Hidden Headlamps

Podcast Episode: 0252
What was the purpose of Pop-Up Headlights?

       ​What if you could experience the charm and innovation of pop-up headlights, a beloved relic from automotive history, all over again? Join us as we take you on a nostalgic ride through the captivating evolution of these iconic headlights that once defined 

​eras of classic car design. From the groundbreaking moment at the 1935 New York Auto Show with the Cord 812 to the revolutionary power-actuated headlights in the 1938 Buick Y-Job concept, we promise you'll uncover fascinating stories about how these headlights became legends, only to be eventually replaced by modern lighting technologies.

         I think the band Powerman 5000 said it best "Supernova goes pop", that word pop can make you think of many things like pop, pop music and popcorn. There's lots of things out there with pop in them, but in the automotive industry, when you think of the word pop, you think of one thing and something that's actually disappeared, except it slightly reappeared on some brand-new vehicles. We're talking about pop-up headlights. I was first introduced to them when I was five years old Now. I'd seen them on other vehicles, but I never understood them. My first interaction with them was when I was five and as a friend of my family's and their son brought us down to show us his dad's car, his 1987 Firebird, with flip-up headlights. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I was amazed by it and I wanted to see it. After seeing it, I wanted to see it more and I wanted my dad to get one. I wanted pop-up headlights. They were cool, but in all reality, with laser lights and HIDs and bubble lights now coming in in the 90s, pop-up headlights were on their way out. In today's market we don't see them anymore, and why is that? Well, there's a few companies that are still kicking them around, and today AutoLooks is going to be taking a look at pop-up headlights.
 
       Welcome back to the AutoLooks Podcast. I am your host, as always, the doctor to the automotive industry, Mr. Everett Jay, coming to you from our host website at AutoLooks.net. If you haven't been there, stop by, check it out. Read some of the reviews, check out some of the ratings. Go to the corporate links website page. Big or small, we have them all car companies from around the globe all in one spot at the AutoLooks.net website. The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by PodBean.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over at [email protected]. 

So, like I said in the beginning, pop-up headlights. Now, for me, the word pop has many different meanings. When I hear pop, if I'm hungry I think of popcorn. If I think of nostalgia, I think of one of my favorite shows from when I was a kid VH1. Pop-up video yeah, that was great. You learn so much stuff about bands, all the history behind them and everything else all from pop-up video. It was cool. But those pop-up headlights on that 87 Firebird that I saw when I was a child always stuck with me and I loved them and I always wondered where they came from and why they were here.
 
Well, essentially, pop-up headlights were first seen in 1935. Yes, we're going back to 1935. The New York Auto Show, to be exact, the original Autorama or Auto Show, as we all know in North America, one of the pioneers of the automotive shows from around the globe the New York Auto Show that year 1935, showcased a Cord 812. It had a handcrafted mechanism that you used the landing lights from a Stinson airplane so you can pop them out. Oh yeah, you can hide them. It was to create a cleaner look to the vehicle. And you got to remember 1935, we were just starting to get away from that original buggy design that we started with. We're starting to move into cleaner features on our automobiles.
 
And somebody had the great idea why don't we hide the headlights? Headlights are these big round things that stick out right in everybody's faces. Why don't we try and hide them? So, Cord gave it a whirl. By utilizing those landing lights from a stinted airplane and using that hand crank mechanism, they managed to make the headlights disappear. This essentially gave shock to the world. Oh my God, where are the headlights on this car? They've disappeared. It was amazing, it was new, it was something that people were intrigued by, but unfortunately it would still take some time before the masses would be hit with it.
 
     You have to remembers the original design had a hand crank mechanism and we're talking about Cord.  Cords were luxury vehicles. Luxury people just want to be able to push a button, not use a hand crank. Remember it's the 30's and we just got our of the hand crank days. We're getting to the days where you can put a key in, turn it over and drive. You don't get to crank this thing. 

