Sorry 3 in a row,my wrists are out for a slap.
I spend all most as much time driving in dark conditions as day light,all highway,when I pass or get passed,my lights are shinning down the road further than most,not high in the trees looking for monkeys,but washing the road,the ditches,and they are bright to me,but have never seemed to be an issue for on coming traffic,never been flashed.If I lived in a city,or where there was house lights lining the roads,maybe I would not see a need for them.When I drive my 94 dakota,with regular guy headlights,I feel blind.
It's not about brightness,it's about how they are aimed.
Now a 3rd higher speed on the wipers would help

 

My night vision sucks so it was a no-brainer for me to get them. I really like how well they illuminate. I also have driving lights , and the combo REALLY lights up empty country roads on a dark night. It's like it is daytime with all of them blasting.

Anyway, I highly recommend the Xenon's...

 

Yeah, my daughter's night vision is bad, too...I guess I'll be recommending Xenons to her one of these days.

I guess this gets at an important issue...I do drive city streets, mostly. Fairly well lit. Even what back roads I do rarely encounter at night are for short periods and there's lots of other vehicals (so even hi-beams are generally out). So for me Xenons wouldn't always demonstrate their full potential.

If the Xenon option (or any option, for that matter) is fulfilling a legitimate purpose for the driver (whether real or imagined), that's great. If it's just for effect...well people can spend their money as they wish.... but I tend to shy away from purely "effects" stuff.

The originator wanted opinions...glad he's getting some!!!

 

Well I had no choice on the zenons,standard gear up here,but I am very happy I have themI also do not get "stuff" for effects.Well the mud flaps do have an effect on splatter on the sides of the car,and the Elbow landing device tends to keep my hand from resting on the shifter,which can have a grave effect on your tranny.

 

I have 'em, and love them. Excellent illumination at night. They are Audi "blue" when first ignited (turned on), then turn white colored after 10 seconds or so. Higher Kalvin bulbs are available for that Audi look, but the replacement bulbs run about $125 each! Here is a popular site for bulbs http://www.hidexpress.com/index.asp?...ATS&Category=5

 

What does the blue light do for seeing at night.I work in theatre,and we use blue light back stage so the fans can't see us moving around.

 

I find it interesting that people have such fervery hatred of Xenons. I have to think that these people are hyper-sensitive to light.

 

I've had both types of headlights, (first Cooper had the standard headlights), and I can enthusiastically recommend that you order Xenons. I don't see as well at night, and the Xenons really make a HUGE difference for me.

The new Xenons are so cool-looking! They look Flash Gordon-ish in a fun, retro way! Wanda has the first generation Xenons, and when I buy another MINI, I will definitely want the Xenons again. They are well-worth ordering, either separately, or in a package.

Clover

 

Those new xenons would look fab on an all-black MCS Convertible!!!!!!

 

Umm since when are the Xenon's $800?? They were $550 on my 04' and currently listed at $550 for the 05' i have on order.....

 

I'd say the Xenon's are overkill and unnecessary. Besides, new Super Xenon's are bound to come out, giving an even better view of the road and upsetting even more drivers of approaching cars. This would require an upgade to have bragging rights for the latest and greatest headlights. The Halogen lights seem real good to me. It's true the Halogen's don't have the "cool" factor of the Xenon's, so for some the $550 might seem like a bargin.

I do constantly wish I had the auto wipers and auto dipping rear view mirror.....just kidding.

 

resmini, have you ever driven in a MINI with Xenons? It's hard to drive in cars without them once you see the difference. When done right, the sharp cutoff and auto-levelers make them a lot better for other cars. The problem is that in the states, most Xenons are aftermarket on Civics or Integras and aren't done right...I won't even go into the jacked up trucks that have them

 

Yes, the Xenons are adjustable, and are set a bit low from the factory. I've never had a single oncoming car/truck give me the high-beam flash.:smile:

On the other hand, I've been blinded by Bimmer-drivers on many occasions! Grrrrrr!

Clover

 

I believe a lot of aftermarket kits are considered for off-road use only..not legal for the streets. I thought that after July 2003 aftermarket HIDs were banned from being sold or shipped in the U.S. Is that still in effect?

I know I like the xenons much better then halogens and never will go back if possible.

 

Not only do they work nice... but "Xenon" is just a cool word.

