RED Turn Signals/Hazards : WHY ?!?

[RW033]

2 hours ago, Rob Hall said:

My CT6 has cornering lamps, built into the light tubes.  My '00 DTS had them also..it's a nice feature to have.  The CT6 is loaded w/ goodies..AWD,  heated and cooled and massage seats (memory for both front seats), auto settings for headlights, wipers, HVAC, NAV, heads up display, Apple Car Play and Android Auto, camera rear view mirror, cameras on the side mirrors for parking,  power shades for front and rear sunroofs, rear window power shade, power folding mirrors, etc.. all the usual modern luxury car features..alas, no CD player, but I stream from my phone and use Sirius XM instead.    I'd like to have an '80s Fleetwood Brougham or Eldorado convertible as a weekend cruiser.   Sooner or later I'd like a CTS-V w/ a manual or a CT5-V Blackwing w/ a manual for a fun car. 

CT6 is such a beautiful car - neat fact - the floor board are actually upside down compared to a normal car so the structural stamping is up and the bottom of the car is pretty much flat. The subs and amp are under your feet in between the structure. CT5-V would be tons of fun 

[Rob Hall]

40 minutes ago, RW033 said:

CT6 is such a beautiful car - neat fact - the floor board are actually upside down compared to a normal car so the structural stamping is up and the bottom of the car is pretty much flat. The subs and amp are under your feet in between the structure. CT5-V would be tons of fun 

Interesting.  I know it has a lot of aluminum, relatively light for a modern full size sedan.  I’ve been very happy with it, taking another road trip in it in about a month.  

[peteski]

4 hours ago, Rob Hall said:

My CT6 has cornering lamps, built into the light tubes.  My '00 DTS had them also..it's a nice feature to have.  The CT6 is loaded w/ goodies..AWD,  heated and cooled and massage seats (memory for both front seats), auto settings for headlights, wipers, HVAC, NAV, heads up display, Apple Car Play and Android Auto, camera rear view mirror, cameras on the side mirrors for parking,  power shades for front and rear sunroofs, rear window power shade, power folding mirrors, etc.. all the usual modern luxury car features..alas, no CD player, but I stream from my phone and use Sirius XM instead.    I'd like to have an '80s Fleetwood Brougham or Eldorado convertible as a weekend cruiser.   Sooner or later I'd like a CTS-V w/ a manual or a CT5-V Blackwing w/ a manual for a fun car. 

I didn't realize they still included cornering lights. I guess since they are integrated, the aren't as obvious as on my Caddy.  Of course we cant; compare features of yours to one over 30 years old.   Mine does have electronic climate control (which is a bit of a pain because it is too automatic), and of course computer controller throttle body fuel injection with a digital trip computer integrated with the climate control unit. It also has the automatic headligths. It also has a genuine Bose sound system with Dolby auto-reverse cassette tape, and with amps integrated with the speaker enclosures. Power antenna of course. No backup cameras though!  I used to drive another '84 Eldorado Biarritz and that one had heated rear view mirrors (my '85 doesn't have those, or a rear window defroster, because it was a Florida car so those weren't added as options).  My '84 did have a large glass "Astro Roof".

It's amusing comparing 30+ year old technology to what we have today.

[Rob Hall]

2 minutes ago, peteski said:

I didn't realize they still included cornering lights. I guess since they are integrated, the aren't as obvious as on my Caddy.  Of course we cant; compare features of yours to one over 30 years old.   Mine does have electronic climate control (which is a bit of a pain because it is too automatic), and of course computer controller throttle body fuel injection with a digital trip computer integrated with the climate control unit. It also has the automatic headligths. It also has a genuine Bose sound system with Dolby auto-reverse cassette tape, and with amps integrated with the speaker enclosures. Power antenna of course. No backup cameras though!  I used to drive another '84 Eldorado Biarritz and that one had heated rear view mirrors (my '85 doesn't have those, or a rear window defroster, because it was a Florida car so those weren't added as options).  My '84 did have a large glass "Astro Roof".

