Way back in 2023, I called out Chevrolet for some significant design problems with the Chevy Bolt’s taillights, which used an idiotic method that was so confusing at least one owner resorted to printing special stickers they applied to the car that explained to confused drivers just what the hell the taillights did. I can’t think of a worse or more embarassing condemnation of a taillight design than that, where owners are having to make their own add-on explainer stickers.
The issue with these taillights – and I should note, it’s not just the Bolt that is guilty of the particular error I’m about to describe, also in the GM stable is the Buick Envista and some Kias and Hyundais, too – is that the brake and turn indicators are set very low on the bumper, while a larger, more obvious set of taillights that are just restricted to the running lights, are above, set in locations that one normally expects to see full taillights.
This arrangement is, as you likely have noticed for yourself, confusing and frustrating.
I mean, just look at these stickers that poor Bolt owner had to resort to:
Appalling!
While all of these taillight designs are embarrassing failures, it’s worth remembering that there really is no better teacher than failure, and our pals over at GM seem to have finally understood the assignment. I say this because the 2027 Chevy Bolt finally puts the brake lights and indicators in a place where real human beings know where to look:
…and here’s some confirmation from an outside source; I also thought it was good for you to hear a normal, well-adjusted person mention this, so you’d know it’s not just a beef with taillight obsessives like myself:
See? it’s not just me!
Also significant is that the Buick Envista also appears to have updated taillights that move these important lights to a reasonable location, at least that’s what appears to be happening based on spy shots of a partially-disguised 2027 Buick Envista.
The point of all of this is that, sometimes, kvetching and griping about something works. I believe that GM had noted all of the people complaining about the poor taillight design, and when the time came to give the Bolt a face (and butt) lift, they made a change.
The system works, people! Now if we can only get Hyundai/Kia to cave into the pressure! Keep fighting the good fight!
Top photo: GM
Everytime I see a car with the brake lights in the bumper and fake brake lights up top, I get pissed off.
I avoid driving behind the old EUVs just so I don’t get tricked. The big prob with the EUV was that it //looked// as if it had normal brake lights at the belt line. Unlike the El Camino, which had no poser lamps up high that never illuminate.
Good on GM for listening. And also, what were they thinking on a compact, econo EV desigining it with the stupid clamshell hatch? Unnecessary design frippery.
I wonder if they hammered out this breakthrough at CHarMSschooLs, the new bistropub that caters to the, shall we say, posterior-focused amongst us.
Certainly not the only vehicle like this, right or wrong.
I have one of these Bolt EVs with the stupid low lights (a 2023), and I fixed it with dual intensity brake light modules that makes the “taillights” light up with the brake light, and dims them when just on taillight mode. Definitely helps out as now I have 5 brake lights.
Putting lights low in the bumper is just unsafe. Period.
Another thing that was figured out a long time ago.
The low bumper mount stop lights I think started with Audi, or the like. They wanted a clamshell liftgate. Since you can drive a car with the liftgate open (e.g. carrying an oversized load), then the break lights cannot legally be on the lift gate.
For the cars with a liftgate covers the entire back (clamshell design), the stop lights have to be in the bumper. Now it has become the style.
I don’t like it and would rather have the Bolts (and cars like it) have brake lights at a normal location, but I guess I can “Tie an Onion to my Belt” like anyone else.
This has been a solved problem for years (decades?). Put stop lights inside the trunk/hatch so you can see them with the lift gate up. It costs less than replacing a bumper with integrated brake lights when you get rear ended.
I replied above as well, but there has to be some regulation that the brake lights must be fixed. Also, having a more expensive bumper cover (and easier to total out vehicle) is a plus for an automaker. Makes it more likely you buy another car after a crash.
There has to be some sort of regulation that the brake lights are non-movable, such that you can’t simply have 2 sets. I’m guessing for style and wiring reasons they didn’t want the hatch lights to also be brake lights, so they were only running lights.
Whatever the reason it’s not difficult to mount the brake lights outboard of the hatch (like the new car), rather than down in the bumper cover.
I really liked and miss my Chevrolet Bolt EUV with SuperCruise. The one thing that I really didn’t like was the taillamps.
Also… I expect to see a story soon from Jason highlighting the awesomeness of the tail lights of the 4th and 5th generation El Camino….
“ I mean, just look at these stickers that poor Bolt owner had to resort to”
Dude forgot one sticker. Of all the non-issues I will read about today, this might be the non-issue-est.
I have owned a Bolt for 7 years in Chicago and have never once been close to being rear ended… because of the high mountain center brake light. Statistics please. Are Bolts rear ended more than other cars?
Agreed. Most of the drivers around me only use their turn signal when they want to merge/ask for permission to get over a lane. It’s not just BMW drivers, it’s most drivers.
