LED lights

I upgraded from a 2010 with halogen to a 2012 with LED.

Even though the former was impressive compared to the traditional highlight (non-lens), there's no contest. The LED illumination is spectacular.

Everyone that I've shown them to has given a rating of: Whoa!

 

I notice the LED have a very clear, crisp line when driving at night - i wonder from oncoming traffic if they get much of a glare due to this crisp focus the lights have. My eyes personally don't find the color temperature of LED vs. the traditional type of headlamps that helpful - that blueish color looks dimmer to me, but the fact that the light is so focused kind of seems to balance that out.


Was not aware you could upgrade just those two things, when i purchased last month these came as part of the Advanced Technology Package (ATP) and cost me about $5000 more on the sticker (Toyota Prius v - 2012 Options and Packages). If you're actually being offered the ATP for $1500 more, I'd say go for it without a doubt. I went with ATP for a much higher cost for those two items you mention plus:

• the moonroof (my daughter loves "taking the roof off the car"),
• better navigation screen (size is bigger and much clearer than standard navi, can play DVDs when in park or whenever if you mod your system),
• upgraded sound package (people on forums complain about the sound in the rear, I don't find that as an issue with ATP sound system)
• dynamic radar cruise control (I love this feature and posted about this here)
• pre-collision system (the radar is dual purpose - cruise control plus a braking system that will apply if the car calculates that you're headed for a crash... i've actually had this activate when getting cut off by a very slow moving vehicle on the highway and it applied the brakes before i'd been able to react - not sure if that saved me from an accident, but was nice to know it's there)
• parking assist (my wife has hit my past cars multiple times trying to park her civic; this feature won't stop that, but it should stop her from totally destroying the V during parking if/when i ever let her drive it)
• fog lights (I probably wouldn't have paid for them alone, it's the one feature of ATP i could really leave out)

For me those features plus what you mention were worth the premium - though I venture a guess all could be had for less money (except perhaps parking assist and cruise control) on the aftermarket but for me it was worth just having it all done and warrantied by Toyota.

 

After previously having them on a GEN II Prius I purposely avoided them by getting a v/3. I LOVE the halogens, especially, since I can now see beyond 40 feet in front of the car. No matter how I adjusted the HID/LEDs on the old GEN II could never get them to illuminate to what my other Toyota's (4Runner and RAV4) could see. It was as if someone drew a line 40 feet out and said no light beyond this point. With the halogens on the v/3 its like having sunlight again or maybe better part is that I can finally see the deer trying to run out in front of the car again. On flip side I would have liked to get the upgrades such as ATP, better A/V package and fog lights but having halogens was a higher priority.

 

I just purchased a Touring Package...like you are thinking...but I just splurged...I really can't justify the extra cost...its all purely cosmetics...

 

No I didn't...thats another thing...its just something more complicated to break down...oh well, whats done is done. I take delivery in a week.

Where are you from?

 

I was in a similar position as yours. Had a hard time deciding if I should go with the touring package or not. IMO the 17" wheels are mostly for "looks" and the auto levelling led headlights, headlight washers were "cool" features but something i could live without and not worth the extra cost for me.

In the end I went with the luxury package mainly cause i really liked the heated softex seats. Having driven on some dark country roads i am happy to say the stock halogen headlamps are fantastic. Much better even than my retrofit bi-xenon HID(4300k OEM D2S bulbs) lights i had in my old car(Honda Fit). Projectors work excellent as low beams, giving a sharp cutoff with little to no stray light to blind other drivers and the reflector high beams are equally if not more impressive.

As for LED lights, from what i understand they should last a long time, possibly life of the vehicle, that being their main advantage. Not sure how they look compared to the halogen lights on the V but as I said above the stock halogen lights are pretty impressive as they are. I don't see how they could be improved upon.

HID are a totally different type of light and as far as I know there are no current prius models in any trim level that come factory with HID lighting. Again, correct me if i'm wrong but from what i know about HID lights, they have the advantage of longer life, brighter light, and lower power consumption over halogen headlamps.

 

What sort of (aftermarket?) LEDs did you have on your GenII? I don't recall Toyota offering them until GenIII.

 

I stand corrected, I always thoughts HIDs were LEDs. Now I know better. Anyway, I still hated the GEN II HID lights. Between short range and that incredibly bad design flaw on changing them out, plus cost of the bulbs it irritated me no end.

 

Don't know about the V, but I can tell you the LED headlamps on the Prius liftback are times better than the halogens. The light is crisp beautiful white and very much brighter. Only if my high beams were similar. Trying to find an option to swap those out as well if possible.

 

What have you donw with your high beams? I'm trying to find some high beam bulbs that will get as white and bright as possible without going HID (obviously). I don't like the contrasting yellow color of my high beams vs. the near-perfect white of the LED low beams. So far the Solaris 9005 bulbs seem to be the whitest i can find at 4300K. Any ideas/exepreince?

 

Great info. Thanks a lot. Seems those plain Silverstars are much more difficult to find than the Ultra. Amazon seems to only carry Ultras. Finally found the Silverstar and I see it's rated at 4000k which is very decent. But I think 4300 is whiter? or am I wrong? I do only plan to use the high beams when needed of course. So The life span is less important to me. If my high beams stay on an average one minute per week that's a lot.

 

Cheers!