Bothered by HID's?

I have personally had that issue, mostly on a car I don't have any more. When a car with bright lights came up behind me, I felt like I was driving in the shadow of my car, unable to see the road ahead.

I ended up buying white fog lamps to compensate when this occurred. But like I said I don't have that car any more.

What has bugged me more is super-bright brake lights. Those are really in your face and cause lots of glare. At times I have put up my hand to block the view, or put on sunglasses when stopped at a light.

 

No aftermarket HIDs are legal on public roads in the US.

If that was just enforced, we would not be getting the blame for the badly installed and aimed 'wannabee' HIDs.

 

I think the biggest problem with HIDs, whose light is more into the blue end of the spectrum, is that when they are shined in your eyes (oncoming or tailgating) they blow out your iris, and it stays open for a longer period of time. This reduces your acquired night vision and starts the process of dark adapting all over again. This is not so much a problem in well lit areas where the light differential is not so pronounced, but in the countryside or an unlit commute (BW Parkway) it causes problems.

And can we all agree that 4 headlights = brights? There is nothing more ridiculous than driving with your foul weather lights on in normal driving conditions. Please turn them off unless needed. They really don't increase visibility except close to the front of the car, and they only hamper other drivers - notice I didn't say annoy, they just blind them. They do work well in bad weather, though.

 

No amount of aiming keeps the lights out of my eyes on a hilly outside corner.

 

++1...nighttime HID brightness is absolutely a problem for me and I suspect other oldsters like myself. I'm thinking regulations are in order.

 

I've never had a problem with factory installed HIDs in projector style housings. I can understand the problem if you round a corner on a incline/decline where even properly aimed headlights can still enter your upper cabin area (properly aimed headlights should stop or cutoff just before your door meets the window).

Alot of the complaints probably stem from aftermarket HIDs that are installed in halogen housings that do not have a clean cutoff and thus cast light everywhere and produce tons of glare. We call them squirrel finders because you can see way up into trees with those things! In my area there are a lot of lifted pickup trucks with these lame kits installed and they think they are cool blinding everyone on the road.

I 'msure some people manually adjust their lights but don't know how to do it properly and set them much higher than is legal. All headlights have a manual adjustment. Even he re in the US where we have an auto alignment feature on the Prius.

 

Personally, I don't think the HID's are the problem... it's the difference between a car frame and a truck frame. On trucks, SUV's, and anything else built on a truck frame, everything is held way off the ground. Headlights are high, side mirrors are high, etc. For cars like the Prius, however, everything is low. Thus any truck that comes up behind you with headlights on is going to be shining them right into your mirrors. True, HID headlights make the issue worse, but it's still there for trucks that don't have HID's.

 

On European, and maybe Asian, cars the HID headlights are adjustable from inside the cabin to correct for changing loads. The Prius doesn't have an auto leveler for them there.

The control would be in one of the blanked out spaces to the left of the steering wheel in your 2005. Next to where the EV button would be.

 

On the BW Parkway, there shouldn't be any trucks, except for the cowboys pushing their 3 ton barn doors to a desk job in the city. I don't mind being behind them since I get to reclaim some of the gas lost to their vanity.

</rant>

 

I've had a few people tailgate me during night while I'm driving the Blue Ridge Parkway while I'm back in my hometown of Asheville. No trailers, RVs, or commercial trucks drive it for its curves and slowness compared to interstate driving. I have noticed a slight higher intensity with HIDs (and all are cooler as you've mentioned)...but what blinds me are any a-holes that tailgate me at night or leave their high beams on until they're near me. Another one of my rants is why anyone would have high beams on on the BRP. It's only two lanes and I've had no problems seeing the windy road on regular beams. But so many times I suddenly get the highbeams from someone taking a curve around the same time I am. That's my main rant!

 

I agree that stock HID headlights aren't the problem, look at all the threads here of attempts to switch over to HID's, multiply that by all the other manufacturers available.
I laugh at the brake lights to bright, but mybad...

My bitch is with motorcycles,(not all, just the naughty ones) they run 100w bulbs(60w max) and day or night looking at them is a lesson in going blind.

 

i don't know if it's the type of car or the adjustment, but some of them are blinding, from the front or the rear. and what about load exhausts? and too dark tinting? what are the cops doing these days? reading the paper in the donut shoppe?