I was delighted to be shown Jack Tigras’s remarkably comprehensive The State of Amber Turn Signals: 2023 because this is precisely the sort of project that needed to happen and I’m thrilled I didn’t have to actually, you know, do it. This is what I believe to be the first comprehensive report on amber rear turn indicator usage in the American automotive market ever, and there are fascinating trends and information to be gleaned from it. Well, I suppose that’s only true if you find amber rear-turn indicators to be fascinating, which I freely admit I do. So let’s dig in!
The report claims to be the first single source that catalogs every “mainstream” car model sold in the US market with amber rear turn indicators, and the information should be valid for Canada as well, at least for the models those two closely related markets share.
It’s also worth noting this list only needs to be compiled for the North American market, as the entire rest of the world already requires amber rear indicators. We’re the lone holdouts, the global weirdos who still somehow insist that red turn indicators are okay, despite studies and the rest of the world deciding the ambers are at least a bit safer.
I prefer amber rear indicators myself, though in a perverse way I respect America’s irrational and defiant holdout. What I do not understand is how carmakers from Europe and Japan don’t choose to make universal taillights that fit every market’s demands. You’d think there’d be significant cost savings, and the challenge doesn’t appear that steep at all – I mean, some carmakers have managed to do it.
I also realize that fussy car designers may prefer not to deal with the extra color in their taillight designs, but that doesn’t seem like a valid argument anymore as there are now so many ways to seamlessly hide amber indicators within clear or red sections of the taillight lens to present an amberless look when the indicators are off. So there.
I encourage everyone to read the report in full, but I’d like to go over some of the findings here, with you, right now. Let’s look at the percentages of models with amber rears across the board:
This chart shows 38 mainstream automakers selling cars in America. Of these 38, eleven have amber penetration rates of 100% across their fleet of models. Interestingly, Japanese carmakers have excellent representation in the 100% class. Lexus, Subaru, Mazda, Acura, Mitsubishi, and Nissan (which has ambers on every vehicle except the Frontier) come close to full amber status at 93%. Infinity, Nissan’s luxury arm, is just behind at 80%.
Honda is at 75%, and Toyota, the lowest-ranked of the major Japanese carmakers, comes in with 65% of its models winking in amber.
Interestingly, American carmakers – who really have the least pressure to produce cars with amber rear indicators – are pretty evenly distributed across the board. Lincoln and Tesla both score 100% amber rears for their current lineups, along with Lucid (counting them as mainstream is pretty generous, but whatever). RAM surprised me most, also coming in with complete amberhood.
Ford is 58% amber, though that could be mitigated by the fact that higher-trim levels of the F-150 do have amber rear indicators – though the F-150 is classified overall as a red-indicator vehicle.
The list of carmakers with absolutely no amber rear indicators is surprising as well; there are a few American makes in there – Dodge, Chrysler, Rivian, GMC – but aside from Genesis, it’s dominated by European marques. BMW has the most individual red-only models, but Italian and English brands are also stuck down there in the amberless pit.
Incredibly, Tigras even broke down amber representation by model, and even signal mode. The filled-in amber cells are my addition: 
I’m trying to suss out any patterns or trends here, but it’s tricky. There was a time when amber rear indicators were more heavily skewed to lower-end cars, but I’m not sure that’s the case anymore. Mercedes-Benz and some of the other luxury marques seem to spec red and amber haphazardly, while more affordable brands and models (for example, the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Sonata) show plenty of red representation.
This report is wonderful to have, even if it all just serves to baffle me more. The resistance in America to amber rear indicators both confounds and delights me: I think red rear signals are a bad idea, but the fact that people care enough to defend them, bad idea or not, is incredible. I can’t quite get to the root of the resistance to amber rear turn signals, either. Is it just defiance? A streak of American independence? Are there people who prefer the functionality of the red rear indicator? If so, I’d love to know why.
There are probably more patterns – or perhaps coded messages – in this data, too. Lots to pour over.
New Zealand still allows red rear turn signals. However every vehicle sold that is built to NZ or AU specification uses amber, including the American brands. I’m not aware of any NZDM model that uses red.