      By 38 Buick showcased its Y-Job concept with the first true power-actuated pop-up headlights. Although it was a concept, it used a mechanical hydraulic lift system for the lights. It made it so that at a push of a button your headlights could appear. We all know how important headlights are to our automobiles and we need them to be there. But you have to remember, in the early days of automobiles we had small, round headlights for the longest time. We thought that was the only way we could essentially project light ahead of us. We didn't think we could do it with square. We didn't think we could do it with oval. We didn't think we could do it with any generalized form. Lights had to be round because light bulbs were round and essentially a light bulb is reflecting off of what's behind it. So, in a sense we all needed round headlights. But pop-up headlights made it so that our vehicles could be more streamlined, look better and freak people out.
 
         When they popped up, just like the original convertibles, being able to take the top off the vehicle, or even when they started adding doors full-scale doors, mirrors, every single thing. When it started to be added to vehicles, all intrigued people, and pop-up headlights were one of them. But why did this stick around for so long? Well, essentially, technology is what kept it around for so long and technology is what killed it in the end. Now, the use of a hydraulic system or a hand crank system was what you had found in the early days. So, the early days of pop-up headlights, from 1935 all the way up until the early 60s so nearly 30 years they never really took off. It was a great thing for luxury vehicles that people would be willing to pay an extra amount for, but due to the cumbersome operating systems of pop-up headlights, not a lot of people really got into them. It really wasn't until the electric system of operation took over.
 
       Electrically operated pop-up headlights Essentially push a button and they pop out nice easy. You don't have to worry about fluids or anything else. This gave rise to the pop-up headlights. In 1962, the first mainstream production car was released with pop-up headlights. 
 
         Being an entry-level product for an early pioneer of the sports car industry, the Lotus Elan gave us pop-up headlights to the masses. They were what originally was the pop-up headlight. That's where it all started from. Well, in the mainstream, you got to got to remember 1935, 810 cord is where it started, but 62, the Lotus Lawn really gave us what we all wanted. We wanted that electrically operated pop-up headlight that anybody can do, and now that it was an electric system its costs could be brought down. It could be brought more into the masses.
 
          So essentially, the 60s became the decade of change for the automobile industry.  A lot of things started happening by the late 40s when people were getting back from World War II. They'd come back, they'd settle down, they'd have families and they'd start to have kids. The beginning of the baby boom happened and with that this giant bubble of children exploded in many parts of the world and the baby boom generation was first moving through and getting into automobiles in the early 60s. Now, why did things start changing in the 1960s?

      So, the 50s, we had amazing designs of automobiles, big, burly vehicles. We had V8s, we had V10s, we had six cylinders, we had four cylinders. We went from the small to the very large, and just about everything else. What can change so drastically? Well, the 60s, we started realizing we needed more safety. We started realizing we need better fuel consumption. We started realizing we can use electronic systems instead of these big, burly hydraulic systems for both the convertible roofs and now headlights. Stereos becoming more mainstay and now the introduction of FM radio. More people wanted music in their vehicles. We get it, music has always been there in our cars, but we wanted more speakers. Customizing really started taking off in the 60s and the baby boom generation is really what spawned a lot of this creativity and introduction of new technology into the automotive world.
 
      In the 60s, where it all started, Pop-up headlights being started in 1962, with the Lotus Elan started showcasing what we can do to hide our headlights.  Remember back then we had to use round headlights for the longest period of time. It was a regulation for the automobile industry. They had to be round. Now, when we hit the 80s, we realized we can make them into square headlights and that became the regulation for automobiles. But by the early 90s we started realizing we could turn those things into bubbles, make any design we wanted, and that is when the pop-up headlight industry started disappearing. Because we can make headlights any design and nearly any size, why do we need to hide them? Hiding our headlights is something we did to try and reduce drag on the automobile. If you remember the original Ford GT that was used at Le Mans, if you go back and watch the movie Ford versus Ferrari and you take a look at the front end of that Ford GT, you'll understand what I'm talking about when I say you need to hide headlights. 

