LexFather

I am getting a little tired of all the cars, MOST NEW (not older than 5 years) that have brake lights that are just jacked up.

Middle one doesn't work.
Brake lights always on.
Brake lights don't work.
One is on, the others off.
Complete randomness in the brake pattern.

This is DANGEROUS. I almost hit a NEW Sonata b/c 1/2 of one side brake light was working.

The worst offenders seem to be Benzes and OMG, Jaguars. I don't think I've seen an X-type with brakes that work.

Its worse if its raining or foggy. Its dangerous.

Put some DAMN INVESTMENT in making something as important as BRAKE LIGHTS!!!

Abear

iTrader: (1)

For real man. Ive almost hit a few Honda vans because their left brake light was out. Different van, all the same light.

TRDFantasy

I would have to agree. On the road, I consistently see Benz cars being the worst offenders. Every week, I see several Benz cars with something wrong with the brake lights. I've also seen Fords, Hondas, and Hyundais as being bad offenders as well.

Just the other night I saw a brand-new S550 with the right brake light not working properly.

But hey, it's a Benz right, so people will buy it no matter what. If I had a brand new S550 and the brake lights had problems, I would sell the car and never buy a Benz again. You're paying such high amounts of money that it's inexcusable for the brake lights not to be working, especially if it's a new car.

Nextourer

Careful of Gen 5 Camrys (particularly the 02-04 ones). Our 02 Camry had the left, centre and right one blew out with the left one blowing out twice. All were replaced for free but it's kinda scary to see all 3 of them blow out one after the other. If it wasn't totalled, I swear the lights will continue the same pattern (left, centre, right).

Oh.. and while we're on the subject of red lights, PLEASE don't use red indicators cause it's really hard to see (rain or shine) especially if they're close to the brake lights themselves. What's with the recently flood of red indicators (esp. by Honda/Acura and Nissan/Infiniti). Thank goodness Toyota hasn't followed suit.

trent

Some of the later model BMW's have this problem also, one side of the tailights are not working.

DrDrilZ

a lot of people think that mercedes' always have malfunctioning brake lights because they see that only one side is "lit up". thats just how german cars do their rear fog lights.

PhantomZX

Shouldn't defective taillights cause a warning lamp to light up in the dash in all newer cars? If that's the case, then it's also the drivers' faults for driving that way.

DrUnBiased

First car that comes to mind when I think of this is the last generation Toyota Camry. Out of all types of cars I have seen with dead tail/brake lamps, the Camry was definitely the most common one.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

ive noticed that most of the time the fog lights/indicators in 5300series chevy's seem to be out on at least one side.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Interesting thread. One thing I can say is in all the years I've been driving I've NEVER had to replace a brake light.

greyBLITZ

iTrader: (2)

Maybe it is just the owners who neglect changing out the bulbs. And perhaps the brake light warning on the dash isn't flashy enough. I completely understand your predicament though. Here in Alberta we always have campers and trailers that don't have the lights hooked up properly and half the time you can't tell what they're doing. Very dangerous indeed.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

Brake lights on all the time is just an idiot driving an automatic with both feet pressing on pedals. I've seen it lots. I've seen the same people complain about how their brake pads wear out too fast...

Nextourer

Yep. Ours blew out.. well all 3 of them did with the left one blowing out twice.

Ya no kidding. At first you think it's a malfunctioning set of brake lights then at one instance you see them off (finally) when the car accelerates and you know the driver had his/her left foot resting on the brake pedal.

felixsc300

iTrader: (5)

Doesn't most luxury cars notify the owner of blown light bulbs? My aunt's 2000 528i has a small bird's eye-view diagram of the car on the odometer area and whenever a taillight is blown (which has happened 11 TIMES, wtf) a warning appears on the diagram. This feature should be STANDARD on all cars.

The worst offender IMO are the Honda Odyssey and Pilots. Half of the ones I run into have a dysfunctional brake warning lamp.

blacksc400

iTrader: (4)

I don't trust brakelights anyway... so many of them are not working properly...