It's amusing comparing 30+ year old technology to what we have today.

Yeah, it’s fascinating.  I love the seats on older Cadillacs..very comfortable to sink into.  My late father was a Lincoln man, I grew up riding in his Continentals and Town Cars.  But I’ve always been more of a Cadillac fan. Used to ride in a buddy’s ‘81 Fleetwood Brougham d’ elegance in triple silver.  What a boat.  I used to have an ‘84 Mercedes 500SEL.  That had some neat features, incl a reclining heated rear seat.  

[peteski]

41 minutes ago, Rob Hall said:

Yeah, it’s fascinating.  I love the seats on older Cadillacs..very comfortable to sink into.  My late father was a Lincoln man, I grew up riding in his Continentals and Town Cars.  But I’ve always been more of a Cadillac fan. Used to ride in a buddy’s ‘81 Fleetwood Brougham d’ elegance in triple silver.  What a boat.  I used to have an ‘84 Mercedes 500SEL.  That had some neat features, incl a reclining heated rear seat.  

They sure are. Mine are like sitting on a white-leather couch.  It is a 60/40 split bench with folding center armrest. No buckets! And the car's sheet metal is really heavy. Those long heavy doors take some muscles to close! Nothing like any contemporary car.  Oh, it also has a trunk lid pull-down so I don't need to slam the trunk lid shut.  Then there are the self-leveling air shocks in the rear.  The more I think about it, to more options I come up with.  I just don't think about them when driving the car.

Edited August 11, 2024 by peteski

[Rob Hall]

6 minutes ago, peteski said:

They sure are. Mine are like sitting on a white-leather couch.  It is a 60/40 split bench with folding center armrest. No buckets! And the car's sheet metal is really heavy. Those long heavy doors take some muscles to close! Nothing like any contemporary car.  Oh, it also has a trunk lid pull-down so I don't need to slam the trunk lid shut.  Then there are the self-leveling air shocks in the rear.  The more I think about it, to more options I come up with.  I just don't think about them when driving the car.

Speaking of trunk lids, I can open and close mine with the remote.  I’m used to that with my Jeep hatch, but this is the first car I’ve had with a remote close trunk lid.  Also can open it by waving my foot under the rear bumper (the spot is lit up with a neat Cadillac logo beamed on the ground).  And as I walk toward it at night with the remote in my pocket the door handles light up, headlights, etc come on. 

Edited August 11, 2024 by Rob Hall

[peteski]

Mine is nowhere as large as its contemporary Feetwood Brougham, but after getting in it after driving my daily driver '19 Kia Soul, it sure feels like a big boat.  Soft ride (but with 4 wheel independent suspension it handles corners surprisingly well, except for me sliding sideways on those couch seats ) and that long flat hood with a hood ornament like gunsight. And of course the large steering wheel with power steering needing lots of spinning to make a turn, but so easy that it can be spun with one finger.

[Rob Hall]

I miss that hood ornaments went out of fashion.    Another factoid I didn't realize until I looked it up, the CT6 has an approx. 1 inch longer wheelbase than an '80s Fleetwood Brougham.   Shorter overhangs account for the nearly 16 inch difference in length. 

Edited August 11, 2024 by Rob Hall

[stitchdup]

5 hours ago, Rob Hall said:

I miss that hood ornaments went out of fashion.  

its not so much that they went out of fashion. it was a group of parents that didn't want disembowelled children so regulations were brought in about protrusions from the bodywork. the hood ormements on rolls and mercedes have retraction mechanisms for the rolls and mercedes use a sprung system to make them collapse in impacts

[peteski]

4 hours ago, stitchdup said:

its not so much that they went out of fashion. it was a group of parents that didn't want disembowelled children so regulations were brought in about protrusions from the bodywork. the hood ormements on rolls and mercedes have retraction mechanisms for the rolls and mercedes use a sprung system to make them collapse in impacts

The same is true for my '85 Caddy, and for pretty much all American cars with hood ornaments, probably since '50s or '60s. It was for the same reason you mentioned.  The hood ornaments are sprung.

