Can someone please enlighten me on the use of fog lights on a car?
I really thought they were for use during foggy weather! It would seem however that just about every other car on the road these days has there fog lights on even during broad daylight!!! Driving behind a car with their rear fog lights on is awful because of the brilliant glare of the lights and the strain on your eyes and having a car up your backside with a full set of lights on is so intimidating.
Is there really any need?

For some reason I thought it was a big NO NO to use them if it isn't foggy.

I thought it was against the law but it doesn't seem to stop them. There was a car following me the other night and his lights were so bright I could have easily read a book while inside my car :(

I thought it was a big NO NO to use them if it isn't foggy.

Me too but it would seem that perhaps the drivers are concerned they will not be seen by other road users day or night without having a full set of lights on!
I don't mean boy racers either, all types of cars and drivers! So ignorant! Grrrrr!

his lights were so bright I could have easily read a book while inside my car

If i have a car tailgating me and weather conditions permitting i will put my washers on. They normally back off although this doesn't have the same effect during wet weather! :-(

> If i have a car tailgating me and weather conditions permitting i will put my washers on. They normally back off

Sounds like you need to adjust your washers :-)

I think the problem is that people are selfish, they often leave their lights set too high or their fog lights on so they can see better and who cares about anyone else :-(  My car has quite bright headlights, just standard for it I haven't bought any of the ridiculous bulbs. I find that on it's normal setting the lights are a tad high so I click them down a notch, as if there was a load in the back although there isn't.

The police will pull people over for using fog lights unless it is actually very foggy and rightly so, my pet hate is people putting rear ones on in the rain - they must think it helps make them more visible but it blinds the people behind.

I thought the visability had to be less than a certain length(which I cant seem to remember) before fog lights should be used. I think it does also depend if it is motorway/duel carriageway or normal a/b or less roads.
I was traveling on the motorway on saturday morning between 10 & 11 and it was very sunny ahead but looking in the rear view mirror, it wasnt at all easy to see the cars behind but it certainly helped if the car had its lights on, weather it was side lights or dipped beam.

From the Highway Code

>226

You MUST use headlights when visibility is seriously reduced, generally when you cannot see for more than 100 metres (328 feet). You may also use front or rear fog lights but you MUST switch them off when visibility improves (see Rule 236).

You're right Lexy, having your lights on even during daylight hours does make you more visible, but side lights are usually sufficient for this, dipped headlights are fine but fog lights should never be used unless visibility is severely impaired.

I do alot of motorway driving and fogs lights and people who travel in a lane when an inner lane is as clear as a clear thing really irritates me ! Also on the opposite side people who just use side lights when they should be using fog lights is just as irritating !

Thanks Chamusong, I had 100 in my head but wasnt sure if it was feet or yards(which is same as metres roughly).

My mum when a sales women was pulled over several times over the years in the early hours when she came back into town with fog lights on.
It was like a pea soup for her all the way home, but as she got back into town it was clear, the police who pulled her over hadnt been out of the town at all so didnt realise how foggy it was. From the main A road to her house was about a 2 minute drive and at 3am on her way home she just completely forgot.
Both times they were waiting for the clubs to chuck out, and just told her to make sure she turned them off in future. This was about 25 years ago, but rules havnt changed since, but police have more paperwork to do so probably not as keen on pulling over for minor offences like they were all those years ago.
Lea :) :)

Round here all the younger generation seem to float along on double headlights and if they've got them FOG lights too :(  It makes it incredibly difficult to see to drive :(

Every Wednesday I drive home in rush hour and seem to get the same numpty behind me for the dark stretch.  Whoever it is DIPS their headlights for those coming towards us but puts them FULL on afterwards    Their lights are bright enough for me to read a book! and I certainly can't see to drive on a very winding country road, so... on with the rear fog lamps <evil grin>   It doesn't seem to make this idiot dip their lights but they do back of by 200 yards which means I only see them occasionally :-D

The other half of the drive is over the mountain and in Autumn it's usually foggy - pea soup - but putting my headlights up merely decreases visibility as the light reflects off the fog, but it's amazing how many drive on full headlights and at full speed too, no thought of going off the road or hitting a sheep/horse/vehicle :(

Don't know where the police are in this, they never seem to pull anyone over for anything round here :(

some years ago my brother got a 50.00 fine for having his fog lights on not sure if he got points on his licence , i travel on a very fast but only single carriage way most nights to training and it is pitch black and because i have a transit i get the idiots that also have full beams on, and sit right up my backside and they sway back and forward from the back of my van trying to get past me but the road is so fast that if they where to pull out and a car came from the other side huge crash, i have a on the back of the transit a metal step and after a couple of times trying to kill me by overtaking or trying to push my van faster i know i should not but i brake not hard but just enough to make most of them realise they do not know what is in front of my van and usually they back off had some though try to overtake and then screech to a halt and have to move in as car comming other way, last week, 6 cars and two vans all ran into each other on the same bit of road, and the cars admitted they wanted to get buy it was all in the local papers and held the road up for over three hours

In Fife the must have accessory is a car with one working head light which is always on full beam. It happens to everyone now and again, but it's beyond a joke here.

my OH said to me today last night why was it every other car has only one head light working are they trying to save their battery, i am out again tonight will have a look to see if he was exagerating

When they only have one light working they have to have it on main beam as that counts as the same as 2 on dip beam :)