Driving home last night I just happened to notice that some car's blinkers are red and some are yellow.
(looking from the rear)
In addition, I noticed that the majority have yellow turn signals. I began to wonder WHY the automotive
industry doesnt make it mandatory for all cars to have yellow turn signals only. After all, brake lights
are always red so they should make the turn signals a different color. This makes more sense to me.

What is your take on this?

Thanks, Kit

[This message has been edited by Kitskaboodle (edited 02-04-2010).]

the GT has yellow turns while the notchie has red turns.

I agree, one of the reasons I prefer the GT taillights on our Fieros over the Notchie lights

If I remember yellow or Amber lights are a European thing that has caught on. In America the tail lights were at one point required to be red like the brake lights and to keep cost down. When Europen car started to arive in masses in the 60's and 70's a lot of them had amber or yellow lights. to distinguish the turn signal and the stop lights. Fast forward to today and a lot of new cars are going towards the different colord lights. Also on a side note. when you see a Mercedes or BMW and one tail light(left side) seems to always be on. That is an indicator that the head lights are on and that is the passing side of the car the left. Think Autobahn. commimg up on a car really fast it is easy to tell which side you need to be on to pass especially in foggy weather as is often the case in Europe. I could be wrong but I am pretty sure I am partly correct.

one piece red vs two piece red and yellow is cheaper for the manufacturers

I'd guess because they made the cars that way.
It comes from the U-R-peeing standards for the Amber to be turn signal. Fairly sure they only allow 1 reverse light. Visibility? Contrast? Ease to wire versus the nightmare in the steering column to make brake lights flash?
Cheaper to produce the same light assembly for ALL cars?
IDK fur sure.

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Life is just SO much better when you own AND drive a Fiero!

My take on this; it reminds me of the third brake lamp- it makes no difference what color the turn signal is, how bright it is, nor how many you have in the back. A idiot will rear end you.

quote Originally posted by bristowb: If I remember yellow or Amber lights are a European thing that has caught on.

I can only speak for Germany, but turn signals there have to be yellow/amber by law. Red turn signals are only legal with a special permit and only if the vehicle cannot be retrofitted.

quote Also on a side note. when you see a Mercedes or BMW and one tail light(left side) seems to always be on. That is an indicator that the head lights are on and that is the passing side of the car the left. Think Autobahn. commimg up on a car really fast it is easy to tell which side you need to be on to pass especially in foggy weather as is often the case in Europe. I could be wrong but I am pretty sure I am partly correct.

Not true. The "tail light" that's on is actually a rear fog light (some cars also have two of them). If it's on (and there's no fog) it just means that the driver has no idea what the switch is for. Rear fog lights are mandatory in Germany, misuse (no fog) can be punished with a fine. It has nothing to do with overtaking. You're not supposed to overtake "really fast" in fog...!

It still is interesting why the GT has amber turn lights. Design? Plans for export?

[This message has been edited by yellowstone (edited 02-04-2010).]

quote Originally posted by Back On Holiday: I agree, one of the reasons I prefer the GT taillights on our Fieros over the Notchie lights

Not in my case, BOH.

quote Originally posted by Gokart Mozart: one piece red vs two piece red and yellow is cheaper for the manufacturers

My question is more in regard to why the "powers that be" (goverment, city/state, auto industry, etc...)
dont make yellow the standard color for turn signals. I am not looking at what is easier for the auto makers.
I believe they make their's red and/or yellow because there is no law that says they have cant have both colors.

Front turn signals are yellow....why not make the rear ones the same?

Doesn't matter, people don't use them anyway. Or they just leave 'em on!
In all seriousness, the country the car is in dictates the lighting for that car model. If the car is to be sold to the US, the rear turn signals can be red, but if it's to be sold overseas, they will be amber. Most (not all) cars made by an american company (Ford, Chrysler, GM) have red blinkers here, but imports more often have amber turn signals in the rear. As with all this automotive, there are exceptions. HTH.
John

I wonder why Audi, Mercedes, BMW etc. fit red rear blinkers to their cars for the US market when they are amber everywhere else...?

The brake lights are red, so I personally prefer red signals. I don't want a bunch of different colors on a car. I have no trouble seeing red signals, and if someone isn't paying enough attention to see them, they are bound to miss yellow ones too. And preference aside, I can never get behind any laws that serve no real purpose other than control. :/

... I have to agree with Curly on this one. It doesn't matter.

I like the uniform look of the notchie (really, its one of the few redeeming features of the notchie rear end) but I much prefer the smooth look of the GT rear.