      Vehicles for the masses. Headlights were always exposed, they were out front, they were right there and they would always create a massive amount of drag. Now in the 60s you started getting more square box designs, so you're starting to inset them a bit, put them in with the grill, so essentially, the air could be coned into the center and cool off your engine. Well, that's all fine and dandy, but when you're getting into the sports car industry, you can't add this massive grill to it. So how are you going to deal with these headlights? Well, a lot of car companies hid them or they would use a retraction system to be exposed, but they wouldn't be out completely for you to be able to see everything down the road. So, unlike today, where we can basically create a laser light, a very thin line on the front of our vehicle for a daytime running light and then have any design we want for our headlights.
 
      Back then we were mandated to use these round headlights and, getting back to the Ford GT part, if you take a look at the front end of that vehicle, those headlights are encased in a glass enclosure. A lot of race cars did this because they knew and understand drag and by having those lights there which they needed because they're racing during the day and night. So, they needed the headlights. They needed to have the most efficient design for their automobile. They needed to be as aerodynamic as possible and the only way to do this when you have big, flabby, round headlights on the front of your vehicle is to either hide them away or cover them with a bubble. It's essentially how bubble lights got started. We encased them. Now, this wouldn't really make it out to the masses because to access those headlights and change them would cost you fortune to do it, so a very limited amount of vehicles went to this. 

      The other option Pop-up headlights. We did this to hide them away. Now some vehicles eventually down the line would have daytime running lights that hid behind a glass enclosure but then also have pop-up headlights for nighttime. The F40 and Lamborghini Countach are top priority when it comes to this. If you take a look at them, you always think that a Ferrari F40, you could see its headlights exposed at all times. But no, they're hidden behind those headlights. Those are daytime running lights or essentially, fog lights. Your pop-up headlights are your actual nighttime visibility light fixture and they pop out. They hide them Because Ferrari knows during the daytime, when you're at the track, you need to go as fast as possible and have the best coefficient of drag against your vehicle.
 
       You need to ensure that there is nothing sticking out causing extra downforce on the exterior design of that vehicle, and that's why they hid them away. That's why a lot of these car companies hid them away, and they found very ingenious ways to hide them. See, it wasn't just pop-up headlights that were making waves in the 1960s. People were trying all kinds of different things to try and hide headlights. And now that we can actually get the front ends of our vehicles closer to the ground, create less drag on the front end to allow the movement of air over top of it, thus increasing our fuel consumption and being able to possess faster rates of speed, the sports car industry started paving the way for the new pop-up headlight generation.
 
       Now, originally, before there were either doors that opened and closed in front of the headlights or they popped out like the Buick Y-Job. It was essentially hidden away but it popped out slowly. Well, the Lotus Elan were hidden on the front and they did. Like most of them that you remember, they popped up. You know, the Mazda Miata’s pop up, the Corvettes from the 1980s pop up, F-40, Countach pop up. They all popped out. How that firebird I saw pop-up headlights. My mom had a Plymouth Laser back in the day, pop-up headlights. But what's something that happens down the road with your pop-up headlights? The motors go on them and then either one or both of the headlights are stuck up. You start noticing that you're losing fuel mileage. It's all because you have that extra drag on the front of your vehicle. Now, the one thing they never really took into consideration when they're making pop-up headlights is maybe the pop-up part up behind it should have been more in line with an angular design of the front of the vehicle, thus decreasing the amount of drag when your headlights were up. This is something we think about today, but this is years after and we're going to get into new companies utilizing that ability for new pop-up headlights. 

         After the Lotus Elan 1968, we had the second iteration of the pop-up headlight. We had the rollovers, and if you don't know what the rollover headlight is, well, take a look at the Panther Solo or Opel GT. The headlights didn't pop out, they rolled over, literally rollover. Go online, look for a video of the Opel GT a 68 Opel GT and watch the headlights roll over. It's the coolest thing you'll ever see. First time I ever showed my wife this as an auto show, I said, yeah, these are the Opel GTs, it's got the rollover headlights. And the guy's there and he's like oh, you want me to show you them and he did it. Like my wife was astonished. She'd like never seen anything like that. Oh my God that rolled over. They were very cool.
 
