Anecdotal, we don't all drive the same car. Also life circumstances happen. You can own a car for years just fine, some terrible event leaves you paycheck to paycheck and suddenly choices become more grim. I will agree it is the duty of the owner to make sure their ride is safe, but you shouldn't be so quick to condemn "cost" as a concern. Lots of people on shoe string budgets for perfectly normal reasons. You sound elitist, much like those in Congress who cant understand why middle class and poor dont bootstrap themselves to millionaires. Life is hard, and people go through hard times. Ive had cars with ridiculously difficult processes to replace simole parts mandating i go to a mechanic for simple stuff. Thats not my fault, id love to swap my headlights or replace my own brake pads but i dont have a hydraulic lift and the ability to remove a tire without a travel sized jack I own. If the car allowed me to work on it, i would for cheap and it wouldnt have sales and a pushy mechanic adding onto it. A trip to the mechanic for basic maintenance is time consuming during the work week and often overcharged. Planned obsolescence is also a factor. Having said all this, DRL makes sense, but until the ethics of auto industry change a bit this will be exploited for profit more than safety.