I think I'd change the GT over to a full-red pattern for uniformity's sake.

Hey Yellow stone, does German law raise a big stink about the GT's red PONTIAC sign in the back?

I think most U.S. cars with amber turn signals do it purely for styling reasons and to give a more European feel.
That fits with the Fiero GT, with it looking more exotic and sporty than the notchback.

quote Originally posted by Kitskaboodle: My question is more in regard to why the "powers that be" (goverment, city/state, auto industry, etc...) dont make yellow the standard color for turn signals

There is your answer... How in the world do you expect every government, city/state and auto industry to agree on anything?

That's why we have left hand drive, right hand drive, front wheel drive, rear wheel drive, all wheel drive, etc. Every manufacturer and Government has it's own idea on the best way to do things.

three colours i know of are amber, bult in tail light aka red...or newer ones....that are pure yellow.

The 80's was kind of a freaky period for stuff like that. There are a multitude of cars from the 80's that have either amber signals or red signals or separate lighting for the signals. Recall that this was the period where the U.S. law regarding the center brake lights were introduced. If you notice early Fieros don't have center brake lights while all the later ones have them. I'd imagine something like the notchback taillights wouldn't fly in today's design standards because they don't wrap around the body to the side like current cars do. Instead, we have separate corner marker lights, which really isn't done anymore to a large degree. I personally think that a large amount of what we see in the U.S. is purely from a cost reduction design standpoint. Many many cars still have signal lights that are all red and are integrated into the taillights. Plus, I'm thinking a large degree of it is tradition - if the new Corvette had it's outer taillight on each side amber and inner red, that would be a big shocker to some people.

I think given a preference, I'd rather have all red. I might be biased but yellow turn signals in the back scream "80s economy car" to me (think early-80s Tercel and similar boxes).

quote Originally posted by Fiero84Freak: if the new Corvette had it's outer taillight on each side amber and inner red, that would be a big shocker to some people.

This is how a Corvette looks from the back in Germany...

No, I don't think so. But when I first registered my Fiero there I had to disable the 3rd brake light and the side markers. Later, I had to put the 3rd brake light back in...

quote Originally posted by madcurl: Hey Yellow stone, does German law raise a big stink about the GT's red PONTIAC sign in the back?

My 04 GMC Sierra has amber turn signals. While the same year Chevy has red. I think it comes down to design & mostly the cost of manufacturing.
I always preferred Amber.

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86 GT
87 coupe restoration project.

quote Originally posted by yellowstone: This is how a Corvette looks from the back in Germany...

I used this to my advantage on my car. I have the red C5 markers on the rear of my car, and for the front I have the European spec amber (rear) lights.

quote Originally posted by madcurl: My take on this; it reminds me of the third brake lamp- it makes no difference what color the turn signal is, how bright it is, nor how many you have in the back. A idiot will rear end you.

Ya soon as they put the annoying things on cars I noticed the same thing....about as useless as daytime running lights. If some idiot cant see a 20' car, 6' wide in front of him...........how does adding another light do anything ? If it fits in the body styling ok, but ive had some convertibles where its in a pod on top of the trunk lid....I take them off, throw them away and fill the holes to make the body look cleaner.

As for amber or red turn lights, its just a styling gimick...either is legal. I actually like amber ones because you cant mistake a brake light for one if the other side is burnt out.

Having the turn signal a different color than the brake lights makes it easier to distinguish. Studies in Europe and the US have come back that cars with yellow turn signals get into less accidents. I believe that the main reason it is not law here is for pickup trucks.

My GT nose had originally red then i replaced with orange. I then saw the fiero store sold them in white.

UK law requires all vehicles in use on a public road to have amber turn indicators front and rear (one or two exceptions, e.g. pre-1928 vehicles), white side (parking) lights at the front and red side lights at the rear - both my Fieros are modified to comply. I do, howerver, have to put a piece of black tape over the front repeaters for the annual mechanical tests, as they are considered amber side light, and thus fall foul of the regulations...

quote Originally posted by yellowstone: This is how a Corvette looks from the back in Germany...

Wow! That third brake lamp design is hideous and moronic. It's like GM thought about adding a third brake lamp at the last moment.

I can see how ambers would cause less accidents...turn signals sharing the same bulb as the brake lights is just annoying. Many times I come across people with only one side working, of course they tap their brakes instead of riding them so you think they are actually signalling about to cut you off...or just when you think they are only braking, they jump lanes.