Only One Reversing Light?

[TomdeGuerre]

I don't think anyone's complaining Tom. Somehow motoring and mucking about with cars was so much more enjoyable in those days.

In 1966 I bought a brand new Austin Minivan for £395 + £10 for undersealing. Battery was just behind the seat IIRC. Kept it 5 years, and it broke down a week before my honeymoon!

The minivan was a bargain in those days, wonder how much they would be today. I remember the £10 underseal, had to apply the stuff with a paint brush. Floor and sub-frames done over the ramp then jack up and take off all the wheels to do the wheel arches.

The registration number of my mini was VCS760. My wife gets on to me because I can never remember the date of our anniversary but I can remember reg numbers of old cars I've owned.

[Heidfirst]

we had a Mini too - a red one, JYS 533D. It was in the family for ~30 years until we sold it.

[Duffryn]

I don't think anyone's complaining Tom. Somehow motoring and mucking about with cars was so much more enjoyable in those days.

In 1966 I bought a brand new Austin Minivan for £395 + £10 for undersealing. Battery was just behind the seat IIRC. Kept it 5 years, and it broke down a week before my honeymoon!

The minivan was a bargain in those days, wonder how much they would be today. I remember the £10 underseal, had to apply the stuff with a paint brush. Floor and sub-frames done over the ramp then jack up and take off all the wheels to do the wheel arches.

The registration number of my mini was VCS760. My wife gets on to me because I can never remember the date of our anniversary but I can remember reg numbers of old cars I've owned.

LOL we must have been hatched from the same egg Tom, cos my Minivan was JFH655D and I too struggle with anniversary dates.

In fact I can recite the reg.nos. of all 20+ cars we've ever owned. How sad is that!

[PeteB]

My Mini was RHV 856

I can recall some of my Dad's early registrations from 1960s too!

[TomdeGuerre]

I don't think anyone's complaining Tom. Somehow motoring and mucking about with cars was so much more enjoyable in those days.

In 1966 I bought a brand new Austin Minivan for £395 + £10 for undersealing. Battery was just behind the seat IIRC. Kept it 5 years, and it broke down a week before my honeymoon!

The minivan was a bargain in those days, wonder how much they would be today. I remember the £10 underseal, had to apply the stuff with a paint brush. Floor and sub-frames done over the ramp then jack up and take off all the wheels to do the wheel arches.

The registration number of my mini was VCS760. My wife gets on to me because I can never remember the date of our anniversary but I can remember reg numbers of old cars I've owned.

LOL we must have been hatched from the same egg Tom, cos my Minivan was JFH655D and I too struggle with anniversary dates.

In fact I can recite the reg.nos. of all 20+ cars we've ever owned. How sad is that!

Don't know about being hatched from the same egg, i was told once in a pub argument that i wasn't born normally, that i was p'eed up against a wall and sun hatched!

I don't think it's sad at all remembering important stuff like car registrations while women can rhyme off birthdays, anniversaries etc etc. Somebody once said, in the battle of the sexes, men remember nothing but women remember everything. Tell you one thing for sure, we're wired differently from them.

[TomdeGuerre]

My Mini was RHV 856

I can recall some of my Dad's early registrations from 1960s too!

My first Ford Consul was a Mk 1 i bought to replace the Prefect. Cost me £12 because it needed a clutch. POV757 R.I.P

[Drpepper99uk]

Funny reading this as I have an unusual ability and always have of remembering not only my own past cars registrations but also nearly everyone's elses cars on my work car park after a few glances- some 200 odd cars and also half the car's down my street and elsehwere!! Even more amusing is like mentioned on here before, I can't always remember dates I should...Anniversary or birthdays as quick!! Never been of much use to me even though I work in the automotive industry(interiors) and i've never had to apply that skill elsewhere...

[YarisHybrid2016]

I found it strange that it only had one reverse light, but I was quite surprised at how well it worked with the reverse camera (Gen 3 Yaris Hybrid).

It helps that my car is white as the license plate lights reflect well, and illuminate behind the car well, too.

You might want to change the contrast of the camera - it works surprisingly well at night once adjusted.

If you keep the taillights and the camera lens clean then there are no problems.

[PeteB]

To be fair, my camera works reasonably well on my Prius too.

My main beef is that when backing out from a row of 45° oblique parking spaces, often found in village shopping parades, my one reversing light is invisible to oncoming traffic until I'm well out into the road, and consequently I'm less likely to be let out.

Also, to a lesser extent, it's backup if a bulb fails (rare though it is).

I'm much more angry about only having one rear fog light though.  It's rare to really need it (and meet the legal minimum 100 yards visibility for turning it on), but on the odd occasion I've been caught in 50 yd visibility in the middle of a journey and had to lean out of the window to follow the white lines until I find somewhere safe to pull off the road until things improve.  In such poor visibility, anyone approaching from the nearside may not see my one fog light until after they've hit me!

But most of all, when I'm paying £23-£28 thousand for a car, I don't expect such cheap nasty poor quality penny pinching!!!!  I don't expect it on a £15k Yaris for that matter.

