shatner saves said:
This is the thing that people don't get. Fog lights, even when they are located properly, are just as offensive to oncoming drivers as high beams are. There is a reason people get pulled over for this. Unless you are dealing with actual fog, or you are driving on the highway and have the good sense to kill them for an oncoming car, do everyone a favor and leave them off. The fogs on the new car are located too high to work properly anyway.
How do you come by that? A proper foglight has a very flat (doesnt rise vertically very much, but very wide horizontal spread, and relatively short distance) to see things ahead of you on the road in the fog, paired with low beams, where normal high beams will just reflect back in your face.
Fogs in the Mustang's grill could be aimed down at a significant angle, and with it's flat beam, be fairly unoffensive to oncoming drivers. Most drivers don't know how lights are supposed to be aimed anyway. I do enough night driving that I pay attention to the aim of my headlights, and I get flashed occaisionally. and I try to err to the side of other driver's comfort, rather than my own ability to see on the road. Some drivers just don't like oncoming light of any kind.
Driving lights, however, are usually misunderstood. Driving lights are commonly used with low beams to be alternatives to high beams. That is not what they are supposed to be.
They are supposed to be augmentation to high beams, with a much longer distance focused beam to go beyond the slightly wider spread of the high beams. Look at any german VW, BMW, or Porsche (especially 944, 911, 968 from 80's or 90's, fogs-lows together, driving-highs together. Most other cars dont have both fogs and driving lights installed.) E-code lights on european market cars have better vertical cut-off, as well, for other drivers.
Forward lighting is a compromise between spread (vert or horiz) and distance.
-Fog lights (27-55watts) - Wide horizontal spread, almost no vertical spread, short distance.
-Low Beams (55watts) - Medium wide spread, vertical and horizontal, medium-short distance.
-High Beams (65 or higher watts) - slightly less horizontal and vertical spread than low beams, Higher wattage adds even more distance on top of the long distance focus.
-Driving Lights (55 or higher watts) - Very little spread at all, and super long distance, to see signs and objects in the road path at long distances, in order to not over-drive your lights at high speeds.
Find some photos from the 05 mustang press kit, where the red GT show car is parked with the lights on, with fog rolling by. Kind of sinister, but it shows the flat beam of the foglights, as a wide fan shape.