Knobs vs stalks, reasons why Asian and German carmakers can't agree on headlight controls

If you’ve driven a wide variety of cars, you will notice that one of the biggest differences with German cars is their insistence on a using rotary knob to control exterior lighting. This knob is usually positioned at the lower side of the dashboard, out of sight, making it difficult for newbies.

Japanese cars on the other hand, have a much more user-friendly steering rack-mounted control stalk. Why would you have a separate control for the headlamps when you can integrate the function into the signal stalk?

It’s not a German versus Asian car thing, because French and Italian (pre-Fiat Chrysler Alliance ones) cars also use steering-mounted stalks, as are the Koreans and the Chinese.

So it is the Germans who are being weird but it’s not because the Germans don’t play well with others. Even up until the ‘80s, the Germans can’t agree among themselves how one should operate a car’s headlights. Different German companies have different preferences for light control.

Mercedes-Benz preferred rotary knobs, VW insisted on using toggle switches, Audi being Audi, was making things unnecessarily complicated by using both knobs and switches. BMW on the other hand, had different lighting control for different models.

The E30 3 Series for example, was using pull-out knobs which you can also turn to adjust the instrument panel’s brightness. You would expect that BMW, famed for being one of the earliest European carmakers to share parts and engines across a wide range of models, to at least standardised light controls on their own cars.

Nope. The E34 5 Series uses a completely different control from the E30 3 Series, despite sharing the same M20 engine. Instead of push-pull knob in the E30, the E34 5 Series had a toggle switch which you move up / down, with a separate scroller for instrument brightness.

Until today, BMW still haven't quite figure out how to control headlights. Late model BMWs had knobs but the recent models are reverting back to buttons.

Before we explain further, it is important to explain why light controls on a German car is unnecessarily complicated.

Parking lights, why German drivers demand them

Despite being the richest country in Europe, streetlights in Germany are placed very far apart. Streets and residential areas are very dark at night. It’s something which I never found an answer to.

Many Germans also park on the street’s side. Combined with how poorly lit the streets are, especially in cold winter nights, parking lights (you know, the dimmed headlights mode that you never quite know what are they for) are necessary.

On a Japanese car, turning the light control stalk to parking lights mode will light up 4 lights – two front and two rear, plus the instrument panel. This drains the battery unnecessarily.

German drivers want an option to turn on only one side of the parking lights, without lighting up the instrument panel.

This, combined with harsh weather conditions that require front and rear fog lights, and the Germans having the most developed sense of safety and responsibility when operating a car, meant that German drivers demand more functions from their car’s headlamps and tail lamps.

Many Germans, will leave their parking lights on overnight if their car is parked on the street, especially in a rural area.

A Japanese-style steering column-mounted stalk don’t offer enough positions to integrate that many functions, hence the need for alternatives.

In the end, Mercedes-Benz’s rotary dial knob method prevailed (until BMW went back to using buttons), probably because Mercedes-Benz is Germany’s most technically advanced carmaker and it also sells a very high number of taxis, which also meant that adopting Mercedes-Benz’s solution is cheaper given its greater economy of scale.

Why is it placed so low then?

At this point, you are probably wondering why is the rotary knob placed so low and out of sight. 

I don't know the answer to that question, but if I were to guess, I would say it is a reflection of Mercedes-Benz's way of thinking, and the intellectual baggage that it - as the world's oldest carmaker (Peugeot's bicycles don't count) - is subsconsciously carrying.

Traditionally, most cars have their light controls placed on the dashboard, at a level below the instrument panel.

So that location naturally became the starting point for Mercedes-Benz engineers in the '60s developing a better solution to control headlights, enabling multi-mode functions.

Also, the back of a dashboard is an incredibly complicated place, housing air-conditioning piping bent at weird angles, cooling coils crammed in, with wire looms snaking in every direction. The lower section is one of the easier place to install a light control knob.  

But if the rotary knob is a cheaper solution that is backed by a technologically superior company, then why Japanese carmakers like Toyota or Honda are still using steering-mounted stalks?

Well the answer is that Toyota once adopted rotary knobs too, for the AE86 Toyota Corolla Levin / Trueno, likewise for the Mitsubishi Lancer Fiore.

As you would expect from the Japanese, they did one step better than Mercedes-Benz and placed the knob at eye-level for easy operation, effectively fixing the biggest problem with Mercedes-Benz’s method.

In the AE86 Toyota Corolla Levin / Trueno, the knob is on the dashboard, facing the driver. In the Mitsubishi Lancer Fiore, the knob is flipped right-angle, so you operate it in a more natural manner, as it’s easier for your hands to turn a knob forward-backward, rather than left-right. Small details that the Japanese won’t miss.

