Found my first irritating quirk in the Twingo.

"Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell." (oppisitelock) 05/02/2015 at 10:19 • Filed to: None

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In most cars if an area is really well lit at night, the dark instrument cluster reminds me to switch my lights on, since in the city with massive street lights, your visibility is pretty much like daytime. In the Twingo the speedo is permanently lit up, meaning that twice now I’ve driven about half a mile before realising my lights are off, which is obviously pretty dangerous. I’ve learned now to remember and be less of a moron, but to eliminate all chances of more dumbass behaviour I’m making a warning circuit.

I’m pulling the circuit out of a garden lamp like these:

These only activate when it’s dark, so I can use the circuitry to make my warning circuit. I’ll attach an LED so that when the sensor detects that it’s dark it’ll light up and remind me to switch the lights on.

I’ve noticed this catches quite a few people out with modern digital displays, so I want to eliminate any chances of me causing an incident through a mental lapse.

Textured Soy Protein > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 05/02/2015 at 10:22

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Does it have a light on the dash that comes on when the headlights are on?

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Textured Soy Protein 05/02/2015 at 10:25

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Yeah a really tiny one just below the speedo, it doesn’t do a lot to help remind you to be honest. I know this isn’t a mistake I should be making but I want to eliminate all chances of it happening again. Sometimes you get into bad habits and don’t realise until you get another car, such as using the dark instruments to remind you to put the lights on.

twochevrons > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 05/02/2015 at 10:37

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Recent-ish VWs actually have something like that built in! Even on models without automatic headlights, there’s an ambient light sensor in the gauge cluster that will start dimming the gauge lighting as it gets dark out. I thought that it was a great idea when I came across it.

Svend > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 05/02/2015 at 10:40

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I do this quite often in the Skoda. The DRLs are so bright its like I have the headlights on. The tell tale is the green headlamp light on the dash but often I don’t notice that also but I do notice the downward led centre console lights which are so subtle I don’t notice till my hand glows or rather doesn’t.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > twochevrons 05/02/2015 at 10:48

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I wish theyd done something like that on this car. It’s hard to remember when you’re under bright street lights and your gauges are completely lit up.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Svend 05/02/2015 at 10:49

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I noticed a lot of people forget to put headlights on because of the DRLs. At least the DRLs are bright enough to tell the car is there. Do DRLs put the tail lights on too or is only the front lit up?

Svend > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 05/02/2015 at 11:05

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Only the front, not rear. Had a motorbike tap on the window once after coming up on us from a distance back and say we had no lights on.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Svend 05/02/2015 at 11:39

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It can happen, I might look into fitting auto lights. Some of the higher spec Twingos had them I think.

Svend > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 05/02/2015 at 11:45

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Ours is kept on auto but often have to switch it to headlamps at dusk.

Viggen9er3 > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 05/02/2015 at 12:59

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All cars should come automatic headlights.... with an override function somewhere on the dash. I don’t know why this is not admonitory everywhere.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Viggen9er3 05/02/2015 at 13:19

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Agreed, they’re fairly cheap to implement and increase safety.