Torch – do you know what’s almost as bad as red rear turn signals? Dual-filiment front ones that uses the same bulb as the parking light. A dim-bright flash is far less conspicuous than a single-filament off-on flash. Fortunately with the proliferation of LED light signatures, that are slowly being phased out.
Germany used to “tolerate” the red turn signal indicators and least-common-denominator taillamps until a several years ago. No longer are they allowed on the new vehicles (official or grey import).
This might led to RAM to include the amber turn signal indicators in the current generation trucks as RAM trucks have a big following in Europe. Ford configured the F-Series LED taillamps so that they could have amber turn signal indicators activated by the grey import specialists after rearranging the jumpers in the specific ways.
You chose Jack Tigras as your alter-ego huh? Well I guess it’s convenient to be able to use the same initials.
JasonJackTorchinskyTigrasPlus you get to reference only the finest Opel Corsa-based sports coupe!
I’m sort of doing my part. I converted my Corvette to export taillights; but for my Elise I converted it to sequential red signals instead of restoring the amber indicators from the EU models.
Those sequential lights look like a horrible low-rent mod from Pep Boys. In fact until this article I didn’t know some models are from the factory. I hope the trend doesn’t spread.
A turn signal shall have a dedicated light, and that light shall glow orange. The turn signal light must not be used to mean anything else like brakes. And similarly the brake light must not be overloaded to mean turn. That’s how it should be. Anything else is folly.
The absolute worst are the vehicles that just flash the entire brake light. Now that bulb will burn out sooner, and when it does, you are now lacking a brake light but your rear turn signal too.
there is a new trend now – new Mazdas (in the EU at least) have this strange bright fast-blink-slow-fade-out turn signals… Huh, apparently they’re called “heart beat” signals and it’s weird.See for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zypsuYgopxI
I see them often in Germany and hate those. Another trend in Europe is two different light patterns for night illumination and brake, especially on newer Audi and Volkswagen models. Really distracting…
Eh, modern cars use LED taillights almost exclusively. Pulsing LEDs does not impact their lifetime. In fact, most LED lights are pulsed rapidly just to produce a steady light. In any case, the LED bulbs should outlive most cars on which they are installed.
Cadillac introduced the eight-generation DeVille with full LED taillamps in 2000. Those taillamps light up like the thermonuclear bomb at night when flashing the turn indicator or illuminating the brake. Really light up the night sky…and burn our retinas.
Unpopular opinion: Red indicators are fine. In fact in most cases, they look better.
Bonus points for the Germans who make amber ones for Europe and ROW and red ones specifically for the US.
My Macan indicators that flash the whole unit red are more pleasing than the thin amber line they have elsewhere.
Yes I know and accept amber has been proven safer.
You’re allowed to have your own opinion, the problem is these dumbed down all red tail lights are forced upon everyone, whether they want them or not. They could at least make amber signals an option, as many safety features are.
The ROW Macan uses bi-color LEDs for the signal. Even if the thin strip was too small for US regulations (I doubt it because I’ve seen much smaller here) Porsche could have easily made the entire light flash amber for signals/hazards, red for everything else.
Living in Germany, I have come to dislike the long, thin amber turn signal indicators in parallel to the equally long, thin brake lamps, especially on the BMW models. When the brake lamps come on, it’s really hard to see the amber turn signal indicators as the redder colour “overwhelms” the amber colour. This design “flaw” ought to be addressed.
The worst offenders are Opel, Peugeot, and Tesla that miniaturise the size of illumination to the tiniest allowable size. They hurt our eyes at night when waiting for the traffic lights to turn green.
Hire this guy Torch!
I Iove my i3’s amber rear signals… shame on you BMW!!
Why the fuck do non-US brand cars even have red turn signals? They can just use the same ones they use in other markets.
And also, time to harmonize and join the UNECE standards.
Bcuz we have dumb lighting requirements so most of the time they flash the brake lights instead of using what would be the turn signal in other markets.
It’s a little extra dissuasion for anyone in the business of re-exporting Euro cars back to Europe, which is a thing especially with luxury ones.
