The DOT banned aftermarket HID conversions because the reflector and lens design of most OEM headlights are not properly set up for HIDs and produce dangerous glare. If you live in a place with speed limits and traffic, you should not be able to over-drive your stock lights.

 

maybe there is not a lot of cars with hid kits where you live, but where i live it's a freaking trend for all the kids to have them and it's really annoying

 

HID kits leave a lot to be desired. Installing HID Kits are like cutting your stock springs to lower your car.

I had factory HIDs on my last car. It was really disappointing at first driving at night with the Fit's normal lights, but I put good Halogen bulbs in and the light is surprisingly nice now.

 

you got the Phillip X tream bulb.. how are they??

 

here you go!

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...tml#post141410

 

I ordered them from PowerBulbs UK.
They are noticeably brighter, but not incredibly brighter. The focus points of the headlight reflectors are also more noticeable then stock (seen as two brighter areas) as they easily throw farther down the road, but it's not severe and not distracting as the entire flood pattern is more filled-in. It is a little whiter in temperature due to the brighter output, but is by no means a super-white type of bulb, and nothing like the super-blinding-white retouched photos on the philips websites. I'm just happy to have the brightest 55W halogens available

It's enough light to satisfy a reasonable person, especially for the price. When I have an opportunity I'll try to take some pictures, but I'll need to find a good area to do it, and make sure I setup my camera properly.

Supposedly the bulbs put out the same amount of light as other high-output halogens, but the scattered light is reduced through improved design. AutoExpress thinks that the +80% is a conservative rating based on the test samples they received... however those may not be representative of true production samples:
Products | Auto Express News | News | Auto Express

 

I can only think of a handful of times when people with HID's that have ever blinded me. I find people that do the conversions (at least around here) tend to be more responcible with them.

lol, my pet peeve is people who drive around with thier high beams on because they can "see" better in the city with them.

 

Even though I'm pretty new here, quangalang, you are my favorite person here so far. This is always a fun debate to watch. I love how there are some people that know their HID "kit" creates a ton of glare and just don't care about other people on the road, and others are totally in denial because they've been misinformed.

If your car came with halogen housings, HID bulbs were not designed to be used in them. Most halogen housings are designed to reflect a small amount of light above where the beam is focused (a.k.a. - cut off line), for signs and what not. When you slap in a HID bulb that's 3x brighter, it will only exaggerate that reflection creating glare for oncoming traffic. Since the fit uses the same reflector housing for the high and low beams, it would probably make the glare even worse (in theory).

Go to any forum with cars that have halogen housings and the debate will rage on.

Hopefully I'll be able to do a TL or FX (w/ aTSX lense swap) retro in a set of Fit housings one day and then we can compare wall shots to see who's got more glare.