Date:         Mon, 18 Mar 1996 16:43:34 -0800 (PST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         David Schwarze <des@teleport.com>
Subject:      Re: ?? Power for stereo in my '86 Vanagon

Psychic Trucker writes:
> 
> >Anybody know why the headlights shut off when you shut off the engine, but
> >the parking lights don't??? This seems to me to be the height of silliness.
> >Obviously, the headlights shut off so you won't find a dead car when you
> >forget to shut them off yourself (don't you love it when car manufacturers
> >assume stupidity?). But the parking lights will run the battery down just
> >as completely-- they just take longer to do it.
> 
> i believe in some countries in europe, when parking on the street, parking
> lights live up to their name.  people are legally required to put on their
> parking lights when parking at night, so when you turn off your vanagon in
> europe, everything is done for you!

Most German cars have an added "feature" where leaving the blinker on
when parked will cause the parking lights on the corresponding side of
the car (ONLY that side) to remain on.  At least they used to do this
when I lived there 10 yrs ago.  See, Germans like to park in the street,
on the sidewalk, or a little of both (grin).  When the side of your car
is sticking out into the street having the lights on on that side helps
to keep people from running into you.  Having only half of your parking
lights on isn't usually enough current drain to run down the battery.  I
used to see that a lot around sports arenas and fairgrounds in Germany,
although I never heard of it being a legal requirement.  

-David

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David Schwarze                   '73 VW Safare Custom Camper       (Da Boat)
San Diego, California, USA       '73 Capri GT 2800                (Da Beast)
e-mail: des@teleport.com         '87 Mustang Lx 5.0          (13.986@100.81)
http://www.teleport.com/~des     '93 Weber WG-50                  (Da Piano)
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