Add enough little hurdles, and the price of the mods needed to register it in Europe balloons enough to make it not worth it.
Well, you ought to ask NHTSA why it insists on the minimum size of four square inches for the amber turn signal indicators and per light bulb (it has since allowed the multiple LED bulbs to be counted as “one”).
United States had agreed to harmonise its FMVSS with UNECE in the 1990s. European Union bent backward to allow the side illumination lamps and retroreflective markers and a few US-specific regulations. Then, United States faltered and didn’t proceed further than allowing the H4 bulbs (renamed as HB2 in the US) and ECE headlamp output pattern in 1991.
Canada was this CLOSE in discarding its CMVSS for UNECE in 2000. The American manufacturers threatened to shut down their Canadian manufacturing bases and move the production to Mexico or United States if Canada adopted the UNECE regulations.
That last paragraph I didn’t know about 😮
Canada should accept both CMVSS and UNECE, like Mexico does. Apparently they are close though, allowing most of the UNECE standards, but not all.
Wait, do any cars have both amber and red turn signals that both flash when used?
I am on team red and I’m proud of it damnit. Do I accept that amber indicators are safer and better? Yes. I just like red better.
In fact, I even swapped my 80 series land cruiser taillights to have clear lenses for the turn signal. (I did use an amber bulb)
I, on the other hand, believe that the lenses should also be amber.
How did he collect the data on the BMW’s? They don’t seem to be equipped with turn signals at all. And Audi must have sub contracted the turn signals to Lucas, as most don’t seem to work.
I once followed a ratty Bangle-era 5 Series, complete with a fake M badge on the trunk. The driver didn’t use the turn signals, like any BMW driver. However they used hand signals for every turn, a level of dedication for turning indication that I didn’t think existed in BMW drivers.
You sure those weren’t finger signals conveying a very different message?
At first that’s what I thought it was, honestly. You don’t see many people using hand signals in general. The idea of a BMW driver using them was a possibility I had never considered.
I guess full size vans are not “mainstream” even though the roads are flooded with them?
Too many people make the grave error of confusing “privately owned passenger vehicles” with “vehicles on the road”, which isn’t remotely true and never was.
I have commented on this before, like in yesterday’s Shitbox Showdown, which seemed to suggest that an E350 and a Chevy 3500 were by far the biggest vehicles on the road.
I don’t see what your comment has to do with this conversation about turn signals on our roadways. I don’t see any reference to privately owned vehicles.
I think I skipped a couple logical steps in my comment.
This report, talking about all mainstream vehicles, includes only typical privately owned passenger vehicles and excludes many vehicles that are more commonly used for commercial purposes, like fullsize vans or in fact anything bigger than a half ton pickup.
I think this is just one example of a wider trend of people totally forgetting that commercial vehicles drive on the road too.
I’ve been adamant that red is fine for turn signals as long as it’s done correctly. It can’t be the brake light, and it also needs to be separate from the rear night lights, or it needs to be clearly identifiable like most sequential ones.
“A red turn signal is fine, as long as it’s not remotely like any existing taillight.”
Not true at all. Look at an Adventador. The main problem with red turn signals isn’t when they are red, it’s that they commonly use a light that is also used for something else; braking, night, something. As a stand alone signal, it’s immediately obvious what is going on, regardless of the color.
Here’s a few that seem perfectly fine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFAJJiWtZ8E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNK9fVpjws8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxBLtx6d6iw
Is this a joke? All three of those videos clearly show amber turn signals. I’m not 100% sure about the Aventador, but both of those Mazdas definitely have amber turn signals, they’re even referenced as such in the report.
Obviously I was exaggerating when I said no existing taillights are like that, but the fact remains that almost every single red turn signal uses the same light for braking and turn signalling, or at least they’re immediately adjacent to each other. And that amber turn signals solve that issue.
Is red/amber even a form of colorblindness, because they all look red to me.
In real videos, the CX60 looks amber. I got tired of looking for Adventador videos because apparently there’s shitty ass looking tail light mods for C7’s.
Third gen Tacoma isn’t bad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxBLtx6d6iw
“done correctly” aka “orange.”
