"Adrian" wrote in message
. 244.170...
Martin Underwood ) gurgled happily, sounding much like
they were saying :

The US is a particularly entertaining case - they've legislated
Daytime Running Lights that come on with the ignition.

I think in
Sweden they're just sidelights (certainly Volvos here only have their
sidelights, not headlights, on permanently).

Scandi ones are brighter than sidies - sidies tend to be a 5w bulb,
whereas
the Saab/Volvo daytime lights are 21w (or were on proper Saab 900s,
IIRC) -
I think most tend to use dip beam now.

Ah! I'd assumed that the running lights were conventional 5W sidelight bulbs
rather 21W indicator/brake/fog light bulbs. I presume the sidelight part of
the cluster has a dual-filament bulb: 5W for night and 21W for day. Maybe UK
versions of Volvos etc have been modified so as to use 5W for both purposes.

I wonder what the additional cost in extra fuel consumption is

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question424.htm

A fascinating and well-reasoned article. Now someone needs to work out how
much extra American cars consume than European cars because almost all of
them are automatic transmission - though set against this is the fact that
US speed limits are lower so consumption will be less on that account.

I can't say I'm surprised about the situation in America: they don't
require cars to have front number plates (though many cars do have
them)

Nor do they have MOTs.

I didn't know that. So once you've bought a new car, is there no requirement
for periodic testing of brakes, suspension, body structure etc throughout
the car's life? Bloody hell!

Mind you, American road rules are very strange: they allow overtaking on
either side (it's quite common to get several lanes of an Interstate all
going at exactly 55 mph, with no relative motion, which makes it very
difficult to change lanes when joining or leaving the road), and cars change
their registration number (IIRC) every time the car is sold to a new owner,
which must make it very difficult to trace the car's history throughout its
life (eg for "has it ever been involved in any accidents" and "is there a
loan outstanding on this car" checks). And then of course there are those
"wonderful" (totally ludicrous) four-way stop junctions where priority is
determined by who arrived first (which different people could have different
opinions on) rather than being determined by position on the road (which is
unambiguous).

On the other hand, I like their concept of having part-time speed limits:
most schools have a reasonable speed limit outside them except at the
beginning and end of the school day when the limit is reduced. Over here
they'd slap on a blanket 30mph limit 24 hours a day :-(