Still a £1500 option though on the Leon so they had better be better.

The problem with ever brighter lights, is that the darkness beyond the reach of the light appears ever darker, coupled with ever more light destroying your night vision.

To me there is nothing worse than a super bright dipped beam with a very sharp cut off, much rather a slightly duller light (standard Halogens with quality bulbs are fine for me too) with a bit of scatter beyond the cut off point.

I too wouldn't be paying extra for either xenon or LED, nor the replacement costs when the things fail.

Don't get me started on the too camp by far fetish for DRL's.

Edited by gordonbennet on 16/11/2014 at 22:40

The LED headlights have more lumens per watt, and significntly more lumens in the implementation, but their main advantage is that the light can be much more accurately placed where it is needed and diverted or masked from where it is not wanted due to multiple moveable light sources and optical elements in conjunction with cameras.

e.g. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYSix5r38qY&spfreload=...0

One problem is they create their heat in a much smaller and less heat tolerating substrate so they are thermally mounted on fan cooled aluminium heatsinks. The warm air is then used to keep the lenses dry and frost free.

I have only noticed LED headlights twice, once on a Lexus LS and on an Audi A8L pulling out of the dealership and that was only when admiring the cars for other reasons, so I don't think they are noticeable like HID was when it first came out on BMWs a quarter of a century ago and stuck out amongst the amber halogens.

Edited by Hamsafar on 17/11/2014 at 10:10

Maybe it's a response to what they see coming towards them. A vicious circle?)

On a wet road things can be very uncomfortable for those faced with this.

For myself, sometimes the only sane response when blinded by a facing car is to switch to main beam. It's to see, not simply to retaliate.