A good piece here Torch. Thanks.
So here is my feeble thought on the amber vs red debate. Over 50 yrs of driving, (legally) I noticed that in bright or intense sunlight that the amber signals were harder to see. Especially above 40mph. And have had/seen some real close calls when it comes to big intersections, turns off of rural highways. And a lot of traffic lights don’t do yellow real well either.
Then a couple of years ago. I learnt that I’m colorblind, so am wondering how this all may work/or not for folks with this issue. Would be interested in learning more about this.
Overall amber is probably the best, if only for the safety aspect.
That reminds me of a poem about a girl named Amber back in the day.
I’m colorblind and I have problems with led lights. If there’s a led traffic light, I stop (or not) based on the position of the light and not the color. I never had problems with turn signals (amber here), but it’s probably due to the blinking.
Did the report compare the number of vehicles sporting rear amber turn signals with the number of women named Amber working in strip clubs? I’m betting the dancers are still ahead.
And there wasn’t woke socialist intrusive legislation mandating a minimum number of Ambers per club, at least as far as I know.
C8 has sequential rear red turn signals (clear lens)!
PS Did you find David or did the Yeti get him?
Still holed up with my dad. They promised they’d watch Harry and the Hendersons with me tonight, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.
I love the dedication of the commenters here.
I am a staunch fan of amber turn signals, even though I only own one vehicle with it.
On that note, while I would like to give Ram credit for going all-amber, I don’t really like their implementation on the LED tail lights. The amber lights up inside the light, and in lower visibility situations like heavy rain or fog, if the taillight and brake light is on the amber becomes very difficult to see.
I’m very pleased that Tesla has switched from red to amber turn signals on the Model S and 3.
And I don’t understand why BMW has turned its back on amber turn signals.
Back in the 1980s and earlier, amber turn signals were generally regarded as a premium/Euro car feature… and were seen as desirable by many including me.
It’s just another example of how BMW lost its way.
BMW’s have turn signals now? When did that happen?
It’s the fault of Biden and libtards in Canada like me!
You see, we here in Canada put our foot down and told BMW “You gotta install turn signals, eh?”. And Biden agreed with us!
So they complied… but they made them red to spite us!!!
What I’m telling you MIGHT not be connected to reality…
Works for me, thanks.
Politics have a connection with reality? News to me
Not really, they’re lights used to tell you when you’re locking / unlocking the car.
I’m glad you’ve also noted the low-slung indicators. I know that’s a whole separate conversation, but someone needs to be tracking that. With the number of lifted vehicles on American roadways it’s especially baffling that anyone is thinking cars sold here should have low turn signals. And why do we mandate the CHMSL and allow low indicators?
My 1972 Super Beetle has taillights mounted down pretty low. I had one guy in a full size SUV, who had been tailgating me, start laying on his horn when I signaled and braked, turning into a parking garage. He pulled up beside me and started yelling who knows what. I thought maybe my taillights were out, as I had that issue once in the past. Nope, they were working just fine. He was just following too damn close to even see them. I’ve since installed LEDs but I’m thinking of adding a bright third brake light below or above my rear window, so people in big cars who follow too close can actually see it. (Although the number of tailgaters I get has dramatically decreased since I added two stickers to my rear window: 0 -> 60 eventually and “the closer you get the slower I go”).
All that to say, low mounted indicator lights are a terrible idea, and I’m sure there’s some owners of such cars who have been in situations like mine, almost hit by someone not expecting a light to be so low.
I think this is a bigger problem than the color, I’ve almost been in at least a couple accidents when people apparently couldn’t see my stupidly bumper mounted turn signals and tried to pass me while I was turning or switching lanes. I understand legally why they are there, since the brake lights are on the hatch, but why not have both lights blink and make it easily visible?
I think they’re a great anti-tailgating feature—never had an issue with noticing them myself. It’s literally a bright-ass flashing light, if you can’t see it because ‘it’s too low’ then you’re objectively too close to the car in front.
I’m not worried about my ability to see it. It’s the pickup behind me with a grill above my rear window that worries me. I’ll go for higher indicators to improve the chances that driver sees me, thanks.
