this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2025
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Cars - For Car Enthusiasts

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago (20 children)

Man, I miss those pop-up lights in cars. I heard they broke down often and were pretty trouble prone though...

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (19 children)

The pop-up headlights were a stopgap solution to a problem that no longer exists. They're a result of the DOT at the time flat out requiring that all cars sold in the US must use the same handful of dorky looking sealed beam headlamps, bar none, without exception. None of them were very attractive and certainly not aerodynamic, especially considering that they must be positioned with their massive flat faces perpendicular to the road in order to actually work.

Have you ever wondered why every car in the '70s and '80s seemed to have this same doofy Clark-Griswold's-station-wagon lookin' square (and sometimes, circular) headlight design?

It's because they had to, by law. Up until 1983 they didn't have a choice.

[–] atomicbocks 6 points 1 day ago

I would prefer to go back to that than to need to spend $500 to replace the proprietary LED module that cars have these days.

I am making an assumption but I would guess that it’s going to be really hard to come by spare parts like the LEDs in 10 or 20 years. While some company will still be making those rectangular headlights.

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