A chara, – Peter Coogan (January 19th) writes of the dangers presented by vehicles with defective headlamps. Are car manufacturers, however, not major contributors to this dangerous situation? As it is both dangerous and an offence to drive a car that is not properly illuminated, it follows that the simple changing of a light bulb in any motor vehicle, without hassle, should be well within the capacity of any driver.
I can assure you that this is far from the case with most vehicles. The problem lies with car design and access to the light bulb holder. What should be a simple task, changing a light bulb, can indeed become a task for a committee of specialist mechanics and at a financial cost to the motorist. This service being available only during garage opening hours and not at night, when the problem becomes manifest, doesn’t help either. A suggestion would be that car designers in future would redesign a more simple and user-friendly headlamp and rear-light unit that could be unclipped and pulled forward for the purpose of changing the light bulb, and then be clipped back into place. Indeed it could be used as a positive advertisement by the manufacturers. – Is mise,
MICK O’BRIEN,
Springmount,
Kilkenny.