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Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

caranddriver.com

21–30 of 493 posts

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#21
post #9

Is this a standard feature in all European cars? It seems like a premium feature that might eventually trickle down to the average cars.

It's certainly not a standard feature, at least for normal cars. They're available as an option or as an aftermarket upgrade.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#23
post #10

I installed the (OEM) European headlights on my car. It's, well, a night and day difference. It's been 8 years and no one has noticed.

I didn't know this was possible! Something to keep in mind if I ever buy a nice car.

I did this on my 2003 Volkswagen GTi. I swapped the Jetta front end onto it and found a set on a vw forum. They were not cheap but it was amazing to have euro stock OEM HIDs while most everyone else I knew were running junk Chinese kits.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#25

Even more idiotic is my truck. I put a camper on it. I can't drive it at night because the weight of the camper tilts the entire truck back just a bit so that the head lights are aimed right at driver's eyes even on the lowbeams. Everyone flashes me and gets pissed off. Hopefully Adaptive headlights account for things like this.

In my experience, people driving trucks and people with high/blindingly bright headlights are highly overlapping sets of people. So you can at least feel consolation in that those people are probably not surprised in being pissed off by you.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#27
post #14

groups like Audi/Porsche/BMW have trouble bringing their fancy LED setups to America due to laws pertaining to high / low beams -- meanwhile every Jack and Jill on the road has glaringly illegal aftermarket Xenon bulb setups in refractor headlight housings rather than proper projectors, blinding the hell out of everyone on the road, and the police seem to do nothing about it. I mean, hey -- i'm usually happy about au…

re: "aftermarket xenon bulb setups"

Is this still a big problem? While I would have agreed with you, say, back in the 2000s when the whole "import tuner" craze was in full swing, I don't think this is popular anymore. The car mod scene seems to be close to extinct now, with whats left being a lot less crazy than those in the past.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#30

Even more idiotic is my truck. I put a camper on it. I can't drive it at night because the weight of the camper tilts the entire truck back just a bit so that the head lights are aimed right at driver's eyes even on the lowbeams. Everyone flashes me and gets pissed off. Hopefully Adaptive headlights account for things like this.

I would say there is almost certainly a little wheel somewhere on your dashboard to adjust them. My Land Rover has this.
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