When is a fault not a fault?

The wife picked up her Bravo Sport yesterday and I have to say it's a lovely wee car. We had stopped off at my folks for dinner and showed them the car and so on. It was dark when we left and as my wife was driving home I noticed,a couple of times that when she turned the wheel that the left fog light came on. This happened a few times and I thought, "Oh dear, typical Fiat electrics!".

When we got home I sat in the car with the headlights on and turned the wheel to the left, sure enough the left foglight came on. I then turned the wheel to the right and the right foglight came on

I knew this couldn't be just a coincidence so I dug out the manual and found a little paragraph that said when you were doing less than 40kph with dipped headlights on and turned left or right, or indicated left or right, a lamp in the foglight lit up to give better visibility in the direction you were turning.

I was absolutely convinced that the electrics were screwy

That would have driven me mad too. Great idea.

Is it not against the law to have your fog lamps on when it's not foggy? I wonder how this would stand up in court? (that is if some jobsworth police officer could be bothered with it ...)

a lamp in the foglight

I don't think it's the foglight itself. More than likely a different bulb in the same housing.

That's actually a very clever/cheap implementation
of directional headlights. Well done Fiat!

There's a few manufacturers who have started doing this, so I'm sure it must have type approval.
Possibly a good idea, but probably just a gimmick. Does it actually help with vision at all? Or does it just give the impression?
I wouldn't expect a correctly aligned foglight to throw light far enough to make much difference.

Originally Posted by bazza

There's a few manufacturers who have started doing this, so I'm sure it must have type approval.
Possibly a good idea, but probably just a gimmick. Does it actually help with vision at all? Or does it just give the impression?
I wouldn't expect a correctly aligned foglight to throw light far enough to make much difference.

It does throw a decent amount of light out to the side. I didn't experiment to see if there was a difference between the ordinary foglights and the directional light as I was actually relieved it wasn't a fault with the car.

Nifty little gadget. Not sure what i would make of it if i was passing on the other side of the road though. Give it a few years in the damp and the rain and it'll be like a mobile disco up front.

It wasnt meant to do that but they couldnt solve it so made up the rubbish in the manual.