     But what happens when the system fails? Something breaks Like a pop-up headlight. They usually just come up and then get stuck up Roll over headlights. If something breaks, they can literally just keep rolling around in there. But got to remember it's a sports car. A lot of people who buy sports cars get into the industry at a young age, buy them, drive them as hard as they want, kill them and throw them out into the garbage. Years later they want to find them again and rebuild them because they want to relive their younger days. They should have just kept it.
 
       After that we get what we call the half grill. If you don't know what the half grill is, a 1970 Alfa Romeo Montreal has half grill headlights. It's essentially just an eyelid. You're slightly tired, You're just like uh, okay, I'm just a little bit tired here. You don't close your eyes the whole way, so you could still see somewhat of your eye, but not all of his exposed. And the Alfa Romeo Montreal did this. It's kind of weird because it's like why didn't you just fully hide them away? But when you look at the front-end design of the Montreal, it goes with it. They essentially just have the half because the grill it. It comes across with the grill, but since you need to expose your headlights at nighttime, they decided to make a half door roll up to expose the headlights behind it, because they wanted a clean look. That's essentially what pop-up headlights, or any iteration of the pop-up headlight industry, is meant to do to give you a clean look.
 
        Then there's one of my favorites, one of the ones that people know about the most. Okay, there is the Hideaway Grill. The 1966 Camaro and 69 Charger were famous for these. If you look at the front end of a 69 Charger, you always ask yourself, when you're looking at them and watching it, Fast and Furious or Duke's Hazard you're like where the hell are the headlights? And when I was a kid, for the longest time I never knew where the headlights were until I actually saw somebody turn their headlights on and watch this little door go. It's just like the half door on the Alfa Romeo Montreal, but it's fully covered. So, essentially, the whole front of your vehicle can be designed the way you want it.
 
       They did this because they wanted front end design to look seamless. And how can you do that at a time when you can't create headlights of any size or layout, you hide them away, and that's what they did. They literally hid them behind the front grill. Now, that's just a hideaway grill with one door. There was the double door which you could find on the original Buick Riviera oh yeah, that big luxury brute powerhouse from Buick. Oh yeah, the Riviera was an amazing car, but they had a double fold headlight because they were on the side. It was almost like tail fins on the front of the Buick Riviera and this had two door options. It would have one that would move up. So halfway through on the headlight, where it was about to be exposed, half of it went up and half of it went down to expose your headlight hidden behind that front cone.
 
      This was an intriguing contraption, because they wanted to hide their headlights, but they also wanted to create an eye-catching design, and you can't do that with standard round headlights. I get it. There were lots of cars before. I'm literally talking to you right now and I got the Playmobil Mercedes 300 SL right in front of me and, yeah, they had round headlights encased in a chrome accent on the front of the vehicle, made to blend in with the design. But that's how we did it up until the days of pop-up headlights. We found ways to incorporate them into our designs, but essentially, we couldn't taper the front hood down far enough to make our vehicles go that much faster. When pop-up headlights came into play, we were able to because we could drop them below the hood line. See the 300SL years later, when it got into the bubble lights of the 1980s, the hoods were a lot shorter than they were in the 1950s. Now they didn't have pop-up headlights, they used bubble lights, but they still were able to utilize better design for better aerodynamics. 

       Now, after the hideaway grille, you have what's called the rolling headlights. Now the Mercury Cougar 1967 Mercury Cougar had these. You may think that they're very similar to what the Charger and Camaro had, but the Charger and Camaro had the headlights were stationary, it was only the grill that disappeared. Same with the Buick Riviera it's the grill that opened up along the side the 67 Mercury Cougar the headlights were behind the front grill. So, if you turn them on when they're on, that would be shining into your engine bay. Great thing when you're working on vehicles. Okay, if you can actually bypass the system. When you're working on a 69 Mercury Cougar, you can literally use the headlights to see inside the engine bay while you're working. It is the coolest thing ever. Go online, there's those whole kinds of videos that tell you how to do this, and a lot more vehicles would be great if they actually had headlights in the engine bay. But the Mercury Cougar did, because its headlights were hidden behind the grill. So, when you flip them over, the grill would flip over, with the headlights exposed on the other side. Bam, there you go. It's essentially a door, you know, kind of like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where him and his dad would keep rolling through the room that they're in that catches fire, and then the other room with all the Nazis just moving around right. That's basically what the Mercury Cougar revolving headlights are doing.
 
