LEDs get cheaper, become an auto fashion statement.

Byline: David Sedgwick

LED lights are emerging as auto industry bling.

Once limited to the luxury segment, LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, now are cheap enough for mass-market models. The 2012 Kia Soul, for example, has LED daytime running lights and taillights.

Designers love them because the compact, bright lights give them freedom to convert plain-vanilla headlights and taillights into fashion statements.

By the 2016 model year, 29 percent of all vehicles produced in North America will have LED taillights, up from 19 percent in the 2011 model year, predicts L.E.K. Consulting of London.

The switch to LED headlights will be slower. Only 1 percent of North American-built vehicles will have LED …