on the dashboard, all too many of us don't pay any attention to those either.

So be polite, and do the rest of your fellow drivers a favour, will you please?

 

Thank you.

 

Comments

[Ben]

I know how you feel, lately I've noticed an increase in the BMWs and Volvos driving with the rear fog lights. In my neck of the woods it seems that most MB drivers know how to turn them off.

[Bernard DeGagne]

In my experience the rear fog light also comes on when you turn your front facing fog lights on, which the Europeans also only turn on in the presence of fog.

[Maurice]

Hi Jim, My '08 MINI Cooper S Clubman also has a rear fog light in the left taillight. In typical MINI fashion, it is difficult to decipher the toggle switch symbol to figure out which one turns on the front fog lamps and which one is for the rear. Even hard to tell by looking at the indicator lights in the speedometer. I think a rear fog light is a great idea but car manufacturers should label these switches so you can tell what does what.

[John Frewen-Lord]

Jim:

The rear foglight feature was, I believe, first made mandatory by the UK, back in the 1970s (could be early '80s). Britain of course was always getting heavy fogs, and large freeway/motorway pile-ups as a result.

They are a blessing in fog, and even in heavy spray, although their use in spray is, bizarrely, illegal!

As for leaving them on, it IS possible - most cars are wired so that the front fogs come on first, then the rears, in a two position switch. Easy to move the switch too far (or twice instead of once). Fortunately they have to be self-cancelling when the ignition is switched off.

[Richard]

I wonder if the rear fog light is linked to the front fog lights, so they all come on at the same time. For some insane reason MANY drivers seem to like to drive with the front fogs on ALL THE TIME.

Maybe the message to driver's should be to turn ALL the fog lights off unless it's foggy/rainy/snowy?

Speaking of fog lights, I've noticed in some vehicles, the switch can be turned on and left on in perpetuity. Then every time the regular lights come on, the fogs are on.

Other vehicles (Chevy Equinox comes to mind) have a switch that resets itself each time the ignition is cycled, leading to the driver to manually activate the fogs every time the vehicle is started.

I'm thinking the Chevy might be the better of the two designs.