Preface:

CHMSL = Center High Mounted Stop Lamp

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The "chimsull" is such an underrated design element.

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Besides being a shockingly enormous safety feature from a harm reduction standpoint (the NHTSA estimated that it reduced damages by $910 million a year in 1994), it is one of the few areas of automotive lighting that has escaped any sort of design innovations. Sure there were a few funky applications in the past twenty years, but even the proliferation of LED signals on cars didn't push carmakers to get creative.

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Which is strange. Surely a string of LEDS or a light pipe should be a comparatively low cost way to add some pizzazz to the rear light signature of a car. They spend so much time tweaking every little piece of the taillights, even on cheap cars, so why not the CHMSL?

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One element that is a favourite of ruthless sword of the beancounter is the width of the lights. The majority of automakers have always made the light the bare minimum width, depending on the jurisdiction. But a classic principle of good design is using horizontal lines to emphasize width, giving objects wide and formidable stances to convey strength and class.

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The CHMSL is a perfect application of this philosophy, and in my opinion a powerful one. Let's look at some examples, starting with the DTS all the way back in 1999:

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For a barge, that thing looks slick. It manages to widen an already ample posterior. If it weren't for the LEDs failing one by one like a child's tortured Lightbrite set, it would be perfect - but that's down to age and GM quality. In fact, it's one of the stylistic elements that Cadillac has consistently nailed for the past two decades. Everything from the Duplo-inspired SLS to the cracking last generation CTS-V enjoyed these wide beauties.

But the benefit isn't limited to large models:

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One of the least frumpy pieces of the original CLA45 was that heavenly long strip of illumination in the rear window. They even stuck in there despite the faux coupe looking making the rear window barely larger than the damn light itself. Have you ever driven one of these things? Reversing is like opening a large envelope and putting your eye up to it to see what's inside. But I digress.

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German makers are proponents of the wide light. Bimmers, Mercs, Audis, Porsches and VWs typically feature wider than average ones. For all of the heckling we can do on those brands for questionable design decisions, this is not one that deserves scorn.

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This is one area where CHMSL width is negatively correlated in terms of visual appeal. Headlights can look good whether they're small or large. Small steel wheels can be gorgeous, same with 23-inchers. But narrow, stubby chimsulls look cheap. A visually stimulating afterthought, an ode to squeezing every last penny out of a design possible.

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Toyota spent all that time and money linking the taillights to make a stubby car look wider. And capped it with row of 9 pitiful LEDs in the window. Cheap. Cheap. Cheap. Cheap.

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An extra 50% would give the rear noticeable gravitas. It would stand out in the depressing sea of Elantras, Civics, Blahs, Blahs and Blahs that it occupies by market segment. All for what, seventy cents more per car? Toyota, I think you'll be fine.

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Luckily for us CHMSL-heads, though, the return of the heckblende full-width rear light concept is proving to be fortuitous in this department. Even with the arcane regulation that it can't touch the regular lights (there has to be a space), the full span light pipe makes up for these, ahem, girth narrowing devices and gives new designs a wide, planted look.

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Take the final Civic couple, which gets a pass on it's atrociously minuscule CHMSL because of it's relatively daring light pipe:

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Width? Emphasized.

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So come on automakers, spend the extra buck per vehicle and widen those suckers. Have some fun with them. Take note of Geneis' design cohones and follow suit. Look what they did with the GV70 in the cover photo. The CHMSL spans the whole width and has a racy dip in the middle. It's not straight, it's absolutely gorgeous!

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Evidently worth the extra few bucks since it made some guy on the internet (me) write about it.