Quote Originally Posted by billschusteriv View Post
^^^^ I didn't see this before posting. Could be the answer to my query?
Yes. The tourings and coupes have pretty much the same taillight as their pre-face counterparts.

Quote Originally Posted by pyreguy View Post
I see your point, and agree that the woman wasn't paying attention. She was on her cell phone checking the road we were gonna merge onto for traffic instead of looking at the car already stopped (me) because of said traffic. But the brightness makes me feel better.
Hey, as long as you feel good about it, that's all that matters brotha.

And as far as the extra lights on the facelift lighting up and letting followers know how hard you're stopping, I would think that unless they knew BMW E46 facelift layout to know those extra lights meant something they probably wouldn't register the difference.
The effect is that if you see someone apply the brakes in front of you, their regular lights come on, but as they dig deeper into the floor, you'll see the extra lights come on in addition. So, the initial application of brake lights gets your attention, and the additional lights that come on raise your attention level more as they weren't there a second ago...

Of course this only matters if you're paying attention and watching for the "level 1" lights to come on in the first place. lol