For anyone who wants to know more about DRL’s than an ordinary person should, Wikipedia has an entry, because of course they do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytime_running_lamp

 

It is just my personal preference to have the headlights ON while I drive. and the bottle cap trick works just fine for That, and No dead battery :) , the issue I have is the instrument lights and radio lights go to dim mode, and I would really like to see those during the day time with the headlights on

 

HHR 2007-2011 DRL is full force low beams, no tail lights. 2006 is front turn signals only
Reason for that is Canada required at least the turn signals in 2006, the US was thrashing the idea of mandatory DRLs. Then GM decided to make all of their cars have DRL ahead of the mandate..

I would be surprised if NHTSA said they are of no value, since they are now required by law.

 

I don’t know why incongruity in government regulation would surprise anyone, but just eight years after GM petitioned in 2001 for mandatory DRL, NHTSA stated in the summary of their 2009 ruling against GM that even though they tried really hard (for 8 years, apparently,) “...we were unable to find solid evidence of an overall safety benefit associated with daytime running lamps and are therefore denying the petition...” and goes on to say that GM’s studies are full of BS and NHTSA studies have less.

I’ll guess GM wanted them mandatory because various states had conflicting regulations and Canada required them, and harmony everywhere would be the best solution for all car makers. The result of the denial was status quo, i.e. they were not required, but permitted, but only if they met certain standards, mostly that they not be too bright, I think.

Obviously something could have changed since then, but I couldn’t find anything. It seems Canada and the EU require DRL, but the US doesn’t, perhaps in part because of a prevailing political ideological bias against regulation.

Starts in the second column of page 1.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...f/E9-15314.pdf

 

The first vehicle I purchased that had DRL , was a 1993 Pontiac Transsport, they were an automatic set up with a similar light sensor on the dash and the high beam was the DRL .
1988 GMC did not have DRL
2003 GMC Envoy had DRL
2003 Pontiac Sunfire GT did not have DRL


go figure, very weird.

 

This is consistent with Canada requiring DRL since 1990, except for the 2003 Sunfire. Could it have been US production imported to Canada after it was 10 years old?

An interesting DRL scheme is to simply run the two high beams in series. Has a trivial effect on bulb life and power consumption. Has do-it-yourself potential.

 

The Sunfire was purchased brand new , here in Canada. I don’t know where it was built .

 

My memory seems to think there was a time that GM made DRL an easy to do option. Just purchase the relay and plug it in. That may have been circa 2003.

One more time: HHR DRL is LOW (city beams in europe) beams (or front turn signals in 2006). The difference is no tail lights when the DRL headlights are on.

 

Or side marker lights.

 

Trade the 06 for a 07-2011 year model if you desire the headlights for DRL's.