      Then you have what's called the drop-down or concealed headlights of the Aston Martin Bulldog of 1980 or the 1992 Jaguar XJ220. Now what do we mean by this? The drop-down or concealed headlights? If you can't picture those two cars right now, then go to the website AutoLooks.net, look for this podcast about pop-up headlights and you'll see pictures of these things. Okay, the Aston Martin Bulldog essentially the headlights were in the center of the front end of the hood. They were closer to the windshield than they were to the front grille. But what it was? When you need to expose the headlight, the headlights didn't pop out. No, the area in front of the headlight would drop down, kind of like the XJ220. Its headlights were concealed, almost like Buick Riviera, in the side sill. Essentially the front arches and the door would drop down to expose the headlight behind it.
 
       Now, these were amazing things, because a lot of people looked at it and said what the hell are the headlights? Okay, we get it, this is a great concept vehicle or this is a great supercar, but where are your headlight? You have to be able to drive around at night. You can't sell a vehicle without any headlight, okay, unless you're building for a very specific purpose, like a track-orientated vehicle or something only made to go in and around, like a golf course. You need to have headlights for the streets. Well, they just found another ingenious way to make it happen. They had a drop-down concealed door. Essentially, the headlights were there, but the headlights were literally a door in front which is drop-down, exposing them to the world outside. Our next one was one of the weirdest ones you'd ever seen. 

       Toyota has built one incredible sports car long before the Toyota Supra. You can essentially say this vehicle helped create the design, the appeal and even the feel of the Toyota Supra. You can essentially say this vehicle helped create the design, the appeal and even the feel of the Toyota Supra. We're talking about the 67. Toyota 2000 GT only came as a coupe model, except for one instance in its life, In the movie you Only Live Twice from James Bond. We talked about this in our James Bond podcast. If you want to go back and listen to it the vehicles of James Bond you can learn about this vehicle. Toyota 2000 GT only ever had one convertible model made. It was made for a James Bond movie. They never released it to the public.
 
       All standard coupe models came with what they call the pop out headlights. They're essentially on the side of the vehicle and they popped out from the sides. Essentially, your front fender flares are where your headlights were and they popped out from the side of your vehicle. It was a very intriguing thing. But you also have to remember this was also a mid-engine car with a front engine layout, so they had lots of space to play with when they're trying to hide their headlights away.
 
        Now, why would you do something like this? Why wouldn't you just make them pop out of the hood? Why wouldn't you use a glass encasement? Why would you make them pop out of the side? Well, Toyota wanted to do something different, and they actually found it a lot easier to make them pop out of the side of the vehicle than to pop out of the top. Why? Because the pressure that you have to use to push them out from the side of the vehicle as opposed to out of the hood was a lot less so to do this, they made it for the 2000 GT and they gave it its own image, which was amazing. It's kind of like the Opel GTs with the rollover lights.
 
      There are very few vehicles out there that have ever had that specific form of headlight. Not unlike the next one, the original Lamborghini Miura had the pop out headlight Now pop out, pop out headlight. So essentially, the headlights were exposed. You could see them resting on the front hood and if you look at the front of a Lamborghini Miura or a 77 Porsche 928, you'll see that the headlights are literally sitting on the front of the vehicle. There are headlights. Okay, I just turned them on and away I go. No, those headlights actually have to be, because you have to remember. All headlights have to be pointed forward. They can't be sitting at an angle that means when you turn them on, they'll just be shining up in space. Well, unless you're trying to flash your high beams at, say, SOS and try and flag down some UFOs. No, you need this thing to, and the 928 did. They popped out from the hood. This was an amazing way to actually give you the appeal of having the headlights exposed, but also to meet world regulations. Now, the 928 just had them pop out so you can get to the proper angle you needed for nighttime driving.
 
