Every car I've ever owned has this feature, although it's usually in
conjuction with a dimmer switch... end range of the dimmer switch has an
off position. Most likely purpose is to reduce eye strain. Sometimes bright
panel lights can be irritating after long periods of time when driving at
night.
In my experience, driving on a really dark road away from city lights and
any traffic, when the sky is really lit up with stars, this is a nice
feature.
While none of my owner's manuals offer any hint to their purpose, maybe the
frugal British just wanted to extend bulb life...:-)
Gerard
At 12:45 PM -0700 9/13/99, Justin Cook wrote:
>I don't mean to beat this to death... but what good reason could there
>be for turning off your dash lights while your headlights are on?
>
>--- David Riker <davidr@sunset.net> wrote:
>> Instrument lights. Turns them off when the
>> headlamps are on. Replaced on
>> later cars with a dimmer on the dashboard
>>
>> David Riker
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Brad Fornal <toyman@htcomp.net>
>> To: Jeff Boatright <jboatri@emory.edu>
>> Cc: Curtis Carlson <carlson@navtech.com>;
>> <spridgets@autox.team.net>
>> Sent: Friday, September 10, 1999 2:48 PM
>> Subject: Re: Mystery switch (at least to me)
>>
>>
>> > CIGAR LIGHTER! pardon me but is that a factory
>> item? my 65 does not even
>> have a
>> > orifice for the lighter. Speaking of mysteries,
>> the 68 has a switch of
>> > questionable function on the column shroud, left
>> side.Anyone know what
>> it's
>> > supposed to do?
>>
>>
>>
>>
G G Gerard Chateauvieux
E A
R R pixelsmith@gerardsgarage.com
A A
R G Pixelsmith on Duty
D E
S http://www.gerardsgarage.com
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