Xenon Headlights???

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

Usually I see these as an extra cost option. Anyone here have these on their car and what is the added value?

Thanks

DUTR

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

Usually I see these as an extra cost option. Anyone here have these on their car and what is the added value?

Thanks

I have them on my car, but they are standard, the models that are an option they are £1000, are they worth a grand? Not to me, if your car is running H7 lamps as standard, there is little to gain.

Retrogamer

They produce brighter light whilst requiring less energy than the Halogen types.
On certain cars, they look nicer / more modern as well.

Expensive to replace certain parts when they fail so probably not worth the extra money for them in the long run.

anotherbaldrick

When you have an inattentive ( or mobile phone attentive) driver coming towards you who is drifting towards the centre line of the road a quick blast of bi-xenons is guaranteed to wake him up.

TadleyBaggie

I had them on a Qashqai, they were excellent. The dipped lighting was by far the best I've ever had. Very even and wide spread pattern. Now on a poverty spec BMW with lousy halogens.

InsideInsurance

Bought them as an optional extra on my last car and have them as standard on my current one. In both cases they were also adaptive as well as being Xeon.

With the old car, I had a test drive in 2 models, one had the Xeon and one didnt (different dealerships at opposite ends of the country so no collusion) and the one with it had so much better lighting that it was just enough to sell it to me.

The adaptive bit I have been less impressed with, the new car its good you can just change it for left or right hand drive through the HUD rather than having to mess with deflectors or adjusting the lights themselves but obviously that depends how often you go to the continent.

The lights do look better in the car too, in most cases, but that depends on how bothered you are about the asthetics of your vehicle

Iceweasel

There is the illusion that you see a lot more with Xenons.

You do see a little more but it's the whiteness that fools most folks.

My grandson and I did some admittedly not very scientific tests with bamboo poles on a private road and found they had a wider spread so the sides of the road were clearer but only 20 metres or so more distance than the Osram NightBreakers we were comparing them with.

Very nice to have them - but no way worth paying extra for.

And most certainly not worth converting from halogens.

DUTR

Iceweasel wrote: »

There is the illusion that you see a lot more with Xenons.

Do do see a little more but it's the whiteness that fools most folks.

My grandson and I did some admittedly not very scientific tests with bamboo poles on a private road and found they had a wider spread so the sides of the road were clearer but only 20 metres or so more distance than the Osram NightBreakers we were comparing them with.

Very nice to have them - but no way worth paying extra for.

And most certainly not worth converting from halogens.

It is true, and the converse is that the cut off is very sharp, so on dipped beam the range is less than the H7, my right of way the end of the wall would illuminate, the xenons is much less but the beam pattern is very precise, the adaptive cornering feature is good though.

tim9966

I have them as standard on my car, and I often have to drive my dad's car which doesn't have them. My lights light up a lot more of the road ahead then his car does.


Also I think the bulbs in them last a lot longer than standard H7 bulbs. I've never had to change them in the 3 1/2 years I've owned the car, but I think they are very expensive if they ever do need to be changed.

epninety

DUTR and IceWeasel have it right, the HID lamps put a lot more light on the road and consequently the cut-off is very sharp to avoid blinding other drivers.

The effect of this (in my view) is that on dip beam on a dark road, you can actually see less. There might be the same amount of light (or more) on the road beyond the cutoff, but because the close -in pool of light is much brighter your eyes can't actually make any use of the light from far off.

I've got one car with factory HID, and a couple with 30 year old light designs and standard bulbs. In areas with streetlights, or where I can use mainbeam, the HIDs win hands down. However, on dark country lanes, with no lighting, no cats eyes, or much in the way of painted lines, then on dip beam the halogens certainly make me feel I can see more, more quickly.

One particular road I often drive is has a straight-ish section for 2 miles or so, where you often cant use mainbeam because of oncoming traffic some way off, but HIDs make it hard to spot animals/tree branches/abandoned fridges on the verges in time to avoid them smoothly.

I don't think I've ever had to switch to mainbeam to read a roadsign using halogen lamps...

Sadly, car manufacturers seem to be locked in a lighting arms race with each other, and it isn't going to get any better. As more and more cars have HIDs, LEDs etc., it's going to get less and less pleasant to drive with 'ancient' headlamp technology.

As an example of how silly this seems to be getting, I see about one car a week on the motorway, in the dark (and last week in heavy rain) with no tail lights at all, because the DRLs are bright enough to do a good impression of a sensible set of headlights, and the driver hasn't spotted it.

Rant over...

[Deleted User]

My last car was a Citroen C8 and had Xenon headlights and my current car, a Vauxhall Zafira has Halogen lights and I reckon I have much better night vision in the Zafira.
Also I dread to think what replacement bulbs or gas etc for Xenons would cost.
I would choose Halogens even if Xenons where a no cost option.