When I see basic Kia Picantos, Corsa, and lots of other cheaper cars with them, it really rubs it in.

[YarisHybrid2016]

Yes, I certainly agree that a lone fog lamp doesn't provide quite the same conspicuousness that two can provide. Also agree that with two, one is a backup.

I've already had the (mis-)fortune of driving in extremely poor visibility since getting my Yaris. It's the first time in over a decade since I've been in conditions that poor, and I discovered the front fog lamps are useless! Not bright enough (or too spread - can't decide which). I could hardly tell they were on. I wondered how visible my rear fog light was at that point (it was night time).

I nearly had my car written off that night, no thanks to someone who thought you can drive at 60 MPH in those conditions. :(  They had no option but to pass me to avoid a collision with my back-end. :(  I'm not of a nervous desposition, but I was shaking to the point I had to pull over after that (they narrowly avoided a head-on with a car coming the other way - we both ended up on our respective verges to avoid being hit).

[Heidfirst]

what I dislike on this Avensis T27 (the T25 was different) is that you can no longer put the rear fog on only. It can only be put on in conjunction with the fronts but I am sure that you are aware that  often more light at the front in fog actually makes things harder to see ... Obviously not an issue if your car isnt fitted with front fogs but if you are driving other than a base model 

[Duffryn]

Surely there should be some kind of rules/regulations regarding the power or intensity of foglights (rear ones in particular). And agree there should be two of each on a car at this price.

But what do I know - I get confused with which turn ring relates to front/rear fogs on the lights stalk anyway, so they all go on whenever necessary.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Toyota sold 108,852 vehicles in the UK in 2015. Assuming they all have one rear foglight fitted on the offisde (which is compliant with current legislation) and one reversing light, usually on the nearside. This could equate to saving £2 per light by only fitting one rear foglight and one reversing light, and would represent a saving of around £435,408 for Toyota last year based on UK sales

Europe-wide the saving would go into the millions each year.

Similar recent thread in the Yaris club - 

 

[Heidfirst]

3 hours ago, Duffryn said:

Surely there should be some kind of rules/regulations regarding the power or intensity of foglights (rear ones in particular).

There are. There are also rules about when fog lights should be used ...

[TomdeGuerre]

On 30/01/2016 at 11:18 AM, PeteB said:

To be fair, my camera works reasonably well on my Prius too.

My main beef is that when backing out from a row of 45° oblique parking spaces, often found in village shopping parades, my one reversing light is invisible to oncoming traffic until I'm well out into the road, and consequently I'm less likely to be let out.

Also, to a lesser extent, it's backup if a bulb fails (rare though it is).

I'm much more angry about only having one rear fog light though.  It's rare to really need it (and meet the legal minimum 100 yards visibility for turning it on), but on the odd occasion I've been caught in 50 yd visibility in the middle of a journey and had to lean out of the window to follow the white lines until I find somewhere safe to pull off the road until things improve.  In such poor visibility, anyone approaching from the nearside may not see my one fog light until after they've hit me!

But most of all, when I'm paying £23-£28 thousand for a car, I don't expect such cheap nasty poor quality penny pinching!!!!  I don't expect it on a £15k Yaris for that matter.

When I see basic Kia Picantos, Corsa, and lots of other cheaper cars with them, it really rubs it in.

Aye, and come to that when i see cheap wee Fiats and Renaults and things that have one front fog light automatically switched on when they indicate (turning lamps?) I wonder just how long it will be before Toyota catch on to that one.

[FROSTYBALLS]

We have cornering lights on our i20. Headlights are projector lights and the headlight units have separate H7 bulbs set at an angle which come on when the steering wheel is turned approx 35 degrees. They actually work very well, and are in addition to the foglights. 

Presume Toyota may look at these for the next generation Yaris (2017?) and Auris (2018?).

[Heidfirst]

Iirc the "new" Avensis (2015 facelift) has cornering lights (albeit via fogs).

[PeteB]

6 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

We have cornering lights on our i20. Headlights are projector lights and the headlight units have separate H7 bulbs set at an angle which come on when the steering wheel is turned approx 35 degrees. They actually work very well, and are in addition to the foglights. 

Presume Toyota may look at these for the next generation Yaris (2017?) and Auris (2018?).

 

Given a Lexus NX I test drove in 2014 had them, it's disappointing the Gen 4 2016 Prius doesn't.  I would have liked the all round (four camera) 360° view on the monitor too - if a Leaf has had this for 2-3 years, surely the latest Toyota Hybrid flagship should?

Apart from that the equipment list on the Gen4 is quite impressive, but I would have thought that a built in dash cam (in the mirror housing) should be available at least as an option by now - after all, people have been fitting them as accessories for over 10 years now!

[Wayne2015]

My old imported 1988 Toyota had rear fog light dangling from its bumper.

Because it had several rear of driving lights , we just Nick some of those and made 2 rear fog lights out of them

 

So do u have any spare rear lights which u can make into an extra reversing light?