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re "...For anyone who has been tired of driving around in broad daylight with your headlamps, tail-lamps, running lamps, and instrument lights on *. I now have the solution to rid yourself and your brick from DRL's....."
[ * I agree (and see below) only with your assessment that it is an unnecessary waste to have your taillights and instrument lights on with DRLs, since (1) taillights can be confused with brake lights by less intelligent drivers and don't help with your visibility to them, and (2) instrument lights are of no value in daylight, plus are inconvenient to change when they're burned out.]
USA market 240s don't have the problem you've "suffered" with your overseas car ("...a 1991 240 wagon that was picked up in Sweden and then shipped over here. Diplomat sales program??...").
My two 240's, both USA marketed '93 model year, never had the obligatory DRLs that you speak of (and I'm sure, earlier USA market cars as well).
Yes, you can opt for having DRLs in these cars if you merely leave your headlight switch ON all the time -- then all the lights will shut off when you shut off the engine, protecting the battery from draining down. But it's your choice -- simply use the headlight switch as most ordinarily do, ON when you drive at night, and OFF during the rest of the time, and you're not "bothered" by having any DRL feature.
As for myself, and in deference to your feelings* about them (after all, everyone is entitled to their own opinion), I've been a proponent of DRLs (although solely front lamps) for decades (e.g., my article in the Volvo Club of America's magazine on how to incorporate DRLs in an older 240, Rolling Sep/Oct '87, pg 7). Many times I've almost been hit by another car but saved by the last minute by my DRLs (someone changing lanes into my side but finally noticing me in their side mirror and swerving back, or pulling through a stop sign but the halting at the last minute). The function of DRLs is to catch the eye of inattentive motorists, those gliding through stop signs without really looking both ways, changing lanes without checking their mirrors or turning their head, etc. After all, here not everyone is packing a Colt 45, so people tend to be less careful. DRLs may hopefully catch their attention out of the corner of their eye ('gee, what is that?'). But it depends on being "unusual" and therefore attention-getting.
And since most cars have headlight DRLs now (although many European cars use strips of white LEDs now), people have grown used to headlight DRLs and they're no longer as effective, so one has to be more conspicuous than the run-of-the-mill headlight DRL. So I've escalated my DRLs as shown below. But rather than run my H4 halogens in my Cibie/Volvo Euroheadlights, I've added LED lights that I use for DRLs instead, driven by an aftermarket DRL control module.
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