I think they literally just took old halogen headlight and replaced the halogen bulb with a direct replacement LED. Did not even bother to change the optics. It is going to be misleading to uninformed customers when choosing between LED and adaptive LED - an unsuspecting buyer will probably think there is only a minor difference, while in fact the difference is huge. At least with halogen in the past the choice was more obvious.

 

Thats absolutely what they did

 

There definitely is led lights with halogen reflectors. I am sure they are little better than the regular lights.

 

The issue I have found with LEDs and to a lesser extent HIDs is the volume of light. So, they are brighter and the color temp makes contrasts stand out more, but absent the right kind of reflectors there seems to be more volume of light in a halogen lamp right focused in the center area of the beam. Thats an issue that is addressed in more advanced LED light systems.

The Matrix LED lights in my S Class are the most incredible headlights I have ever had in a car. They are truly amazing.

 

Well, I haven't sampled every possible comparison, particularly at night. I'm sure there are some cases where you do get a better view with LEDs, That's why I was careful to notate "in my experience".

And, even so, most of Northern Virginia, where I live, is so well-lit at night that one doesn't need million-candlepower lights up front. You can't even see most of the stars and planets on a clear night...only the very brightest ones. Contrast with that in WV where you are from...you can probably see the Milky Way.

 

Its in almost every case. Even in well lit areas, HID and LED are just superior in almost any application. When you get outside of well lit areas obviously the difference is even more massive. The issue is you're not living with a car driving it at night when you're just on a test drive, 9 times out of 10 which occurs during the day.

You can definitely see the Milky Way from our family home in WV

 

Well, I'm in NYC so to me even Northern Virginia feels like countryside, lol. In well lit areas headlights become less important of course, but you really start to appreciate the difference on a dark road.

And again, its important to understand that not all LEDs are created the same. I probably posted it before, but there are LED direct replacement bulbs that probably produce less light than the halogen bulbs they were meant to replace. And then there are complex multi projector headlight with LED arrays that cost thousands of dollars, and they are so vastly superior that it's not even a comparison.

 

One other thing to consider, even in brightly lit areas, a car with better headlights is likely to be better seen by other drivers. This is why motorcyclists often equip their bikes with additional auxiliary lights, to be better seen.

 

Very true.....

 

........as long as they are not blinded.

On the AUTO headlight-setting, my Encore GX gets around at least part of that by automatically varying the headlights between high and low-beams, according to what the sensor sees in oncoming vehicle headlights. While not perfect (some side-influences on the lighting can fool it), most of the time it works quite well, and is MUCH better than earlier systems that claimed to do the same thing.

 

I have that too.. I like it..but don't love it....gets a little annoying...but at least my new 4R has projector LEDs

 

Yes, and with proper optics there is actually less glare than with old reflector halogen lights.

 

I went through this with my SC300. I tried some expensive LED bulbs and it was worse than halogen most of the time. This was seven years ago and I ended up going back to halogens for a while.

The replacement bulbs don’t compare to those expensive LED arrays you mentioned. I drove many newer Lexus with the triple beam LED headlights and they lit up the road very well. I would love to put something like that into my SC and GS but it would cost a fortune.

 

Well, at least those LED direct replacement bulbs are generally not offensive. More or less like the trendy blue coated bulbs in the late 90ies that were trying to imitate the look of HIDs with bluish colored light, the actual light output is less than halogen, and they don't produce glare that blinds other drivers. Compare that with all the HID kits that were popular until recent, and the blinding glare they produced when installed in reflector housing.

There is a new potential trend in development, there are already aftermarket laser bulb replacements. They are only suitable for high beams, but unlike halogen or HID/LED, laser emitters produce a lot more concentrated spotlight beam, with a an extremely long throw. They are many times more blinding than any other type of high beam lights, and in an OEM application there is no way to activate them manually. They are only activated automatically when vehicle cameras do not detect any oncoming or nearby traffic ahead. Once people get ahold of these aftermarket lasers and start using them improperly, it can cause a lot of hazard.

 

Yes I have the same issues especially when it's a Jacked up Jeep or truck, some of them blind theirselves when I point my rear view mirror at them!