Beautiful '74 Grand Safari I snapped photos of at cruise tonight...

This is not my car, but one I was lucky enough to see this 100% rust free 1974 Pontiac Grand Safari wagon at one of the local cruise-ins this evening...
this was a very high optioned car... 3rd seat, A/C, tilt, FM radio, cruise control, power windows, power door locks, power tailgate, power seat, etc. The car appeared to be wearing its original paint. The only flaw I seen was a small surface rust spot on front fender and it was missing the emblem on the right front fender. Looks like the only optioned it lacked were cornering lights, vinyl top, gauge package and auto climate control. I am not wild about these wheels... if this were my car, the original hubcaps would be back on it.

 

I am not a fan of aftermarket wheels either, but those don't look too bad. At least they appear to be 15" or maybe 16".

 

That IS quite a "looker"! I agree on the wheels; everything would be original if it were mine too.

My '75 Caprice Estate is optioned with all of the above as well, sans the auto climate. But I wasn't aware cornering lights were available then. I thought those didn't come around until the early '80's..?

 

Yeah, cornering lights were optional on all big GM cars in the early 70s, except for the Chevrolets. I dont know why they waited until the 80s to offer them. Even the Fords and Plymouths of the early 70s had them as optional. I think starting as far back as 1965 on the Buick Electras, Cadillacs and Olds 98s.

Unfortunately, Chevy never offered them until perhaps the 80s. I know my '85 Caprice Estate had them.

Here is a '73 Pontiac Grand Safari with the optional cornering lights...


here is a 73 Pontiac Grand Ville with cornering lights...


Here is a 72 Grand Safari with cornering lights....

 

Cadillac brought about the first cornering lights in 1962. I have no idea why I am facinated by them, but as "king of curbchecks", I find them to be quite handy. My Park Avenue has them, as have many of my past cars (to which they were added, if they didn't already have them). There's something about a car ordered with cornering lights that appeals to me. Maybe it's knowing that the car was a special order or something...

 

Forgive my ignorance, everyone, but what do cornering lights do? Are they just little orange marker lights, or are they swivelling headlights that turn with the front wheels so you can see around corners, like a Citroen DS?

 

Those Citroen lights are nice alright, but the North American ones have a specially cut lense that amplifies the lightbeam and stays on while your turn signal is flashing so you can see if you're gonna hit the curb or drive over your kid's bike.

 

cornering lights come on with the turn signal when the parking or headlights are on (on GM cars... Ford headlights do not have to be on for cornering lights to work) One nice trick, if you have Twilight Sentinel, you can leave a cornering light on with your headlights after the car is shut off. We used this a lot on Cadillacs when walking from the car to the house (twilght sentinel shuts the headlights off after a delay, adjustable up to approx 90 seconds after the car is turned off)

 

Cornering lights are the clear lights on the front corner of the car. They light up with the turn signals (but don't flash) and their purpose is to illuminate the area off to the side of the car that you are turning toward. It is to help you see anything off to the side before you turn.

They are almost always clear. The only orange cornering lights are on the 1986-87 Mercury Sable sedan/wagon and the 1987-89? Pontiac Bonneville (FWD).

They can be wired in different ways.
1. Some cars have them illuminate ANY time the turn signal on that side is on.
2. Others are wired to come on with the turn signal, but ONLY if the parking and/or headlights are on.
3. Yet others are wired to come on with the turn signal ONLY if the headlights are on (but not with just the parking lights)

I remember reading somewhere that European codes don't allow for cornering lights to be operable at speeds above a certain point. They are not usually found on European cars. Japanese cars have had them from time to time on some cars. Cornering lights were offered on quite a few American cars, especially during the 70's and 80's. For quite a while, nearly all Lincolns and Cadillacs came with cornering lamps as standard equipment.

 

I'd never heard of cornering lights before, hence my question.
What we've had here in Europe are the Citroen DS swivelling inner headlamps (which are seriously cool, like the whole car) back in the seventies which are now coming into fashion again on a few top-line German cars. Along the same lines, we also have front and rear-vision cameras so that short women can reverse SUV's without running over things, but I think most American/Japanese cars also have those now too.
I borrowed a (dreadful) Subaru Tribeca once that had a rear-vision camera, but I still used the mirrors to reverse like I normally do.

 

In a weaker moment of my life (when gas prices were over $4/gal), I test drove a Prius with a reversing camera. It would take getting used to. I have the reverse sensors on my Park Avenue, which I've owned for over 4 years now, so I've acustomed myself to reversing with mirrors/sensors...and now, I'll never have another car without some assist in reversing (I'm lazy, I know)...but I suppose I could acustom myself to using a camera.

American cars and now some Japanese cars have sometimes catered to the laziness in some of us, providing us with all sorts of assists/automated systems. I have memory seating/mirrors, automatic dimming rearview and driver side mirrors, automatic on/off/delay headlights, automatic climate control, Rainsense wipers, reverse sensors, cornering lamps, HeadUp Display (helps to keep your eyes on the road). My car is a "point and click" car, I just point it in the direction I want to go and it practically drives itself. I have to say that I feel very spoiled with it. It's nice to just focus on the road and leave the rest of the details for the car to handle on its own. The drawback comes from the cost of repairs when the little electrical gremlins invade!

 

Nicely explained! (everyone elses too!) Yeah, you rarely ever saw cornering lights on European cars (I can think of any) and occasionally on Japanese cars. Really the only Japanese make I can think of that often used cornering lights were Nissan. They had them as early as 1985 on the Nissan Maxima and AFAIK, they have always had them. They even had them on some Altimas starting in 1998. My aunts 1995 Nissan Quest and 2001 Nissan Altima has cornering lights... they ARE very useful. I love them. Even my 1991 Lexus LS dont have cornering lights, so hats off to Nissan for having these all of those years.

My 89 Pontiac Safari, 85 Caprice Estate, 72 Cadillac DeVille, 71 Olds Toronado and 72 Buick Electra all had cornering lights and they were very useful. I only wish my Grand Ville had that option (it was optional on those) and my wagon, but as mentioned, Chevrolet for some reason did not offer cornering lights, even as an option on the pre-77 models.

 

I get it now. Conering lights sound very useful, but most people in the UK and Europe park their cars on the road outside, so the notion that you can have lights that shine into your driveway as you indicate to turn is not so relevant to us, because most people do not have driveways.
I have a driveway and a garage, but there is nothing really for me to run into as I turn, except my neighbour's rock garden right by the roadside, but I know exactly where that is.

 

Maybe because Chevrolets have always been rather basic cars.
I suppose if you wanted lots of options, you could upgrade to a Pontiac, Buick or Oldsmobile.

 

Thats my guess too. Its strange though, because a top of the line Caprice loaded to the max cant have cornering lights (early 70s), but a base Pontiac Catalina or Buick LeSabre may have them. I saw a base 73 Catalina 2dr with them before and it was not as luxurious as a Caprice.