silversprucesc3

Is this strange?

I tend to analyze vehicles in both conditions and actually have been turned off by the exterior and interior dash/door/lighting set-up at night. This may have started in my younger days in the clubs/streets trying to impress the ladies with a tricked out dash ...lol

Any others strongly influenced by viewing/driving impressions of vehicles at night to the point of making it a "DEAL BREAKER"?

FKL

I was suprised by volkswagen's night time lighting. Every button is lighted, from the trunk/fuel filler flap to the ac vent adjusters. Plus, the two red leds that shine downward looks cool at night.

But lighting can make a big difference in feel at night - take for example the lighting strips BMW and Mercedes use on thier doors - like downward pointing theater lighting, which looks very high-end. I've found the multi-colored option Ford gives you with some of their cars for the cupholder/footwell lighting can look a little corny, though.

luxury1

I think the VW lighting is the best.

I have actually been influenced by the interior lighting. It took me so long to pull the trigger on the Range Rover because I HATE the ugly green dash lights. It reminds me of the interior lights of the stupid station wagon that I was forced to drive in high school

Slick85

Yes Volkswagens are amazing in the lighting department, I drop my friend's 06' Jetta a few weeks ago and it amazed me at what lit up. Also their interiors feel much more upscale and expensive then you'd think.

f=ma

lexus lighting is the only car ive owned that actually dims in the interior lighting when it gets dark. All the other cars ive owned, bmw, volvos, vw, all turn on when it gets dark. Interesting fact.

mmarshall

One of the nicest interior dash-light systems, on an otherwise cheaply/poorly-built car, is the device on newer Ford Mustangs that allow you to change the dash lights to some 120 different colors.....green, blue, orange, purple; anything you want. Why other manufacturers have not adopted it beats me......unless Ford has a patent on it, and even that doesn't explain why Ford doesn't offer it on more models.

luxury1

I agree, Ford really got it right with lighting customization.

<VENOM>

Except for a general look at the interior lights, a good nighttime drive down a back road with no lights to see how the headlights are, especially if the vehicle has no HID's

Faymester

Hmm, I've never had an issue with the lights in any of my vehicles at night, though I have disliked other peoples dashes so perhaps I've just lucked out.

vince1128

i agree the vw's look best at night. the op brings up an interesting point about test driving at night though, i never thought of that

silversprucesc3

Glad to see I'm not alone.....

I am also impressed with Audi's interior lighting... My son has an 01" A4 and the red set-up looks impressive at night..

luxury1

Yep, Audi just reverses the VW lighting scheme. Looks great and a great thing for the sister brands to share.

silversprucesc3

luxury1..... as I have only driven Range Rovers during the day I was surprised that you mentioned interior lighting at night being a negative for this vehicle as it probably has the classiest interior in the business... I am considering leasing a Sport Model later this year and will have to keep this in consideration..

mmarshall

One thing I don't understand is this preoccupation with orange/red lighting on "sport" oriented vehicles. Audi, Mazda, BMW, and Pontiac, for example, have long used red-orange lighting on most, if not all of their models. Supposedly, it's easler on the eyes at night than other colors, but I'm not convinced. When I was a pilot flying general-aviation planes, they also taught us in flying school that red instrumentation lights were also easier on the eyes than white...but again I was not convinced. A number of the planes I flew had a switch that allowed you to choose either red or white......almost without exception, I found white dash lights, even in aircraft, easier to see and read at night than red or orange (in aircraft, you also train for emergencies when you lose your electric power and have to read the instruments by a flashlight sitting in your lap, or, in some cases, with no light at all).


So, my take on it is that auto companies just consider red dash lights to be "sporty" and use it as an image factor.

luxury1

It is worth thinking about. I look past it since I LOVE the Range Rover in so many other ways but I wish I could change that one element (and actually looked into changing it to no avail).

I will say that I have become accustomed to the dash lighting and don't even notice it anymore. This same thing happened in all of my cars (Porsche, VW, Benz, BMW, Lexus, Range Rover, Honda) whether I liked it or not.

I am very happy with the Rover overall so I would say pick one up!!!

By the way, feel free to join the below Range Rover forum. It is great and you will learn a lot about Range Rovers from a ton of different perspectives. I always like to see new members and Faymester (posted a few back) also just joined so you will know two people.

http://www.landroverforums.com/forumid_16/tt.htm