not this OP’s issue, but I have had a number of people come to me with this complaint, and the issue was simply to turn the headlights on.
They were driving with the daytime running lights on, and saw the ‘head;lights’ were on, then the selector for the brights wouldn’t do anything- because the headlights weren’t actually selected to be on. I see this quite often on the highway at night. Folks driving with no tail lights or dash lights, but ‘headlights’ on. Shows ya how often they check their dash for speed or gauge issues…
This usually happened with folks that were driving a new to them car, as what they are used to driving had automatic headlights.
The looks on their faces when I explained the difference between DRL and Auto headlights was worth the hassle.
I don’t dispute some folks don’t pay much attention but the little icons telling you the lights are on or off in cars today leave a lot to be desired. With electronic dash its even worse since the dash lights appear on all the time. I remember I had a rental Impala in the hills of California and it got very foggy. I had to pull off and physically check the tail lights to see if they were on or not. No way to tell from the light switch or the dash indicators. Those little light bulb icons just don’t do it and try to figure out which is the fog lights and which is the head lights. I don’t see why they can’t have tail light indicators too or something a little more illustrative or heaven forbid “WORDS” like lights on.
I’ve seen this many times myself. I’ve long believed that it makes more sense to (instead of Daytime Running Lights) simply connect the headlights, taillights, and running lights such that they’re all on whenever the key is in the ON position. There could be a manual override for this for special circumstances, but the default should be to have all the lights on, except of course auxiliary lights like high beams and fog lamps. An added benefit would be improved visibility in fog.
