Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Technical Stuff (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/)

-   -   Are you happy with your OEM headlights? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/202542-you-happy-your-oem-headlights-3.html)

I have an Octavia and am very satisfied with the OEM LED headlights. They have a very good though and spread.

S-Cross Alpha (pre face lift) : Not at all satisfied!! Headlights of this car are only for namesake. I am not kidding, Fog lamps of my Kwid perform better.

Baleno Zeta : The output was above average. I could drive at night. But, I did upgrage to Bi Xenon projectors.

Kwid : Brilliant output. Stock halogen reflector headlights are really good. Never seen such good output with any OE headlights. No need of any upgrades.

Grand I10 : Good! The reflector design helps and satisfied with output. I did upgrage to 130/100 bulbs and output is amazing. No reflector discolouration till now.

SX4 : Below Average. I would rate it slightly better than S Cross though. I did install after market projectors in my SX4.

I have mixed experiences with OE headlights. Overall, I voted NO

The road less traveled
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/diy-d...installed.html

Baleno Zeta: My sister bought this car 3 months before me. I test drove extensively before making the decision to go for Alpha. One of the reasons why I chose Alpha was because I wasn't totally happy with Zeta's OEM headlights especially on highways, felt my Alto had better throw. Later replaced with Philips X-treme Vision Plus 130%.

Baleno Alpha: I'm really happy with the performance of Alpha'a projectors. With fog lamps on and projectors in high beam, the throw of light is just amazing, makes it easy to drive on highways.

Good thread. Voted No.

My Skoda Superb’s Bi-xenon headlamps are not enough for me. I don’t intend to blind the oncoming traffic, but unless I’m on full beam mode - which is sort of missing the point in a car that has auto headlamps - the throw and intensity is quite insufficient. Then again, I’m not fond of night driving, so I’ve come to make peace with this. That said, I did make a few queries regarding upgrading to LEDs, but the skoda dealers were quick to warn me against doing any such thing, lest I should end up ruining my warranty.

The Santro Xing indeed had good headlights. The high beam was aligned in such a way that all highway bullies invariably dimmed their lights when I flashed my high beams!

I'm also happy with my 2011 Jazz's stock set up. I do mainly city drives, but the lights have never disappointed me when doing the occasional night highway drive.

I drive a Polo TDi and i'm not at all satisfied with the headlights. Tried a few combinations and it seemed a bit ok.

1) Low beam - Terrible

2) Low beam with fog - The widespread is achieved (Use this for city driving)

3) Low and High beams - Throw is there but not the widespread

4) Low and High beam with fog - Satisfied (Works good on highways)

Nope, not happy with the OEM headlights of either my Swift or my wife's Brio. Both performed in a substandard manner, more so because of the increasing tendency of moronic drivers who use hi-beam as the standard setting on their cars (as if they are blind with normal intensity headlights). Hence, having a powerful set of beams became an absolute necessity, forcing me to upgrade the bulbs on both.

I don't believe in all in projector headlight mumbo-jumbo and therefore, both cars are now running on simple 100/90 Philips Rally bulb setups. They quite literally make a night and day difference. Relatively cheap and value for money upgrade- highly recommended.

I have voted a "Yes" as I am very much satisfied with the stock set-up of 55/60W halogens in my TUV3OO. I had used the Indica V2 for almost 11 years and the Innova for one year. In both the cars I had to upgrade to a 90/100W set-up of Philips Rally lamps along with a relay. Even then the illumination of the road ahead during night drives on highways was not that great. This was combined with the fog lamps in both cars.

In my TUV3OO, the head lamps (low beam) with the fog lamp combo serves me perfectly in all the situations. I rarely ever use the high beam even on highway drives. The cornering lamps is an icing on the cake. The high seating position in the tank also helps getting a good visibility of the road ahead.

During my trip to Konkan (Guhagar, Ganapati Pule, Ratnagiri, Pawas) 2 years back, I had to drive during the night time in the jungle. Unknown and completely unlit roads never posed a challenge to me with my stock set-up on the TUV. Mind you I wear glasses as well and the reflection/scattering of the light of oncoming vehicle poses another challenge. However with some very good night driving tips, defensive driving, I thoroughly enjoy night driving in my tank.

Even the stock lights in my brother-in-laws Vista D90 are very efficient and he too never felt a need to upgrade the stock lamps.

+1 to that. In fact I hardly ever use my fog lamps in my TUV 3OO since the low beam with the cornering lamps serve the purpose very well. It's indeed a sort of theatrical event to drive in a TUV through dark roads at night. You're seated high up, the road ahead is well lit and you can see everything. Nice! :thumbs up

I have luckily had very well designed headlights on both my mainstays, the fiesta and the Tucson. The former with its twin bulb setup and the humongous reflector on the latter managed the darkest spaces very well.
For any of you who have found your headlights to be inadequate, please do this before splurging. On both my cars, the headlights had gotten bad with age. I did all kinds of experiments with the fiesta, from yellow bulbs, to higher wattage ones, and even projectors. I spent a pretty penny as well. The final, and best solution was a fresh set of eyes for the girl. It not only transformed the look of the car, but the headlight performance was way better than anything I did to the old ones.
So when the Tucson's headlights became bad, I did not try any expensive shenanigans, but straightaway plopped in new headlights, and all was well.

Yep, I was about to type this out and I see this comment.. I'm surprised that so many people agree.

I feel this is because Santro did what any car was supposed to do, best.. huge window-line, tall seating, great road visibility and squarish lamps with great wide spread, with low slung circular fog lamps.. all put together this car was the ideal learning car and never left anyone wanting for visibility at any point of time.

Today with Hyundai focused on lower-seating, rising window line and quirky fog and headlamp design.. headlights are almost useless in long range.

Inspite of being against any modifications, I had to finally give in to a 100/90W upgrade for the Baleno as, the stock lights were practically useless during my highway drives (I don't use HiBeam, so makes it all the more tough).

This could be a reason. I don't remember feeling dissatisfied with the Baleen's lights when I bought it 13 years ago. So possible my age is also a factor. Another thing could be the glazing over of the headlamp doom/glass, replacing which is a costly affair for the Baleno-sedan. :)

Voted No.

My Figo ('New gen') has terrible headlights, the low beam is almost non existent, and I constantly end up checking whether the headlights are on or off. The High beams are just about ok. The fogs are the worst I have ever seen, it is just for show.

My dad drives a Polo, and the low beams are terrible on that as well. But the fog lamps are good, so low beam + fog is good for city driving.

And yes, Santro has very good lights. We had a Xing at home, and I remember it to be very good.

Voted for NO.

Out of 1992 Maruti 800, 2005 Baleno, 2010 Wagon R CNG, 2012 Innova, 2014 Grand i10 and 2015 Swift, the best stock headlights were of Wagon R > Baleno >Maruti 800 with H4 55/60W Halogen lights (original were H4 40/45W). Worst is grand i10. Wagon R's stock set up was good enough with Philips Extreme Vision+. That was only car in which I was satisfied. But in none of the other cars.

Currently we have Innova and Swift. Swift is on Philips Rally 90/100W set up and Innova is on Philips Extreme Vision+ and still am not comfortable in Innova.

PS : Can we have something similar for fog lamps ? Innova Fogs are 55W and do reasonably good job (its just matter of focusing) but Swift's fog lights are next to meaningless despite being 35W. I am usually wondering where those 70W are going. Third generation Swift/Dzire have 19W fog lamps, though I am not sure of its effectiveness.