 

I have a 2005 cooper s with the xenon lights. I was one of the few options I added to the car. An excellent safety feature. I love them. I do a lot of early morning and night driving and the illumination is excellent. I would not even give it a second thought if you are going to do a decent amount of night driving. The xenon lights really brighten up the road in front of you.

 

50 percent of my driving is between 3 and 4 AM. the Xenons are worth every penny.

 

Since you provided such a nice reply to my post I'll answer with this confessional....no, I've actually never driven any car with Xenon headlights. I have been blinded by a few very white, intense lights that I thought were Xenons, but maybe they were misadjusted or whatever.

Having retired from a nuclear power plant the word Xenon brings back bad memories. It was a fission product, "poison" that made restarting the reactor after shutdown difficult. Not my friend at the time.

I'm sure Xenon headlights are a lot friendlier.

 

As we get older, I think that our eyes just simply take longer to recover from sudden exposure to bright light, and that the condition tends to be exacerbated if the light source is of a high color temperature. I recall reading on a web site dedicated to the technical details of vehicle lighting that people perceive shorter-wavelength light as being less bright than they do a longer wavelegth light source of the same intensity. If this is the case, it could explain why it may take longer to recover from exposure to HID-generated light than from incandescent halogen light. If our pupils don't constrict as quickly or as much in response to HID lamps as they do to halogen lamps, then it will take longer for our retinas to recover from the overexposure, even if the light doesn't "look" any brighter to us as we are gazing toward it.

I'm glad that our MINIs come with 4300K HID bulbs and actually appear to be clean white when viewed by oncoming traffic, rather than the "Bling Bling Blue" cast that BMW models seem to have. I hope this has not changed with the advent of the '05 HID projector design. I ordered HID lamps because I want to see better, not because I wanted to be seen.

On a personal note, my grandfather has expressed extreme dislike for HIDs in general. He recognized several years ago the his night vision is nowhere near what it used to be, and he now limits his driving to daylight hours to avoid problems. What's interesting to me about my grandfather's case is that although he is not at all shy about expressing his opinion of HIDs, but he has never commented on the lights on my MINI. Honestly, I suspect he hasn't noticed that they are HIDs, or I'm sure he would have asked me what I could possibly have been thinking when I got them...

 

That can't be right. Many cars, including BMW's come with Xenon hi and low beams. BMW calls them bi-xenon.

Bob

 

After living with Xenon's for a very short period, you will want them in everything you drive.


Bob

 

I have them and don't know if I'd get them again. I love the color temp (sorry, I'm a Physicist nerd) but I don't like the lack of scatter. So while the field of vies is very bright, the off-areas are very, very dark. I've also noticed that the reflector design in many cars, not sure about the mini, has a rather high beam coming off to the side a bit. A lot of Xenons bother me most not when they're directly benhind me, but when they're one lane over!

I don't know what they cost as an add on, but I think the modern halogens are pretty bright. You can always go to a bulb with more power too! So in the cost per lumen, I'm not that happy.

But the color balance is really, really good.

Matt

 

The xenons saw some deer tonight,that decided to move onto the road tonight.Now I was not going to fast,40mph,but seeing them helped me slow,and let them cross the road.
It is not just the brightness,but these xenons have great spread from side to side

 

I believe the cutoff is intentional..you don't want a lot of scatter with hids and that's seems to be the problem with aftermarket kits because the reflectors are not intended for hids but for halogens.

 

I believe that these lamps work by a mechanical means of altering the projector optics to alter the beam pattern. With incandescent halogen bulbs, creating multiple focus patterns from a single bulb is as simple as adding a second filament to the bulb, in an offset position from the first. Not so with an HID system, since the bulbs do need several seconds to warm up after ignition, and the high-voltage spike needed to start the bulb is stressful to it.

Some prototype "HID-only" headlamp designs I have seen work by moving a sliding masking sleeve over a portion of the bulb to block the "high-beam" output, thus achieving the same effect as the offset filaments in an incandescent dual-filament bulb. Other proposed designs actually shift the bulb in relation to the reflector inside the projector assembly. The added mechanical complexity required to do this is expensive, and is a lot more easily rolled into the price of a BMW 745Li than it could be into the MSRP of a MINI.

Hella makes HID auxilliary lamps available in a size that would fit the MINI, but as much as I would like to get them, I have to admit that they are not very practical, especially for the cost. I have to dip the brights far too often during my night driving to do anything but quickly ruin a set of HID aux bulbs.