I live Canada's northernmost large city, so we drive in darkness for a solid 4 months of the year. This year I am noticing that every other car out there has some ridiculously bright headlights. Often its a new car with factory HIDs, and they're not too bad for glare. But often it's an older compact or a truck with an aftermarket set up that's either not intended for that application, or they are not properly adjusted.
I am all for good headlights, but please make sure you're not endangering the rest of us out there.

 

I understand what you mean. Since HID kits are getting cheaper, everyone seems to have gotten them. Its a real pain in the eyes.

I would refrain from using HID kits with reflector type headlights. Projector is the way to go. But even better would be a total retrofit of a proper HID projector.

 

interesting, as many cars (lexus included) came factory with HID Reflectors....and some still do.

on a modern reflector housing, with the proper bulb choice, glare shield (if needed), and aim, hid kits are perfectly safe.

now when you throw them into 20year old diffused glass headlights, THEN there's a problem....

 

i know what you mean. what i cant stand is the people that change out just 1 head light bulb when one goes bad instead of just replacing both. I always get stuck in front of these people and one light is blinding bright while the other is dull and on its way out.

 

I hate these J-asses that have the 15K bulbs or whatever and the light is a bright Purple or even Pink! WTF the cops do not pull these idiots over cuase clearly they are not OEM lights and look like $h!t and blind you--Rant over....lol

 

I never understood how people can see anything with 10000k and higher HID's.

The old trucks with funky headlights are the most annoying thing. They're so bright that the make my high beams look like a pocket flashlight.

 

It goes both ways, some of these retrofitters are just want attention (ie color modding), honestly there's no point for it other than to distract people. I've seen color bands so thick, all you see is purple with no change in color, might as well throw in some 30k's. Not to mention improper aiming, there's nothing like getting strobed by a sharp cutoff bouncing at eye level or glare at distance. I'm all for proper retrofits that provide good performance, but lately I'm seeing more and more people just trying to look cool.