Hey, what my dad always said: if they rear end you, it’s their fault! 😉
I drive a Pete 389 with a hood that is six feet up from the ground and I don’t have a problem with seeing bumper mounted turn signals. But then, if I can’t see your tires where they touch the ground, I feel I’m too close
Yes, that is car at light
That should be how everyone does it. I know we all pick up some bad habits in our lives, but getting up on someone’s bumper when driving is dangerous.
And yet it happens all the time.
Oh, here’s a question for you Jason. Being the taillight aficionado that you are, does it irk you when cars have LED turn signals and/or brake lights in some places but not others? For example, the previous gen Honda Accord had LED brake lights, headlights, and turn signals, but only in the front. The rear turn signals used non-LED filament bulbs. Why would you go through the trouble of adding LED lights, only to cheap out in one spot? This also applied to cars that reserve LED lights for the top trims, like the added safety of instant-on brake lights is a privilege you should pay for.
“Why would you go through the trouble of adding LED lights, only to cheap out in one spot?”
I suspect the answer is the part that does the blinking was/is still set up for the higher current draw of regular bulbs. So if they went with with all LED turn signal lights it would also necessitate changes to the blinker mechanism.
Old style blinkers need a certain amount of electrical draw provided by regular bulbs to work properly. When you greatly reduce the draw by replacing regular bulbs with LEDs, the signal light just goes on and doesn’t blink
Good info.
Thanks, and that makes sense. I guess they figured it out for the current (11th) gen because that one has LEDs everywhere, including the rear turn signals.
Or blinks double-speed to indicate a bulb out on older cars—the ones you might want leds in for better visibility & less current draw.
-had a 26k modem back then: researching stuff was way more of an endeavor
Instant on is not actually added safety – humans react more rapidly to somewhat gradual change (as would be seen in nature) than instant change, particularly in our central vision cone.
That’s interesting. I remember there being a lot of talk around how LED brake lights would be safer when they first started showing up, but I guess it’s easy to obfuscate the truth with marketing fluff.
The idea makes sense, because LEDs hit full intensity faster and thus people can react to them faster, right? But that doesn’t take into account how and what humans react to best, it just assumes that our reaction time is fixed, which simply isn’t true.
There are (were?) a couple vehicles on the market that have both LED and filament bulb brake lights. I think it’s like main brake lights versus CHMSL. It’s fun to watch the LED’s light up before the bulbs.
Ha! I thought I was the only one OCD enough to notice that! Yep, there were a few Ford/Mercury models like that, and the first-gen Hylander, but ONLY on the hybrid models.
This drives me legitimately crazy. Automakers are spending extra money to design and manufacture an entirely different part for North America, rather than use the same part in all markets.
You could reason that in some cases the Euro signal does not meet the dimensional standards for the US market. But those standards have been around for decades, and at any point they could have been factored into designs that work on both continents. And all of that is ignoring the many cases where the Euro part would comply with US regulations.
In short, the auto companies who are saving pennies by replacing physical switches with touchscreens, are the same ones who are wasting dollars by having multiple SKUs for the same part.
Why do you keep calling yellow or orange indicators “amber”?
Freudian slip?
Because the DOT specified they have to be amber. Not yellow, not orange, amber. We common folk are just not smart enough to see the difference I guess
I had no idea there were so many vehicles with red rear turn signals. The vehicles that have separate bulbs for turn signals but still make them red baffles me.
Just to confirm: clear plastic with an amber bulb still counts, correct? My car blinks amber when lit but just looks clear/white the rest of the time.
Cars like the Mustang Mach-e are curious anomalies, where it just looks white until the LEDs light up in either red or amber. The Euro-spec Mustang is the same way, even though it is all red in the US. I assume this has to do with an amber signal mandate?
Euro spec stangs have 3 clear bars in the rear, BUT only one (right/left-most) doubles as turn signal (orange, err, “amber”), and the remaining two are also stop lights. No sequential signal in euro mustangs also. Now the curious thing is, it’s all programmable + some soldering and you can have sequentials in the EU version.