I like the headlight designs and think finally someone is paying attention to making this extremely important part of the car’s front look good. Although, I can’t stand Audi’s dorking @ with the little twinkle lights in the headlight assemblies. I just saw one with those moronic Xmas lights now running on top of the headlight assembly as opposed to running along the bottom. I imagine that’s Audi’s attempt to intimidate the “keeping up with the current fashion crowd” into buying a new vehicle since certainly the ones with the lights on the bottom of the assemblies are now ‘sooo last year, dahling’. Cut me a break.
Automobiles are first and foremost machines and I personally don’t care for the faddish styling but obviously the car companies aren’t too concerned with me. But the move away from sealed beams has resulted in a great deal of expensive repairs that were not necessary with the once universal DOT sealed beams. For any who lust for the stylish headlights just remember that if/when you break a headlight that costs $200 to $600 a sealed beam is currently available for less than $10 and can be installed in less than 3 minutes on most automobiles.
I agree that the terribly expensive headlight assemblies are stupid. Back in the day I have replaced sealed beams for about $2. I have owned 4 vehicles with flip up headlights. 1981 Mazda RX-7, 1981 Fiat Bertone (X1-9), 1991 Mazda RX-7, and 1996 Mazda Miata. I never had a problem with them and still like the look. The bulbs in my 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse were easy to replace. I will have to see how easy that is in my 2010 KIA.
Styling asthetics aside, I still prefer sealbeam headlights. They lit up the road better, were durable and affordable when needing the bulb or even the entire unit replaced, and rarely got yellowed and cloudy even if eventually scratched and pitted like an aging windshield.
@Marnet
I like sealed beams for their ease of service . . . easy and inexpensive to replace
I’m not sure I agree that they light up the road better
I’ve driven various cars with xenon and what not, and they seem brighter to me
You’ll notice if you look at the background that the photo was not taken in the U.S. These type of add-ons are popular amongst the youth in the Far East. They get far more bizarre over there.
Oh, all the makes are running LED strips in loops, stripes, and whorls through the headlights. Audi is doing nothing unusual. It’s a slightly silly trend that will pass in a few years. By then most cars will have headlights that are entirely LEDs, as a few luxury/sports models already do.
@insightful It’s even more difficult to see directional indicators in the daylight with the DRLs shining. SOME cars turn the DRLs off while the signal is blinking.
Not only are the Juke’s lights ugly on both ends, but its name is the stupidest EVER.
I’m also curious what’s going to happen when one of the MANY LED lights on cars such as the Audi burns out. If one of the 20 or so goes south, can it alone be replaced? My guess is that they must be replaced as an expensive unit. Will cars with one bad bulb fail safety inspections? Will one bulb allow a police officer to write a ticket for an unsafe car?
my guess is that the police and safety inspectors will use one light being out as a reason to stop cars and fail inspections. if you have side marker lights, which are not required, they must all function or you will fail safety inspection in Delaware. of course that depends on the inspector, when I inspected my jeep recently the state inspector did not even write up a parking light not working, he just told me to fix it when he learned I had just bought the jeep and had not checked everything yet. I think he remembered me, and that I have fixed many things previously in the dmv parking lot after they failed inspection.
I much prefer the state doing inspections rather than them letting private mechanics do it. in my experience the guys in Maryland would fail everything they could in the hopes that you would pay them to fix it and the guys in Massachusetts were only allowed to charge 15 bucks for an inspection but there were certain shops that were well known for accepting a small bribe to let things pass that technically should have failed
That photo of the wing I took in China in 2008.
“the guys in Maryland would fail everything they could”
How could Maryland’s system NOT be corrupt?
The same guy who inspects your car also does the work.
It’s like the shakedown at a chain shop or the dealership, but legally binding.
In VA up to 50% of the LED’s in a unit can be out and still pass the VA Safety Inspection. At least I think that is how it reads in the inspectors manual.
http://www.vsp.state.va.us/Safety.shtm#InspectionProgram
http://lis.virginia.gov/000/reg/TOC19030.HTM.HTM#C0070
In the newest cars, the headlight beam patterns have been vastly improved over earlier efforts…
Bring back the sealed beams,no reason we cant have Xenon sealed beams(ps-is there a directory for cell phone numbers?) Kevin
I like the idea except for one thing . . . a xenon sealed beam would be extremely expensive
db4690 Isn’t everything? Oh! I keep forgetting there is no measurable inflation…
LEDs are very long-lasting and tend to lose brightness gradually rather than failing suddenly. They are also getting cheaper and brighter every year. My guess is there will only be a handfull of LEDs in each headlight unit and most will last the lifetime of the car. I am using LEDs several places around the house and they’re excellent. I’m especially fond of the little 5 watt flood (halogen replacement) I have in my bedside reading light. It casts a very even circle of light (the halogen was very uneven), it’s plenty bright enough to read by at night, but doesn’t light up the room enough to keep my partner from sleeping. Perfect.
Mercedes does the same thing, shows the CLA for example with the LED headlamps which look cool but also cost extra. I don’t mind the look myself
The CLA is a great looking car with or without LED lights. Too bad the back seat is so cramped. Yet another case of adequate headroom being sacrificed for a swoopy roofline. The legroom isn’t great, either, but that is often related to the headroom issue. If the roof didn’t slope down so much the seat could have been moved back a couple of inches. This was a big issue for us when we were car shopping two years ago. We wanted a compact hatchback, and there were a fair number, but most of them had terrible rear headroom. We have adult houseguests a couple of times per year and take trips with them. We can’t be the only ones.
My daughter bought a Juke and was a bit miffed when I said I thought it looked like a frog. She likes the look.