Need a Light? - 2015 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk Long-Term Road Test

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Need a Light? - 2015 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk Long-Term Road Test

The fog lights on our 2015 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk provide a little extra illumination while turning.

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kirkhilles1

Fog lights are great... until they burn out and you have to spend hours tearing apart your car to replace the bulbs.

daryleason

First, it's an FCA product. Are you CERTAIN that it's not a wiring glitch or short? You have to ask. Second, I do think it's a cool feature. But of course, I need clarification. Does it do that with the high beams on? I know a lot of factory foglights won't illuminate if the high beams are on. Second, how much travel does the wheel have to have to activate? If you're doing a lane change, will it do it then? Or does it have to have a full rotation of the steering wheel to activate?

schen72

I've noticed some German cars, such as BMW also do this. I guess it's a cheap thing to implement as it's just software. Kind of a low tech way to imitate the old fashioned cornering lights that cars such as a Grand Marquis used to have

diondi

It's Euro-style driving lights. I know that this can be activated in VWs and is standard on Audi/BMW/MB and the like.

longtimelurker

diondi said:

It's Euro-style driving lights. I know that this can be activated in VWs and is standard on Audi/BMW/MB and the like.

Yep. VWs do this...have for years.

misterfusion

daryleason said:

First, it's an FCA product. Are you CERTAIN that it's not a wiring glitch or short? You have to ask. Second, I do think it's a cool feature. But of course, I need clarification. Does it do that with the high beams on? I know a lot of factory foglights won't illuminate if the high beams are on. Second, how much travel does the wheel have to have to activate? If you're doing a lane change, will it do it then? Or does it have to have a full rotation of the steering wheel to activate?

*sigh*

(1) It's not a glitch, Euro-sourced FCA products have this feature.
(2) I can't speak for the Renegade, but my 500L allows use of the foglights with the high beams AND with the headlights off. Hooray for freedom of choice!
(3) It requires enough wheel travel to at least initiate a turn, i.e. it does not illuminate the foglight during a lane change.

This feature is literally just the "cornering lights" that some cars used to have*, re-jiggered to use the foglights instead.

(*Do any cars still have standalone cornering lights? My last car with this feature was the '89 Maxima.)

daryleason

@misterfusion: The joke about the wiring on the FCA product was funny, I don't care who you are. So sigh away. But thank you, seriously, for the response. I wish that more factory fog lights allowed their use when using High Beams. The only benefit to them not being active is it clues people in that you're not high-beaming them. As for the cornering light question, I don't know about current production, but my 1998 Buick Regal GS had them. Also, I know that they're part of an option package for the Tesla Model S.

5vzfe

kirkhilles1 said:

Fog lights are great... until they burn out and you have to spend hours tearing apart your car to replace the bulbs.

I'm not sure about your car, on mine it's a five minute job to replace them. 3 little screws to open the lights and undoing the bulb holding clip.

allthingshonda

Cornering lights were a feature exclusive to American cars but now no American cars have them but they are popping up more and more on European cars. VW has them available as part of their lighting package with adaptive HID headlights. The best part of the VW system is that when you shift into reverse both cornering lights turn to illuminate the side of car. 1980's Corvettes had front and rear cornering lights. In a car with horrible visibility every little bit helped. Maybe Chevy should add front and rear cornering lights to the Camaro.