Motorists baffled by ‘Christmas car’ spotted on road covered in colourful lights – but is it legal?
MOTORISTS have been left baffled by a “Christmas car” spotted on a main road covered in colourful lights.
A viral video on TikTok shows the festive Fiat 500 cruising along while decked out in its unique decoration.
The 13-second clip has proved popular, racking up over 730,000 likes.
It appears that the driver modded out their motor to bring a little seasonal joy to the roads.
However, sadly, copycats could get into hot water with the law.
While it may not be well known, similar lights on your car are actually explicitly ruled out in the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations of 1989.
These road laws stipulate where lights may be placed and what colour they may be.
These days, they are most commonly applied to underglow kits, where drivers stick neon lights to the underside of their cars.
However, the regulations also outlaw the funky Christmas body kit in two ways.
First, motorists are prohibited from displaying any red, green or blue lights on their cars that are visible from any direction – with the exception of red rear brake lights which are a legal requirement in the UK.
This is designed to prevent your motor from being mistaken for an emergency vehicle.
Blue lights are well known to be used by emergency services while flashing red lights are used by stationary emergency vehicles as well as in police escorts.
Green lights are used by on-call doctors responding to an emergency.
As such, it is not legal to display Christmas lights with a red, green or blue colour scheme.
The car in the video actually featured all three colours, so it’s definitely not allowed.
And there’s bad news for anyone who wants to try and get around this by using different colours as the locations you can fit lights are also heavily restricted.
It is an offence to fit lights of any colour that are visible from the rear of the vehicle, with the obvious exceptions of legally required tail lights, indicators, fog lights, reversing lights and number plate lights.
Likewise, lights on the front of the car can only be white or yellow headlights, with any others running the risk of being considered a dangerous distraction to other drivers.
Breaking any of those rules could see you slapped with a hefty fixed penalty notice.
If you do manage to find somewhere you can fit lights legally, then you must also make sure they are not so bright as to dazzle oncoming traffic or, again, face a fine.
Nonetheless, social media commenters loved the Christmas car.
One wrote: “Bro took Christmas with them.”
Another added: “I’ll get those next.”
And a third said: “Found my starter car.”
It comes after it was revealed that it can now cost more to run an EV on public chargers than it does to fuel a petrol car.
Meanwhile, a Wheeler Dealers host claimed that a new fuel could help drivers avoid having to switch to electric cars.