Originally posted by steamloco76 I currently have a vehicle which requires the battery and inner fender to be removed to replace the dang headlight bulb! Ah, engineers and computers design vehicles, neither service or repair them, 😡
YES!!! Ford said you cannot fix a horse with a wrench, but now you cannot fix your car with one.
---------- Post added 06-13-21 at 09:49 AM ----------
Originally posted by Racer X 69 The design of lighting on vehicles today serves a number of purposes.
Aerodynamic form.
A shape that allows the light to function not only as a tail light or a headlight but also function as the side marker, reducing the number of light fixtures on the vehicle. (Remember when side markers sprouted on the sides of cars in the 1970s?)
And of course styling.
Oh, and drafting tables, and draftsmen, have long vanished from engineering departments of design studios, replaced by CAD. Since the CAD software makes the drawings pretty, the engineers no longer need a draftsman to perform that task.
The back end of your Datsun looks pretty flat to me. Is that aerodynamically smooth the way the rear quarters of modern cars are shaped? Is that the ideal shape for cars going as fast as they can? And that spoiler sticking up. Does it reduce drag at the rear end?
I am very skeptical of any performance advantage conferred on vehicles by having "aerodynamic" tail lights. Not for a moment do I believe that you could demonstrate any significant change in drag nor improvement in mileage by having one of those aerodynamic tail lights versus a simple round cover that was flush with the body, or even protruding enough that it could easily be seen from the side You would probably see more improvement in mileage by reducing the engine displacement by one or two cubic inches. As to side lights vs a single wrap-around cover, what does it take to have a second simple oval red plastic cover flush with the body panel at the rear corner of the car, held by two screws with a light below it?. Don't be tempted to tell me it would be more expensive when the plastic cover alone on my vehicle cost about $300. "Aerodynamics" is equal parts style and hype with insignificant effect on performance at legal highway speeds. Even the clear plastic aerodynamic covers of headlights have negligible, possibly undetectable impact on performance or mileage at the speeds cars are driven on public roads by any law-abiding person.
I think of the Myth Busters testing rigid covers that go over the beds of pickup trucks, sold to improve aerodynamics and therefore both performance and mileage (theory: air pushed up over the cab hits the flat inside of a tailgate = major drag; put a rigid cover over the bed, the air flows atop it, over the tailgate = less drag, better performance). But their tests indicated a truck equipped with such a cover used more gasoline over a carefully controlled test track. OUTRAGE by truck owners who had invested money in one of those covers. So they re-did the tests and got basically the same results.
Smooth shape is better than a brick at the end that's pushing into the air, but aerodynamic tail lights are more akin to a four-holer Buick. You are buying looks, not better performance.