     The Miura added what they call the eyelash effect to it to give it its own persona on the front end, and for that Miura had its own identity. And for the longest time I never even knew those headlights popped out from the hood. I should have guessed, because they all have to be facing forward, but I always just thought they bent the light inside of it because they're rather large lights. 

But no, from that you went to a later iteration of pop-up headlights, the ones that were bent into the hood. And what do we mean by that? They're pop-up headlights, but it doesn't even look like headlights are supposed to be there. The 1983 Honda Prelude did this. It's second generation had pop-up headlights that weren't just flat with the hood line, they angled it, it bent over. So essentially the headlight fixture had to be even bigger than your standard headlight fixture because it was bent into the actual hood design of the vehicle. It made for a really intriguing look. Remember that was the original Prelude, 1983.
 
Second generation after it came out in the late 70s, it had an appeal that would set it on fire in the 1980s and make it a renowned sports coupe for the North American and Asian and European marketplaces. After that we move into what I like to call the slit lights. They're actually called partial up lights. Okay, the BMW 8 series if you've ever seen one of those, it actually has part of the headlight exposed at all times and the rest of it comes popped out of the hood. Now this might be something you might have seen in the aftermarket industry years ago when people used to buy Mazda RX7s and slightly pop the headlights out. So, they're always somewhat faced out. Okay, well, that looks cool, but it does shit for your aerodynamics. Okay, BMW integrated it within the hood, but they were slightly exposed when you need to fully see at night, the rest of it would pop out. So, it's essentially a partial pop-up headlight.
 
The next one really is just a standard pop-up headlight but it's got double the double-up pop-up headlight from the 1991 Cizetta V16T had two sets of headlights pop-up. It's essentially just having four pop-up headlights in the front of your vehicle. It looks really weird when they're all up because you're like, why do you need four headlights at night? What you got? Really bad bulbs. But in a sense, it also created something even more amazing.
 
     With that we start dying out and essentially by the 1980s pop-up headlights run all kinds of different vehicles. It was the easiest way for us to hide those big, bulky, square headlights. We hid them underneath the hood and everybody thought they were cool. We all thought it was great and grand. They were going into everything. During the 1980s, the Honda Accord became one of the first sedans in the world to include pop-up headlights. Like a sedan, a vehicle, an everyday driver for suburbanized people had pop-up headlights. My aunt and uncle had one. I thought it was pretty cool, Like a sedan with pop-up headlights. That's cool. It even made the car look cool and essentially helped cement the Honda Accord as one of the leaders in the midsize market. But in 2018, the Aries Panther ProgettoUno became the last vehicle available to the masses with pop-up headlights. That was until four years later. 

       Pop-up headlights really are not back, but they're coming back and if you take a look at some of the original vehicles with pop-up headlights, as regulations changed and bubble lights got better, they moved away from them. A perfect example of that is the second generation NSX or the C6 Corvette. The C5 and the C6 were very similar designs. The C5 had pop-up headlights. The C6 Corvette, the C5 and the C6 were very similar designs. The C5 had pop-up headlights. The C6 had bubble headlights, Kind of like the NSX. The design slightly changed for its second generation, but it went to bubble headlights, Essentially the same fixture that the pop-up headlights were in. They literally just dropped the glass enclosure and put headlights in it. They didn't do much else. They didn't try and change the design of it. They literally just stuck them in because we didn't need them anymore.
 
      Pop-up headlights were dying out. People were getting tired of the one-eyed look, the electronic issues and hell, even the added weight to these systems and all the extra electronics. Gotta remembers that Fiero is a vehicle we all thought was cool when we were kids. Unfortunately, it was an electrical nightmare and none of us wanted to work on them. After they started having issues and even it, in its last generation, got away from pop-up headlights. When they deregulated the square headlights and allowed us to start using bubble headlights, we didn't have a use for pop-up headlights anymore.
 
