Prius C 2 light settings

I have a Canadian model Prius C on which the daytime running lights come on whenever the car is moving - there's no switch to turn them off. If the DRLs on your car are the same as mine, they're actually a dimmer version of the high beam headlights. (I've always thought that they do this by running the two lights in series from 12V power so that each light gets only 6V, but I don't know if that's actually true).

As such, it's not a good idea to use them at night because they're shining directly into the eyes of oncoming drivers. They're dimmer than full high beams, but at night they're still brighter to oncoming drivers than properly adjusted low beam lights.

Even if that wasn't the case, the amount of electricity saved is a drop in the bucket compared to the other systems and gas used for propulsion, and it really isn't worth obsessing over IMHO.

 

You're certainly doing them a favour by running them in the daytime! At nighttime I believe that low beams are preferable.

 

Very confused about this too. I'm coming from a 1996 Avalon which I had the lights to the topmost setting.

The 17 Prius C has extremely blue white lights that are intensely bright... I was told by the dealer guy to have them on the topmost setting as well when driving at night, but I was a little hesitant to do so because they are so bright.
Because of that I've figured out that the tail light setting (the symbol with two wedge shapes side by side with three bars emanating from either side ) are basically the head lights but dimmer. Also they shut off automatically when you open your door after shutting off the vehicle, which the headlights do not. So I'm using the parking light setting (next to topmost) for now, which are still extremely bright.

 

"Head lights but dimmer" are the daytime running lights. If you park at night in front of a wall so that you can see the patterns cast by your headlights, you'll see that the daytime running lights, although dimmer, project light ahead of you in a pattern that reaches higher than if you turn on the lights all the way so that the low beams are on. The low beam lights have a very sharp cutoff so that light doesn't project upward into the eyes of oncoming drivers. The daytime running lights, although dimmer, will be shining into the eyes of oncoming drivers. Not a problem during the day, but not so good at night, IMHO.

 

Good to know. I'll keep that in mind