The only information I really need is if someone is braking in front of me and the high mountain (poking at you’re auto fill) brake lights fulfill that job.
I may be the nations preeminent AutoCorrect victim
Did GM really revise the 2027 Bolt tail lights even though it’s supposed to get killed off half way through the year? Are they extending Bolt production?
I think they over-produced and had one production run. What has been built will hold them over until their next gen BEV product rolls out in 2028.
I don’t understand why there aren’t regulations or guidelines that are very specific about this. And if there are, they are far too broad…
I suspect there are regulations to this and that is why they ended up there.
Do you mean the early design or the late design or both? I’d love for Jason to do a deep dive on how regulations could possibly cause either scenario. C’mon JT
I think both. I think there are regulations and putting them in the bumper satisfy them.
I have never noticed that, but now I’m belatedly angry.
Now fix the Buick. When I first saw one, I was like WHY? https://preview.redd.it/im-totally-calling-out-general-motors-buick-for-vehicles-v0-7lctbzeb4vmd1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b5950004a84860913148577d15275188d006616b
A pet peeve of mine. I hate these so much that it would be a deal-breaker for me. I wouldn’t buy a car with those low mount lights.
Agreed. First time i saw i said, add this to my NO buy list
Same. HATE them. I get angry when I see them because it just makes me think of corporate america and regulations and all the idiocy involved with both.
THANK GOD. Those old lights fill me with (an unreasonably huge amount of) rage.
Now on to the next burning issue…..has GM quit making the reverse lights turn on when parked?! Worst. Light. Decision. Ever. Aside from the above. Reverse lights tell me you are reversing. Not that you parked 5 minutes ago and are already in the store.
Replying in solidarity! This reverse-light-misuse should be, and I’m not even kidding, illegal. These lights have meaning, people!
Wishing I could upvote this dozens of times.
This bothers me way, way more than the low-mounted brake and turn signals.
I really want to know why they did it in the first place. Man, that would be some great insight.
I know a car stylist who designed the rear number plate feature too small to fit a number plate on because he thought it looked better. That got to production tooling.
And one who forgot the rear plate needed lights until after the rear had been signed off.
For every Adrian there are a dozen bumbling morons.
The answer is in the hatch door. Look above, the whole light fixture is on the hatch. US law requires brake and turn on fixed parts. They can extend across the movable and fixed, but only the fixed are used to meet US requirements. Putting the whole freaking fixture on the door required them to move the brake/turn functions elsewhere, ie: the bumper. Numerous other hatches do the same but only with turn signals as they keep the brake portion on the outer non-movable body work. Not so here.
That said, I think it is past time the US updates this rule. Or everyone goes full Buick Cascada and puts an extra set of lights under the hatch door!
And for anyone jumping in on the, “but you need brakes and turn signals somewhere if the door is open because you’re moving something large,” I get it. Still annoyed by what it drives car companies to do to remain compliant.
On the original Bolt, the lights were on the hatch, but the EUV where the guy added stickers, there are fixed lighting elements on either side of the hatch that could have been used as brake lights and conformed with people’s expectations.
This can’t be it because the original Bolt EV had the brake lights on the rear hatch, but if the hatch opens, they move to the bumper (it has red/amber/white lights in the bumper). My newer Bolt EV (23 w/ these stupid low lights) move the taillight from the hatch to the lower bumper lights when the hatch is open that are just used as brake/turns normally.
GM actually making a smart improvement to a volume model feels strange. What did they have to break in the car to make this happen? My anxiety is palpable!
GM’s thing seems to be about the teeny little intense lights these days. My wife’s Equinox EV is the same. I sort of hate it.
A severe design faux pas. Brake lights belong up high, where those human eyeballs behind you are hopefully looking. What idiot signed off on the old design?
Why did this trend start in the first place?
Now if the Mini’s Union Jack taillights didn’t look like arrows pointing in the opposite direction of the actual turn…
I thought they fixed that a few years ago?
Welcome, person from the past. Mini fixed this like 6 years ago.
Maybe a lot of old ones are on the road, or they’re the ones I notice.
Hyundai/Kia are particularly obnoxious with this. So many of their cars have their main lights down on the bumper. WHY?!
I hate those. I was recently arguing with mouth breathers on Reddit about those Kias and Hyundais and that when you are stopped at a light, if you are driving a tall car yourself, your hood hides the turn signals and the answers were “oh but you shouldn’t be that close to the car in front”. I’m not tailgating FFS, I’m stopped behind the car in front! I can’t leave 1 full car length of room, who the fuck does this? Could you imagine the lines if everybody waiting at a light or a traffic jam left so much room?
My 2021 Toyota Venza was such an offender.