Originally Posted by 14Accent
My Cadillac doesn't have DRL's, but I leave the fog lights on all the time along with leaving the headlights in auto. By doing so, I get front fogs, front running lights, and rear running lights at all times and the low beams only turn on when A: It gets dark out and B: any time the windshield wipers are turned on (which I LOVE).
I personally think the above setup should be MANDATORY. Not DRL's, those are nice and all but most cars now have some form of LED DRL's or the like. But when darkness comes, the lights should 100% be on their own. They should also all be programmed to come on with the windshield wipers, regardless of ambient light.
Of course, there would be an override. AKA "drive-in mode", but it shouldn't be as simple to defeat as putting the headlight switch in a different position.
I personally liked the older Chevy trucks. You pushed the "dome override" button 3 times in succession, and the DRL's/auto lamps were defeated only for that drive cycle. Doing the same sequence again turned them back on. This could be accomplished any number of ways, but let's be serious: who REALLY needs to be able to turn off their headlights in a situation where sensors and conditions warrant them? Not many people.
Sorry, one of my pet peeves, no reason to have the fog lights on when there's no fog. I leave mine in auto all the time and the fog lights don't come on unless it's one or the other when the active curve illumination kicks in. You actually have to turn the dial to on and pull out the switch to activate the front and rear fog light. And of course remember to shut them off afterwards. It has the rain sensor wipers too so the headlights also come on automatically when the wipers are on. They just passed a new law requiring headlights to be on when wipers are on so it's nice that the car is already set up to do that.
And to answer the OP's question, you would save so little energy that it wouldn't really matter if you shut off the daytime driving lights or not. Probably not even enough for a cup of coffee. Glad you decided to just leave them on. Lots of people driving around without their headlights on lately. People just totally clueless when they get flashed from behind too, multiple times. Happened for a while on the highway. Lady moved over at one point. Then I was behind her and I tried to flash her too, still didn't get it, totally clueless, got off my exit and no idea what happened afterwards. And having high beams on when one low beam is out is the wrong response, better to be a cyclops than blind other drivers due to your own equipment failure.