Halogens vs. Xenons

[danthman]

Thinking of ordering a new 328i w/ mtx and sport pkg. Trying to keep options (and price) to a minimum, and wondering whether the xenons are worth the extra $750 (and from what I hear, $2-300 a bulb if they need replacing).

Opinions? If you don't have xenons, what do you think of the standard halogens?

Thanks!

-Dan

[code33]

They are worth it. Whats $750 more compared to the rest of the car and this is a safety item.....

[2K7328i]

coupe or sedan....??? The xenons come standard in the coupes

[danthman]

coupe or sedan....??? The xenons come standard in the coupes



Sedan.

[2K7328i]

Well lets see. How long do you spend driving in your car on average a day....???? How are you purchasing the car...??? Cash, Lease, Finance...??? Do you like to mod your vehicles...???

[danthman]

Well lets see. How long do you spend driving in your car on average a day....???? How are you purchasing the car...??? Cash, Lease, Finance...??? Do you like to mod your vehicles...???

I haven't made up my mind how I would pay for it yet, but I see your point, and I know BMW's hold their value well. I've had my current car, a '98 Prelude, since it was new, so I may not be an ideal candidate for leasing. Lately, I've been averaging about 12K miles per year. During the winter months, my commute home is often in the dark, but it's mostly lit urban or freeway driving.

The headlights on my Prelude are not great, but I've always found BMW headlights to be very good, even before xenons were invented. A friend tells me he was very happy with the ones on his E46, but the only thing I have to go on for the current generation is a Consumer Reports write-up on a 325i, where they said the low-beam halogens were below average (they haven't rated the xenons yet).

[Mark335i]

Thinking of ordering a new 328i w/ mtx and sport pkg. Trying to keep options (and price) to a minimum, and wondering whether the xenons are worth the extra $750 (and from what I hear, $2-300 a bulb if they need replacing).

Opinions? If you don't have xenons, what do you think of the standard halogens?
Thanks!
-Dan
I have the 335i Coupe and I have to say that it has the coolest looking (with the angel eyes) and functional headlight system I have ever owned. The brightness combined with the turning and self-leveling features are very functional for me as I do a lot of driving on winding unlit rural roads at night.:eek:

[MrWorf]

Xenon is Highly recommended. Not only does it look good, the light output is great, meaning better/longer visibility Besides, xenons lasts very long. Don't know anyone who has changed the bulb yet.

[aabimmer]

I've had 2001 325xiT, 2004 325xiT and now 2007 328xiT. Xenons on last two. The difference is like weak decaf and fully caffeinated espresso. I trimmed back on the 2007, but will not give up the xenons. Only ever replaced one on the 2004 and that was covered by the maintenance. Nevertheless, it's a bimmer. You'll adore it regardless.

[TimG]

I actually don't love Xenons. In my experience (see below), I feel that the the wide light-cone that the xenons throw is actually too much light for me on the periphery of my vision -- I keep getting distracted by what I'm seeing on the side of the road as it whizzes past, instead of paying attention to the middle of the road. And I don't feel like they illuminate that much farther, straight ahead. Though I could be wrong.

This experience comes from my girlfriend's mother's car - an '04 325xi - so it is possible it's different now?

Anyone else feel this way?

And, regardless: how are those halogens? I'm about to order an e91 with them.

[NFS13]

I actually don't love Xenons. In my experience (see below), I feel that the the wide light-cone that the xenons throw is actually too much light for me on the periphery of my vision -- I keep getting distracted by what I'm seeing on the side of the road as it whizzes past, instead of paying attention to the middle of the road. And I don't feel like they illuminate that much farther, straight ahead. Though I could be wrong.

This experience comes from my girlfriend's mother's car - an '04 325xi - so it is possible it's different now?

Anyone else feel this way?

And, regardless: how are those halogens? I'm about to order an e91 with them.


In normal daylight you would have your full periphery vision, so how is the night time vision a problem? Also, the better roadside vision lets you read signs and see road runoff better, and lets not forget to mention, see people and animals that may jump out in front of you.

[PeterC4]

coupe or sedan....??? The xenons come standard in the coupes


Interesting, xenons are standard on the 328 and 335 sedan and coupe in Canada as far as I know. Goes to show that you can't always compare cross border prices.

[Rubber Ducky]

From lurking this and other forums, am not aware of anyone moving to a new car w/o xenons once they've had them in a car. It is state-of-art, improves safety tremendously, and should be a required standard item on all cars (IMHO).

[TimG]

In normal daylight you would have your full periphery vision, so how is the night time vision a problem?

I don't know - I guess during the day I focus my eyes a lot farther ahead, and so am better able to ignore the peripheral stuff. I'll admit it's possible that I'm just not used to seeing out of the periphery at night, and that once I got used to it my mental focus would return to where it should be - in front of the car.

(I have to say, you all are starting to talk me out of my decision to skip the Xe's)

[JNMACE]

My 528i did not originally come with xenon lighting so I added them to the vehicle. The difference was immediately apparent. It is not so much the additional brightness, which is not as much as people might try to make you believe, rather it is that there is enough light to evenly spread it across the road as well as off to either side . This makes night driving much easier and enables me to see things that I formerly needed to turn my fogs on to see (edge of the road...around turns...).

The negative is the sharp cutoff. When I am driving on rural roads where there is little lighting I find that the sharp cutoff, instead of the comparatively gradual cutoff of the halogens, makes it difficult to see any further than that cutoff line unless the brights are turned on. This can be dangerous on hills especially.