9 hours ago, Rob Hall said:

I miss that hood ornaments went out of fashion.    Another factoid I didn't realize until I looked it up, the CT6 has an approx. 1 inch longer wheelbase than an '80s Fleetwood Brougham.   Shorter overhangs account for the nearly 16 inch difference in length. 

True, contemporary cars have much shorter overhangs.  That probably makes them more stable, and results in more usable passenger space.

[Jordan White]

On 8/7/2024 at 12:17 AM, iamsuperdan said:

I've actually converted a few of my Jeeps to the Euro-style lights over the years.

Did my 05 TJ Sport as well, but I'll be darned if I can find any pics of it. Weird.

I mentioned before that I did the same to my '89 YJ, here's a pic I found of it!

[Ace-Garageguy]

18 hours ago, Rob Hall said:

Interesting.  I know it has a lot of aluminum, relatively light for a modern full size sedan.  I’ve been very happy with it, taking another road trip in it in about a month.  

And I bet beautiful women line up for rides in it, too.  

[webestang]

On 8/8/2024 at 3:53 PM, Rob Hall said:

My '86 Mustang had amber rear turn signals, my '87 does not.   

Funny, I replaced my broken 88 taillights with the 85-86 style. Not for the signals but because that was the extra set I had at the time and I like that style better anyway.   

 

[Rob Hall]

9 minutes ago, webestang said:

Funny, I replaced my broken 88 taillights with the 85-86 style. Not for the signals but because that was the extra set I had at the time and I like that style better anyway.   

 

I like the '85-86 style... my '87 GT has the cheesegraters (which look good in red, IMO).   I once thought about swapping out the cheese graters for '85-86 GT lenses or SVO lenses (which are slightly different from GT ones), but have kept it stock.. 

Top pic was at home on my family farm in 1990 when I had both the '87 GT and an '86 LX (my college car)...the '86 was gone by 1994.   Below pic is a few months ago, the restored '87 GT and my '19 Cadillac CT6.   

[webestang]

At first back in 1987 when the new GT came out I disliked those cheese graters but they have grown on me a bit. And they do look pretty good in red. But I still to this day do not like the 94-95 "GM" sideways tails.  

[sfhess]

On 8/8/2024 at 6:13 PM, Brian Austin said:

While we're at it,  now that with LEDs more cars have sequential turn signals, are they still cool?  ?

Also, LEDs were supposed to be better than incandescent lights, but I've seen so many broken LED tail lights over the years.  They don't seem to hold up.

Sequential turn signals are cool on 60s Thunderbirds and Cougars.

[sfhess]

On 8/8/2024 at 2:51 PM, RW033 said:

Not colour that irks me but the location of the brake/signal on some of these new cars (Kia) too are so low I can barely see them in a passenger car never mind a truck or big rig 

Even worse are the lights that are low on the sides in a chunk of black plastic and look like an afterthought.  This looks like one car got dropped on top of another.

 

Edited August 15, 2024 by sfhess

[1972coronet]

"If someone else said it better..." 
I defer to Mr. Stern's excellent article regarding rear amber turn signals : Preventing accidents with amber turn signals (acarplace.com)

[WillyBilly]

I agree amber is the best way to identify a turn, but I think we are over thinking this. Red, amber, blue, green. If the light is flashing, something is happening, and you should be aware. Twice I have had a left directional on. One with an amber turn signal, the other with red. in both these cases as I turned left, the driver behind me tried to pass me on the left. Both times I was sent into a brick sign base, and a rock wall. The color of the light means nothing if the idiot behind you is not paying attention. Work on replacing idiots with normal people.