Quote:
Originally Posted by stavinski
I had HID on my Infiniti (they were called Xenon headlamps in those days), my brother has them on his '05 BMW 330 and his even turn with steering input. They are not worth investing the time, much less the money. My experience was the only time they add any value was when reading street signs at night in the rain. In fact, the sharp contrast between the bright edge of the lit area and dark of the totally not lit area can sometimes surprise you if an animal suddenly pops into view. With Halogens, that line is less crisp and you see a shadow of the animal first. I can't comment on if the aiming of a xenon would be higher than that of a halogen, but you certainly could adjust it at the risk of annoying other drivers.
Of course, the cool factor is there, so if that's the reason and 5 pairs of Oakleys or Ray Bans are not as cool, go for it! It's your car, it should look how you want it, but don't kid yourself that there is a reason for it beyond tinkering with the car or going for the blue/purple look.
|
Yes, I agree there is a cool factor, but HID's are not without good intent/purpose.
Because of the mechanism used to cause lighting in HIDs vs. halogens, the lifetime of the bulb is nearly tripled, even against newer Xenon gas filled halogens, this tethered together with the fact that halogens dim over their life due to the atom displacement from vaporization. (Important considering out cars have DRL's that have the bulbs on nearly all the time)
In addition, four times more light per lumen is produced with a lower yield of wattage (The same wattage it takes to get 1700 (55watts-low beams) lumens out of our halogen can produce 3200lumens our of a HID).
At 4100 kelvins a HID will produce a more natural white light versus the yellow tinting you get with halogen or incandescent, this increases the contrast ratio for inanimate objects in your driving site.
As a hybrid vehicle owners we made our purchase for either both or one of the two reasons: we want to reduce fuel consumption and emissions and/or simply save money at the gas pump.
Selecting HIDs also follows this path - lower wattage/energy used and fewer bulbs purchased versus standard halogen lighting.
Food for thought... That's all.