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I was trying to provide information about how volvos work. In rely to the 960 owner, that switch type appears to have been made for the 960 market and in Canada. The 940 and 700 series switches that I looked at do not have that option.
Now for the social commentary for you socialists out there. Daylight running lights (DRL's) have always existed. All you ever had to do is take your left hand and turn on your lights. No one has ever prevented you from doing that. It is unfortunate that you need big government to tell you to do something that you apparently have always known is good for you. May be the government should begin to mandate crash helmets. What I object to is the fact that there is no option.
Daylight running lights are effective in a very specific situation. This is a two to four-lane, undivided, relatively straight road where cars are traveling above 25mph. (If they were as effective as the governement claimed, you would see a large difference in the accident rate between night and day, with the night rate being much lower. We know that this is not the case.) They have little to no effect on a 4-lane divided highway or in a large city.
Volvos are safe cars, and volvo owners are generally safe drivers (go look at the statistics). I doubt there has been any change in the saftey statics for volvos with or without DRL's. There are many more effective things you can do besides worry about DRL's. Do not speed, do not eat or talk on the cell phone while driving, do not drink/drugs while driving, drive to the conditions, do not drive tired, etc. Driving can be hazardous. Do not let the existance of things like DRL's lull you into thinking that it will solve your problems. They will not. You are responsible for safe driving, not the car.
I want the ability to turn off my lights, because there are certain situations were I need to be able to turn off the lights. With the lights on and a bad alternator, you can drive 3-5 miles at 60mph (or a couple of city blocks). If you can turn the lights off, you can drive several hours. If I am parked with the engine running, there are cases where I like to turn off the headlights to stop blinding people/cars in front of me (or when I am working on the car). I have also been in locations were I was required to turn my lights off (they had big signs stating that - hard to do with DRL's). The best solution would be to get rid of the headlight switch. Have the lights always on, but have a separtate switch (such as a rocker switch) that will turn them off when you want them off.
To the air bag guy - air bags kill people. If you were a small woman (less than 100 pounds weight), how would you like to know that every time you got in your car, there was a thing in the steering wheel that could go off with a slight bump and maim or kill you. The governments logic for mandating seat belts is: we know they kill people, but our studies indicate that fewer people will be killed overall (if you do some reading, you will find that the governement covered up the studies done in the 1980's that showed that air bags kill people - just like the tobacco companies). If any car company had come out with these on their own with that logic, they would have been sued out of existance. What is even more curious is that you have not read glowing newspaper articles showing how effective air bags are - how many people have been saved, etc. It would be interesting to find out if they have had any real effect at all.
And yes, my wife made me disconnect the passenger side air bag. She was scared that it would kill our children. And yes, I alway wear my seat belt (but I do not think the government should arrest and put you in jail for not wearing one - there is a case before the supreme court on just this subject)
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