[Aditya]

Luxury car makers are dropping fog lamps

Over the years, various features that were common in cars, have disappeared. Now, another item can be added to the list. Vehicles from many luxury carmakers are no longer coming with fog lamps.

These lights, which used to be housed low in the front bumper, are no longer considered necessary in new cars. According to carmakers, headlamps of new cars feature technology that makes them a lot better than those found in older cars. This illumination provided is far superior and eliminates the need to have separate fog lamps.

Fog lights alone do not provide adequate illumination for night driving. However, as they are placed low in the bumper, they light up the road beneath the fog. They do not shine into the fog and reflect off it. This helps the driver spot road markings such as painted lines while driving in foggy conditions and keep the car from running off the road. Headlamps, on the other hand, don’t penetrate fog and instead, reflect back towards the driver. A less important use of fog lamps is that they do improve the look of a car.

That said, fog is not common in most places and at other places, occurs only seasonally. This means that fog lamps are not required regularly. Even in foggy conditions, to prevent accidents, one has to be driving very slowly as the throw of the light from the fog lamps is very short.

In luxury cars, the space that was occupied by fog lamps is being used to house other features such as daytime running lights, cornering lamps and sensors for radar guided safety technology. The headlights of the cars are claimed to be good enough for the driver to see road markings even in foggy conditions.

Here are some cars available in India that have lost their fog lamps either with a facelift or a change of generation.

1. Mercedes C-Class:

While the W204 C-Class came with fog lamps...


...the W205 did not:

2. Mercedes E-Class:

The W211 E-Class had fog lamps...


...while the W212 got daytime running lights on its bumper:

3. Mercedes S-Class:

The W221 Mercedes S-Class was the last generation of the great car to come with fog lamps:


The W222 does not get fog lamps:

4. Range Rover:

In 2016, the Range Rover had fog lamps...


...while the 2019 Vogue that we drove, didn't:

5. BMW 3-Series:

The regular 3-Series has fog lamps...


...but the Gran Limousine we tested earlier this year, doesn't:

6. BMW 7-Series:

The G11 BMW 7-Series had fog lamps when it was launched...


...but in the 2019 facelift, they were gone:

7. Audi Q3:

The Q3 came with fog lamps when it was launched:


With the introduction of the facelift in 2015, the fog lamps disappeared:

8. Audi Q5:

The first generation Audi Q5 had round fog lamps, but...


...the second generation model doesn't have any:

9. Audi Q7:

The Audi Q7 had fog lamps while in its first generation:


The second generation car does not get fog lamps:

10. Jaguar XE:

The Jaguar XE never came with fog lamps:


We have already seen that the trend of adding or deleting features starts with luxury cars and, with time, flows down to mainstream vehicles. We can bet that this trend of omission of fog lamps is certain to make it to regular cars shortly.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line.

[veedub89]

I don't think it's much of a safety issue to be honest.
Headlights today have become so freaking good with all the adaptive lasers and LEDs that giving fog lights a miss won't hurt.

Cars with regular lights still have fog lights up front. But yes, in the luxury space the headlights are so advanced that they do a great job of lighting the road ahead regardless of the situation.

In certain cars the positioning of the headlights has also reduced. The main beams are now much lower than they used to be before with the DRLs normally being in the place the regular headlight would have been earlier.

I honestly feel that adaptive headlights with high beam assist will revolutionise safety for night-time driving. They should be made mandatory in our country where most of our drivers have no driving etiquette and regularly drive with high beams in the city.

[Kosfactor]

Ghats will teach you lessons, sadly they are found only down south.

When you design a vehicle forgetting the need for adequate cooling, you now have to mount radiators \ heat exchangers on either side of the bumper. Usually this ducting for these new radiators are exactly where the Fog lamp used to be, so good old fog lamp is out replaced with marketing BS.

[Mango]

With all the new LED tech i don't actually feel the need of fog lamps, many have matrix LEDs which can brighten up certain individual parts of the road as required, I always felt having LED Fog's was useless because of their cool temperature, they tend to merge and have very poor performance in the rain like the one's found in the newer Honda's.

I found this video of the new Volkswagen I.Q Lights which will be available in the new Tiguan. They are matrix LED's and i found them to be plenty bright for the conditions. They have removed the Fog lamps and these lights have a special bad weather mode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SOUzbXgHVs

[AKSarkar1]

Would label this more of an 'evolution' over a trend. I feel with Halogen/other similar units there would definitely be a need for an auxiliary lighting source.

