I just bought a 2020 GMC Yukon with halogen projector headlights. They are the worst lights of any car I have ever owned. This car cost $66,000. I replaced the bulbs for $23.00 and it greatly improved them. However they still do not perform as well as the previous 2011 Yukon. I feel that they are very dangerous especially after a rain when streets are wet. I think that gm should sell and install HID systems to customers who complain at a greatly reduced price. This poor light performance could have be done as a sales ploy to get customers to visit their dealer service centers. Before I changed bulbs it was so bad I did not want to drive at night. Still very disatisfied
Projectors I have seen are mediocre at best . They have taken a simple reflector headlight and made it much more complicated and generally less effective all in the name of style. If you have seen how these things work , i have halogen projectors in my 20 Durango and they are barely passable. There is a single light in mine and they way they get two beams out them is that they put out a given amount of light and in low beam there is a shutter that comes down and covers part of the beam output , when you hit high beam that shutter then raises so you get full output. On low beams you will notice they have a very hard cutoff on the light pattern and it does not go as far or light up as well , I hate it too . A needlessly complex way to do this and you know that shutter is going to break eventually and most likely the only fix will be to replace the whole housing at hundreds of dollars as opposed to straight 4 bulb reflector type housings where you just replace bulbs cheaply and there is nothing else to break . These are far less effective than the 4 bulb reflector setup on my 2008 GMC Envoy .
Better before buying a vehicle, check the IIHS site for headlight performance ratings. Many expensive cars with expensive lights are far from excellent or even acceptable. Some trims have good lights and others of the same make and model do not.
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Actually, I’ve read multiple times that the U.S. has archaic headlight regulations that prevent us from getting the headlights used in Europe that work better.
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