While we all want our cars to be unique, the first concern should be our safety and the safety of others on the road. Your car's lights are one of the most important safety systems you have. Included are your headlights, tail lights, and blinkers. They help you to see at night or in bad weather and indicate to other cars an upcoming change in direction. Headlights and tail lights help other drivers be aware of you and help them avoid hitting you.



Your headlights are there to help your eyes: they illuminate the parts of the road you would not normally be able to see for yourself, allowing you to see any upcoming danger or changes in the driving environment. They also signal your presence to other drivers, and perform these functions whether they are constructed in the old manner or the new. Old headlights are one piece, an outer bulb and an inner bulb, that are held together by screws and require you to replace the entire apparatus when one part fails.

In newer cars, they are separate parts and are made of halogen or tungsten-halogen bulbs. Others are xenon headlights, which are high intensity and appear blue. Signal lights are more often made of LEDs, and are currently being developed for headlights. It should be easy to replace your headlight if you use caution.

Tail lights are near your car's trunk, and can either be alone or connected to other features like blinkers. By law, they are only allowed to be red. They help other drivers to see you at night and you to see what's behind you. Tail lights are dimmer than brake lights so that other drivers can tell when you are slowing down or stopping, and are accompanied on either side by turn signals. The parking lights, which are not longer used to warn other drivers when a car is stopped, also add illumination, helping you to see.

Be sure to check the headlights and tail lights in your car regularly to ensure that there is not a failure while you're on the road, which is both illegal and dangerous for you and other drivers. Replace bulbs that are dim or broken to up the safety of yourself and others. Though this is required by law, you should do it anyway in order to have the safest possible driving experience both and night and during the day.