[danthman]

(I have to say, you all are starting to talk me out of my decision to skip the Xe's)

Heh, I know you mean. Very tempted to get them now too, but I don't think a single owner of a new 3 w/ halogens has commented, so it's sort of a biased sample :) It could also mean that almost all 3's have xenons installed, so may be good for resale to have them.

-Dan

[2K7328i]

If you finance your BMW then 750 / 60 = $12.50 more a month. Having xenons for the resale value will also be a key item for selling. I'm only 22 years old and my biggest item I wanted was a 6mt and then xenons. I wanted a BMW with a mt which is kinda hard to find these days, ya know. Your looking at a sedan, but I wanted a coupe. Sedans look like the past 2 years, but the coupe are newly redesigned which I like.

So whether it be money that your looking at or just plain old wants.. I say go for the xenons.

[PeterC4]

Isn't there a package where you can combine the xenons with say...the Logic7 stereo? Seems to me that there are some options that make sense to consider.

[SpunkyE30nOk]

xenon bulbs are expensive...the ones i sell for infiniti range from like $209.00-$324.00

[danthman]

xenon bulbs are expensive...the ones i sell for infiniti range from like $209.00-$324.00

Thanks, that verifies what I said at the beginning of this thread. Basically, $750 up front, then $400-$600 to replace both low-beams. Question is, how long do they last, on average? And does BMW's 4 yr maintenance cover them?

Thx,

-Dan

[NFS13]

Thanks, that verifies what I said at the beginning of this thread. Basically, $750 up front, then $400-$600 to replace both low-beams. Question is, how long do they last, on average? And does BMW's 4 yr maintenance cover them?

Thx,

-Dan

They are covered for the warranty period, 4yrs. I have a 5 year old 745 with the original bulbs.

[steve99m3]

I love the xenon lights on my coupe. I find the peripheral lighting a real benefit while driving in the country where deer are a constant threat! The fact that they are adaptive makes you just want more corners...

[Lightngsvt]

May be apples to oranges, but I had xenons in my E46 M3. I test drove an E46 with halogens and it was night and day difference (no pun intended). I wouldn't order one without them. The E90 328 I recently test drove had them and the light pattern and visibilty was great.

[JNMACE]

I forgot to mention that some xenon lights are much much better than others, just like with halogen lights, and that can affect some peoples perspective on whether they are worth the money.

The xenon lights that a 2000 540 or M5 might have on them, which was before the light rings started appearing on them, where not particularly impressive. The later version with the light rings seem to have a better pattern but they still don't seem to be as nice as on the E46 cars.

In fact, I have driven some of the E46 service loaners that did not have xenon lights and felt like they were brighter and better overall than my 528i with xenon lights. When they gave me a 525i loaner without xenon lights I knew it was much better to have the xenons in the 5 series than to go without them.

It really does depend on the lights and whether they are well designed or just put on to attract buyers to the pretty blue lights. I noticed that down south of Houston there were MANY new 3 series cars without the xenon lights, but here in Chicago I barely ever see a new one without them. It was the same in Atlanta as in Houston...fewer of the 3 series I saw on the road had the HID lights. Some of us really prefer them while others just don't care one way or the other.

I personally wouldn't want to go without them. However, there are many people who disagree with most of us here but they just don't post on this, or any, online forum.

[danthman]

Thanks everyone. Just ordered a 328i. I did decide to go with the xenons. Appreciate all the replies. I'll let you know how I like them in eight weeks :)

-Dan

[777ER]

The negative is the sharp cutoff. When I am driving on rural roads where there is little lighting I find that the sharp cutoff, instead of the comparatively gradual cutoff of the halogens, makes it difficult to see any further than that cutoff line unless the brights are turned on. This can be dangerous on hills especially.

That's due to the regulations requring the xenons must have a auto adjustment that reduces or minimizes blinding other drivers.

Have you noticed when you start going uphill at the base, the lights shift upwards, and it does the opposite when going downhill? That's the system.

Now if you want to eliminate the sharp cutoff, you can simply put a aftermarket xenons into a halogen housing!
That's what I did on my '99 Z28 and it doens't have the sharp cut-off but the light is like reflected everywhere. Even got some drivers flashing brights at me, which I in return flash back at them brighter!
The aftermarket kit I have installed is a 7500k brightness

You gotta be careful when you put xenons into a halogen housing since the heat can be a problem. For my '99 Z28 it wasn't since there's alot of space inside the housing and have had it for over 100k now.

The bulbs are about 90 bucks a piece and the ballast is the expensive part but the input watts is only 30 watts!

If you read the fine print on the manual or the ballast (can't remember which) it states that at startup, the voltage goes to 200,000 then down to 32 or 12v to run. The startup is what the ballast are needed for.

[777ER]

xenon bulbs are expensive...the ones i sell for infiniti range from like $209.00-$324.00

yikes!

well if you think about it, the halogens degrades over time loosing light output while the xenon goes out when it's broke.

To see this effect, find a car with high miles that haven't replaced the headlight bulbs since it was new, replace the opposite side and you will see the difference.

All I have to say those HID wannabe bulbs (blue tint) suck! I went thru 3 pairs less than 10-15k each before I settled down on the xenon kit.

[Grant H]

The Xenon lights are totally and completely worth every penny and more. I love the lights on this car. It is by far the best option to have IMO.