But after just one generation, these controls were quickly dropped by Toyota and Mitsubishi, reverting back to traditional steering-mounted lighting control stalks.

Why? Because Japanese drivers turn their headlamps on-off very often, way more often than a typical German driver and a rotary knob, even when positioned at eye-level and made with the greatest care in ergonomics, is just one-step too far for their fingers and the extra effort yielded little benefit.

So why do the Japanese have to turn their headlamps on-off so often? Because they are just a lot more courteous than the Germans.

From a young age, the Japanese are thought to be considerate of others, and that includes not glaring pedestrians with their car’s bright headlamps.

Japanese cities are very congested and their cities stay alive well into the night, so plenty of pedestrians will cross traffic light junctions even if it’s already late at night.

It is customary for drivers of vehicles lining up at traffic lights, especially those in front of the queue, to dim down their headlights to avoid glaring pedestrians.

When the lights turn green, these drivers will turn on their main beams once more and accelerate away. They do the same when approaching pedestrian crossings.

The next time you travel to Japan, observe how their cars switch between main beams and parking lights. Taxis often wait in line with their lights dipped, likewise for cars stopped before pedestrian crossings.

Given such different usage habits, Japanese drivers overwhelmingly prefer an easy-to-reach stalk behind the steering wheel.

But the irony about Japan is that Japanese drivers will not be pleased if their domestic car manufacturers adopt a German-style knob-type control, but they will happily drive a Mercedes-Benz. This is brand power at work.

So what about the Koreans and the French then? The French are neighbours to the Germans, so why do French cars use stalk-type light controls then?

Well, drivers in Seoul and Paris are certainly not as courteous as the ones in Tokyo, so nobody dim their headlights for pedestrians. It’s not a practice there, but they use stalks anyway.

Stalk-type light controls are also cheaper to make, with simpler wiring. Having separate controls for the turn signals and headlights would just double the component count and add greater complexity to the wiring diagram.

Also, early Korean cars were based on Japanese ones, so they were heavily influenced by Japanese vehicle architecture.

Daewoo (now General Motors Korea) started by assembling Toyota Corona (under Shinjin Motors) while Kia’s first car was based on the Mazda Familia (predecessor to Mazda 3). Early Hyundai models were developed with licensed technology from Mitsubishi.

Also read: Once poorer than Malaysia, how Korea’s car industry progressed further than ours?

As for the French, that’s a bit harder to answer. Or perhaps there is just no answer. Like many things with French cars, it’s just the way it is, without any deep reason behind it.

Remember the Citroen CX? It had neither stalks (not even turn signal stalks) nor knobs, but buttons on the dashboard, even for the turn signals. Since the turn signals are toggle buttons operated, it won’t self-cancel after you complete a turn. The French, got to love their way of thinking.

Meanwhile, the Italians at Alfa Romeo and Fiat were using Japanese-style stalks until they merged with Chrysler, so now all FCA cars use rotary knob for its light control.

While French and Italian streets are not any better lit than German streets, this doesn’t concern their drivers so parking lights is not something that they care about.

In a country where it is acceptable to gently bump and hit parked cars to get into a tight parking spot, no one is going to be overly concerned about visibility of a parked car on a poorly lighted street.

Having said all of the above, the Japanese custom of dimming down the headlamps when there are pedestrians is no longer strictly followed.

Japan is now an aging society and the police actually discourage drivers from dimming their headlamps, because there have been too many instances of drivers forgetting to turn on their main beams when they resume driving.

In fact, the police is reminding drivers that it is an offence to drive with parking lights instead of main beams, but since the practice is so deeply embedded into their culture, this is not a rule that is actively enforced.

The reason why carmakers cannot agree on a common method for controlling headlamps, a very fundamental part of driving, reflects how diverse our world is, and how different people in different parts of the world have their own unique requirements for their cars.

If you think about it deeper, this is also why it's incredibly difficult to build a car that can satisfy buyers in every market. It's not a question of pursuing perfection, but manufacturers are often forced to prioritize the needs of certain groups of buyers over others, and sometimes their needs will clash, and it's a business decision to pick one option over another.

Meanwhile, as for us Malaysians, there’s no need to talk about such high ideals of driving habits.

Drivers here aren’t even using turn signals, and don’t understand why they need to turn on their headlights when they enter a multi-storey car park complex. And woe to you if you reverse or pull out from behind a pillar and didn’t notice their approaching car. And don’t get us started on rear fog lamps.

Speaking of stalks, Japanese cars have signal stalks on the right-side while German cars have it on the left-side, and that's because it's a right-hand drive vs left-hand drive arrangement? Not true. That's one of the biggest myths in the car world. Find out more here.