As this thread correctly states, it is a larger phenomenon with luxury cars. My C Class and Ciaz both were branded to have LED headlights, however, I can say with complete surety that there is a massive difference between the lighting of both cars. While the Merc can do without foglamps, the Ciaz is 'better' with the LED foglights that are offered. Technologies like Audi's matrix lamps are so advanced that they would make the need of auxiliary sources like fog lamps redundant but such features are unheard of in the mainstream segment.

Also important to note that this evolution is more towards the front foglamps. Rear fog lamps are still legally required by many EU states and are yet present.

[Akshay6988]

I hope this no fog lamps trend is not followed by mass market car makers. I've driven my Creta with those trio beam LED headlights at night and only thing that could help me stay on the road was yellow light from the fog lamps ! Yes Creta's headlights are that pathetic to say the least. While luxury cars do have LED's, their implementation is far superior, and they work well ! Mass market implementation of LED lamps is pathetic, just look at Activas, Seltos, Cretas blinding you.
Fog Lamps are a must in any vehicle. It helps to illuminate the immediate road surface next to you.
Better to have this feature and not use them, than not to have it at all.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by Aditya

5. BMW 3-Series:

The regular 3-Series has fog lamps...
Attachment 2142248

...but the Gran Limousine we tested earlier this year, doesn't:
Attachment 2142247

Surprised why BMW dropped the fog-lights from the Gran Limousine. It's very much there in the same housing (minus the awful chrome bling) in my 330i Sport:

[fhdowntheline]

Interesting topic. I think for the most part, if you have strong headlamps (regardless of type), fog lamps at the bumper's lower edge dont make a difference. The only truly useful fog lamps are those Hella/Rallye fog lamps which you can fit on to jungle jeeps.

[srishiva]

Remember reading about this year or more ago. Its the new adaptable headlights that have made them redundant. Also, I think these fog lights added a look to the vehicles which is now being taken over by the DRL. Maybe the same guys were moved over to look after DRLs

[nikhil.sikka]

I hope majority car makers should not take hint from this & follow it. Fog Lamps should be made mandatory like Airbags & Head Light Leveler in a country like India where street light is still not found at majority of highways.

Fog Lamps + Low Beam could do better job than No Fog Lamp & High Beam. It'll also reduce glare for oncoming traffic if used with low beam.

My Skoda Yeti's fog lamp throw is adequate if driven in well lit area . I rarely use headlights in Delhi.

[TrackDay]

Luxury cars have the safety net of advanced headlamps with laser lights and better LED tuning and focusing. It might come across as a waste of resources to have fog lamps, when the main unit is capable of doing the job. However I have always heard that the fog lamp or the light for that function works best when installed at the lowest height possible. But what concerns normal folks is that there is always a pattern where features/trend are adopted into mass market cars and then it can be trouble. One always needs the halogen fog lamps, especially while going to hill stations or similar places.

[akash_v12]

Honestly, not a trend, but a pretty old one. The older E-class dropped fog lamps and the newer Mercedes cars are no different. IIRC, Even Volvo dropped fogs as they got their new design philosophy in.

I do see this as a problem because I've seen personally seen how much fogs are effective in the appropriate conditions. Even when you have a strong headlamp, it's always good to have an extra pair of lights lower down to help navigate treacherous conditions.

[GeeTee TSI]

Isn't the yellow light on account of its wavelength better suited for a fog lamp? That makes the white LEDs given as 'fog lamps' appear ridiculous, unless we admit they're just 'kerb' lights in reality.

From the recent trend in many crossovers, the headlights are set lower down in the bumper (Harrier, Hector, Kiger to name a few) and possibly this should eliminate the so-called fog lights from mainstream cars as well

[whitewing]

OT.

Originally Posted by GeeTee TSI

Isn't the yellow light on account of its wavelength better suited for a fog lamp? That makes the white LEDs given as 'fog lamps' appear ridiculous, unless we admit they're just 'kerb' lights in reality.

It appears to be that, in general, a warmer shade would be better for perception. I suppose the same effect can be had by wearing the "right" yellow tinted glasses as well. I'd seen advertisements on "night driving" glasses and till I read the below article, had thought it to be a marketing gimmick.

Selective yellow light can improve a driver's ability to see in fog or rain or snow, but not because it 'penetrates fog better' or 'reflects less off droplets'. In fact it's because of the way the human eye processes different colours of light. Blue, indigo, and violet are difficult for the human optical system to process correctly. They are the shortest visible wavelengths and tend to focus in front of our retina rather than upon it. To demonstrate this to yourself, after dark find a deep blue storefront sign or blue lights on an airport runway or something else that's a deep blue light emitter against a dark background in the absence of white light—from any appreciable distance, it's almost impossible for your eyes to see the blue lighted object as a sharply defined form;the edges blur. The blur effect is not present with nearby signs or lights of colours other than blue.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...ght_color.html