Why do owners tint their headlights and taillights?

[KentState]

It's a freaking car for crying out loud. Who cares what someone else does with theirs.

Well, it's a forum, so people discuss things. It's not even about caring, but more of understanding the motivation behind certain modifications when it may defy convention. Some may also "care" due to the risk that barely visible brake lights might have on safety.

 

[AMCRambler]

At least they pulled them away from the GTO's.

Heh, you'd think so but you'd be wrong. I'm a giant douche bag. Ask anyone here HeHe.

 

[Malak]

Looks are irrelevant, you should never modify your car in a way that reduces safety. Tinting taillights is plain stupid.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Cops will pull you over here for tinted lights... especially CHP.

I view tinted lights like I view tinted visors on a motorcycle. I wear a tinted shield during the day but clear at night. Since it really isn't practical to change your headlights/taillights when it get's dark I leave them stock.

 

[CurseTheSky]

It's a freaking car for crying out loud. Who cares what someone else does with theirs.

So, by that mentality, you wouldn't care if you were stuck in moving traffic behind a rust bucket that was spewing chunks of corroded metal all over the front of your car? You wouldn't care if their wheels were being held on by two lug nuts each and could pop off at any moment? You wouldn't mind if they had a huge 20+ foot plywood spoiler held on by a couple small sheet metal screws, rocking back and forth in the wind and ready to smash through your windshield? What if they completely removed their normal headlights and installed industrial spotlights, aimed directly into your back windshield?

The laws exist for a reason. I agree that there are some that may be pointless or more trouble than they're worth, but bear in mind that you don't own the roads, you just drive on them.

Headlights are designed to provide light so that you can see where you're going, and others can see you. ANYTHING you do to reduce the amount of light coming out - whether it's tinting, getting smoked covers, buying bulbs with a significantly different color temperature, etc. is plain stupid. It looks just as cool as an 8" exhaust tip on someone's Civic (that is, "terrible," if you didn't get the hint).

 

[HeXen]

So, by that mentality, you wouldn't care if you were stuck in moving traffic behind a rust bucket that was spewing chunks of corroded metal all over the front of your car? You wouldn't care if their wheels were being held on by two lug nuts each and could pop off at any moment? You wouldn't mind if they had a huge 20+ foot plywood spoiler held on by a couple small sheet metal screws, rocking back and forth in the wind and ready to smash through your windshield? What if they completely removed their normal headlights and installed industrial spotlights, aimed directly into your back windshield?

The laws exist for a reason. I agree that there are some that may be pointless or more trouble than they're worth, but bear in mind that you don't own the roads, you just drive on them.

Headlights are designed to provide light so that you can see where you're going, and others can see you. ANYTHING you do to reduce the amount of light coming out - whether it's tinting, getting smoked covers, buying bulbs with a significantly different color temperature, etc. is plain stupid. It looks just as cool as an 8" exhaust tip on someone's Civic (that is, "terrible," if you didn't get the hint).

So no I still don't care what someone else does with their car. If their tinted windows causes an accident, it's on them. Whether I'm involved or not is irrelevant cause shit happens and safety features won't prevent that.

 

[Tuanies]

I have my tails tinted a light smoke to match my wheels. You can still see red through it and the LED brake lights are still very bright. I left the reflectors red though. And sitting in my car with my windows tinted 20%, I barely notice any difference between the side windows and front windshield from the inside of the car. It looks very dark from the outside but you don't see much of a difference if you look at the side windows and front windshield side by side. I imagine the tint on the tails are the same, they look dark but don't block too much light, unless you're going for pure black, then it just looks stupid.

P1110049 by tuanies, on Flickr

Stock red

P1090992 by tuanies, on Flickr

 

[kingchase234567]

cuz it looks fckn sick!!!

 

[Smoblikat]

I put a light smoke on my tail lights and I did it for purely aesthetic purposes. My car is black, and I have a carbon fiber trunk, so adding a light gray to my tails really draws the rear end together. On a side note..........its way too difficult to tint your lights! I must have tried at least 15 different times before I was satisfied with the results, went through almost 2 full cans of night shade and 10 packs of Mr. Clean magic erasers

 

[TechBoyJK]

Only when the dubstep makes its drop

Those are home theater subs, they arent capable of handling anything over 80hz without distortion. I would love to see a 5k amp driving those in a ported box, however the enclosure would probably take up a whole trunk since each one requires atleast 10cuft when ported.

And your sound stage would need to be lengthy to let the sound waves form correctly.

 

[Zorba]

I've always wondered if you could pass blame on the other driver if involved in a wreck with a car that had blacked out the tail lights, as in what is a show car doing driving around?

Back in the late 90s my mom rear ended a car with blacked out tail lights that was illegally parked on a bridge. I was with her, and you could not see the lights at all, by the time she realized they were stopped it was too late to do anything (car in front of us changed lanes, then all of sudden a stopped car). Anyways, the owner of the other car got multiple tickets, including for the blacked out lights, officer said it was their fault. Insurances companies decided otherwise and said my mom was at fault.

So YMMV but if you rear end someone, it is very hard to get the insurance companies to blame the other guy.

 

[Insomniator]

They do it because they are teenagers

 

[AMCRambler]

Back in the late 90s my mom rear ended a car with blacked out tail lights that was illegally parked on a bridge. I was with her, and you could not see the lights at all, by the time she realized they were stopped it was too late to do anything (car in front of us changed lanes, then all of sudden a stopped car). Anyways, the owner of the other car got multiple tickets, including for the blacked out lights, officer said it was their fault. Insurances companies decided otherwise and said my mom was at fault.

So YMMV but if you rear end someone, it is very hard to get the insurance companies to blame the other guy.

Well the problem there was it wouldn't have mattered if it was a car with blacked out lights or the car there had died and the tail lights were off. Your mom was likely following the car in front too closely and driving too fast in the dark. I can see this being a situation where you have very little time to react though. If the car in front maintained speed and never even tapped the brakes before changing lanes, there's no cue you might pick up on besides actually seeing the car and it's reflectors suddenly.

 

[halik]

I have one of these in my MINI. It looks like this one, except I have mine set to long duration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EDGu9exorM

HOLY CRAP, I've been looking for this for ages. Need that for both the Audi and the ducati.