Dashboard lights are very important, because they let you know if something is up with your car, most of the times, way before the mechanical or electric bits actually seize up or fall apart.
Nowadays, with so many variations amongst manufacturers, there are many inconsistencies and sometimes jumping out from one brand’s product to another carmaker’s vehicle (from Honda to Chrysler, for instance), there’s a good chance you’ll be confused.
A recent study from Britanniarescue now comes to confirm this, and brings forth some startling figures – 98 percent of drivers don’t understand all of the basic warning lights, primarily because there are “99 dashboard symbol variations found in just 15 of the most popular new cars – but only 12 are consistent across all models.”
They give another example, in the form of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, which has 41 LED-lit little helpers, or almost twice as many as a Volvo S40 (no longer in production). So, it’s these two ingredients, helped by a fair dollop of ignorance from motorists (and I would say driving instructors) that have caused the situation we’re now facing.
It’s a troubling automotive world when studies suggest that, 35 percent of drivers don’t recognize the airbag warning light, frankly the most visually-intuitive towards its meaning. We have therefore assembled a collection of VW-sourced symbols, which we have placed below, and divided into categories.
It’s simple, as VW themselves say: “red warning lights mean you should stop the car as soon as it’s safe,” and “yellow warning lights mean that action is required,” while “green warning lights are for information only.”
By Andrei Nedelea
VIDEO
