We've received an unusually high amount of feedback in response to my piece "The stalk that broke the Cadillac CTS' back" concerning the lack of flash-to-pass feature on some 2008 Cadillac CTS models. Some people's posts were more civilized than others, and evidently, a few hadn't finished reading the piece before (a-hem) pouncing. The common theme was how such a missing "minor feature" could detract from a car that's otherwise very impressive. Thanks to all who wrote. Well, almost all.

To restate: Flash-to-pass is a handy driver-communication tool. It's often used as a courtesy, say, in front of a school entrance, at a four-way stop sign as a "go ahead, after you" statement, or "Please let me pass, thank you" on a freeway. Other uses are to signal to a tractor-trailer truck that just passed you that it's OK to merge back to the right lane.

The feature also has safety implications. Let's say you are on a two-lane highway and a distracted motorist is veering toward you, poised for a head-on collision. Able to get his/her attention with a few high-intensity flashes with a simple pull of the stalk gives you a fighting chance to avoid a disaster. (Sounding the horn is unlikely to help in this instance because of the speed and the direction of the sound waves.) I experienced such a scenario years ago in Arizona. Luckily, flashing my high beams alerted the other driver in time to avert a potential crash.

Some posters/owners have commented that the CTS has flash-to-pass even with the (HID) bi-xenon headlights. It is easy to think that you have it if the headlights are in "Auto" mode and the ambient light is low enough to dictate that the low beams should be on. But there is NO flash-to-pass with the bi-xenon lights. We confirmed this with GM. It only exists on CTS models with the base FE1 suspension equipped with halogen lamps.

All in all, I'm delighted with the discussion the previous post initiated. The issue is being discussed on other forums as well, such as at VW Vortex and GM Inside News. Ultimately, this discussion could benefit all drivers, as well as GM's engineers and designers. It may have even hastened an update to the CTS: The latest word from GM is that the flash-to-pass fix will arrive sooner than 2010, which was the original target date.

Needless to say, we enjoy shedding light on subjects such as these. And value your feedback.

—Gabe Shenhar