     That is like I said, until 2022, when Ferrari decided to bring back the hideaway headlights on their Daytona SP3. Now the headlights are there. They had the daytime running lights, which you could see, but the actual headlights. To get a little bit better aerodynamics, they inset them into the front hood line, but they wanted to create a better aerodynamics kit for the front end, so they created a small little eye-lit door. Remember those people that used to cover their headlight, the bubble headlights? Back in the 90s, during aftermarket days, try and, you know, make them look like they're frowny or make them look thinner or scarier. You know the Daytona kind of did that. A short little door slides back so you can get full use of your headlights at nighttime. It's kind of cool. I've got to say thanks to Ferrari for doing this.
 
     But MG, or Shanghai Automotive Group or SAIC, is going one step further. They looked at the aftermarket industry and in China the aftermarket industry doesn't exist. Nobody's allowed to make aftermarket vehicles in China, so for that the automobile companies have to include stuff from the aftermarket industry within their vehicles. MG did this the Shanghai Automotive Show of 2025 with their MG Cyber X concept. Now this vehicle is going to be going into production within the next 18 months. Let's just hope that there's little roll back pop-up headlights make it to production. If you look at the front of the MG CyberX, it has the standard band lighting for your daytime running light in the front, but you think the headlights are just those tiny little rectangles above the push guards on the side. But they're not. The actual headlights are small, little roll back pop-up headlights that come out just at the edges of the hood. Now this thing is already essentially a brick on wheels.
 
      We covered in one of our previous podcasts, toaster cars, but it gave us something to look forward to. We all forget how cool it was the first time we ever saw a pop-up headlight in front of us. We have to go back and remember why we fell in love with them, why we had them here and why, again, why we hated them in the end. My mom's Plymouth Laser by the time she got rid of the car, one of the headlights had always stayed up. So, it's either she drives around with one eye open or she keeps both of them up, because changing those motors were expensive, especially for some of those really cheap sports cars. 

      You have to remember something like the Isuzu Impulse with its tiny little half-eyelid door, kind of like the Alfa Romeo Montreal. When those things go, do you really want to fix it, Because the Impulse is like a dirt-cheap bargain sports car. No, you did not want to fix it, you just left it the way it was, Same with the original Miata’s. But hell, there's a lot of people in generation now that think that's cool Drive around with a one eye out. Hey, maybe somebody should go back and tell them that it's not cool. Kind of like those real cheap, crappy looking knockoff Ray-Bans with the highlighter-colored style arms on them. Yeah, those are the stuff you get at like Byway or Kmart.
 
      When you were a kid, you got beat up for having no Pop-up headlights. Were cool and they were an amazing thing, and I'm glad to see that the automobile industry is taking an interest in it once again. We don't really need them because we can make any design we want for headlights on vehicles. And then remember we've gone from essentially kerosene lamps to a thin band laser light on the front of the vehicle. They can literally dance the night away when we turn the blinker on. Okay, we, we've all seen those sequential Mustang lights and now Audi does it with older vehicles, with the you know the fading one. You can literally make the sound effects to them when they're trying to turn.
 
       So why do we want pop-up headlights back? Why do we need to take a look at that again? Well, there was something that was cool and something that we all liked when they were around. They had all kinds of different variations and they made it easy to hide headlights. At a time now, and really until we get translucent body moldings that we can cover our headlights with completely to make the whole front of the vehicle disappear, until we actually turn those lights on and they blind through that color. Until those days come, we're essentially stuck with what we got the laser lights. Technology changed so we didn't have to have pop-up headlights. But are we getting to a point now that our lights have become so small we could do anything with them that some people are taking a look at the past and saying we need to bring some of these things back to make a change within our vehicles. So, in all reality, pop-up headlights they were great, they were cool, they were mesmerizing, but in the end, Pop-up headlights they were great, they were cool, they were mesmerizing, but in the end, technologies beat them to death, just like technology gave birth to them.
 
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     The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by PodBean.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over at [email protected]. And after you've done all that, stop by the website, Stop by AutoLooks.net. Read some of the reviews, check out some of the ratings and go to the corporate links website page. Big or small, we have them all, Car companies from around the globe all available on the AutoLooks.net website. So, from myself here for Jay, the AutoLooks.net website, Ecomm Entertainment Group and PodBean.com, strap yourself in for this one fun wild ride that the world of pop-up headlights is going to take us on. 

Everett J.
​#autolooks