Turn signals - Amber vs. Red

Firecat

Firecat

Politically Charged
Joined
Mar 23, 2005
Messages
5,730
Just a little pet peeve of mine. I love my GTI, the only downside I think are the red rear turn signals. I've seen a lot of different models change from amber to red in the past few years.

From wiki

Turn signal colour
Until the early 1960s, most front turn signals worldwide emitted white
light and most rear turn signals emitted red. Amber front turn signals
were voluntarily adopted by the auto industry in the USA for most
vehicles beginning in the 1963 model year, though front turn signals
were still permitted to emit white light until FMVSS 108 took effect
for the 1968 model year, whereupon amber became the only permissible
colour for front turn signals. Presently, almost all countries outside
North America require that all front, side and rear turn signals
produce amber light. In North America the rear signals may be amber or
red. International proponents of amber rear signals say they are more
easily discernible as turn signals, and US studies in the early 1990s
demonstrated improvements in the speed and accuracy of following
drivers' reaction to brake lamps when the turn signals were amber
rather than red. US regulators and other proponents of red rear turn
signals claim there is no proven lifesaving benefit to amber signals
Click to expand...
 
I thought about it then realized that I don't look at the rear of my vehicle all that much.
 
I've always liked amber signals better, especially when the car ahead of me has a tail light that isn't working. My Rover has two sets of ambers for each side in the back and little ones on the sides near the front doors. I put on a disco light show everytime I turn. :lol:
 
I seem to like Yellow more, but the thing is most of my life I've lived in asian countries where amber is required by law, but when I was living in Cali, I loved the Eclipse's and the Suburban with the red turn signals.., I guess it depends alot on the car, I would think my civic would look ugly with Red, would only good with White or Yellow.
 
My Civic has red signals. I actually don't mind red signal lamps as long as they are not shared with the brake lights, as they were on most American cars back in the day. I actually like the look of the red signals, it doesn't break up the look of the car as much. My car is white, so the reverse lamps blend well with the pain color and the rest of the tail lamp assembly is red. I actually think it looks better than an amber inset.

I think Honda is doing almost all red signal lamps these days.
 
It's compulsory to have amber signals over here, I don't think I could cope with a red turn signal while someone was braking! And what about the old cars where the turn signal was the brake light flashing! Confusing as all hell I reckon!
 
I used to drive a c230 sport coupe, it had amber rear turn signals...but you couldn't tell unless you were indicating because the cover was red. Like so...

mb%20c230%20sportcoupe.jpg


I thought that was a good approach. The reason I don't mind the red as much on the GTI is because there are amber turn signals on the side mirrors, which wrap all the way around. Which kinda makes up for it.
 
mine emmit a faint amber glow in the front, but in the back, they're fully amber. i think the lightbulb cover on the front must have come off, cause the actual glass on the light is transparent.
 
I prefer amber, in all honesty, better to have them red in some cases than screw up the look of a car. However, the amber light in a red cover to not break the look is the best solution.
 
What about when the amber lights bring a nice contrast to the car? like red brake callipers to an all silver car?
 
I think you have to have amber ones by law here but I'm not 100% sure. I certainly can't remember seeing any red ones.
 
I believe that is the case. The Cougars that were sold in NA had red turn signals, but the ones sold in Europe and Australia had different taillights with amber turn signal. I can't imagine Ford would have done that unless there was a requirement for it.
 
I dont really care what color turn signals are as they as they're blinking.
 
^ That's a very good point. I should have said that the on the rare occasion I see someone actually using their signals, I like them better when they're amber so its easier to tell the difference between turning and stopping.
 
Quite strict penalties if you take an intersection here without a turn signal and get spotted by the cops. And it's highly annoying and dangerous if people go through a roundabout without signalling properly. But hey, this is europe, you've just made another point about drivers here and there.
 
I used to be a strong supporter of amber signals, but I have gotten used to red signals and even combination turn/brake signals. My truck has the latter.

I do have a problem with people not checking there bulbs occasionally. Two of the states I live near (Oklahoma and Kansas) do not require safety inspections. That means no one ever checks the lights on most of the vehicles in these states. I also dislike the fact that most people don't care if the lights on the trailer they are pulling has functioning lights...
 
KaJuN said:
[...]
I should have said that the on the rare occasion I see someone actually using their signals
[...]
Click to expand...
Boy oh boy, talk about that...
Here in germany you have to use your signals if you want to change lane, turn off etc. (yes, we germans love rules for everything :p ) but if you pay attention how many people don't use their signals you realise about 20% don't use it at all - I once drove behind a Beemer about 70 km (40+ miles) on the Autobahn, we changed lanes quite often and he never used his signals, so it wasn't like "oh, I forgot to use my signal" but "well, I know where I want to drive, the others have to know it, too, and nobody wants to overtake me anyway so I don't have to signal when I want to change lanes"...

BTT: Only amber signals are allowed here and I think it's good because with red turning signals you don't have the differentiation between "the car in front of me is signalling" and "the car in front of me is braking but has a broken brakelight which occasionally has a loose connection".

Red = rear end of the car
Bright red = brakelight
Amber = turning signal
White = reversing light
Easy to differentiate means easy to react in every situation.
 
Eye-Q said:
Boy oh boy, talk about that...
Here in germany you have to use your signals if you want to change lane, turn off etc. (yes, we germans love rules for everything :p )
Click to expand...

I think its like that all over the world. And I hate the fuckers who don't use them because at least one time per month I almost slam into one of them.
 
From the aesthetics POV I actually preferred red to amber. But that was mainly in the 80's, early 90's where tail light design was not as intricate as today. Plus I moved to the US from Europe in my teens so it was just different and therefore cool. Today, I really don't give a crap one way or the other and thb rarely look at people's turn signals to figure out what they're gonna do. I can also understand an argument of using amber vs red but honestly, out on the street, the amber t/s is no more visible to me than a blinking red.
 
I think it depends... honestly, if I'm driving on the freeway and the cars are all about 100m behind me with no one going exceptionally fast, the car is about 75m in front of me so I go into the fast lane to overtake, I don't see the point in indicating. However, when there is traffic and you're not traveling at 3am in the morning its a different story.

But there is 1 thing I don't understand, why do you have to indicate you're turning right on right turn only lanes? I know in some countries, there is an unwritten rule which people follow is that if its right turn only, you indicate right if you're doing a U-turn, if not you don't indicate as its pretty obvious you're turning right since it says right turn only.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top