Number one complaint to the US DOT has to do with glare from other
vehicle headlights
The old incadescent bulbs were not viewed as so bad, but the shift to
whiter and bluer lights has led to a vast increase in complaints about
oncoming glare.

On Nov 10, 2009, at 4:01 PM, John Anderson wrote:

> Ahh baloney.  And that is the point of the question.  Yes the
> federal government wants you to believe all that, and maybe it is
> true in some reflectors.  For years we've all stuffed higher output
> halogen's in stock reflectors that are illegal as well, or as
> illegally run european H4 relfectors, or what have you.  My point on
> the Rav is that I personally (yeah, not scientific at all) feel no
> significant glare to oncoming drivers is produced and so does 14
> months of not getting flashed for them.  But I'm easily willing to
> accept that for some instances this might not be the case, ie.
> perhaps in a stock Vanagon reflector, or it might be, which is what
> I'm trying to find out.
>
> YMMV.
>
> John
>
> --- On Tue, 11/10/09, Mike S <mikes@flatsurface.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> That's a bad idea. I'm assuming your're talking about the kits which
> place a HID bulb where a halogen used to be. Proper HIDs are a
> system - bulb position, reflector and lens are all designed to
> produce a proper beam. The arc in a HID is a different size/shape
> than a filament, and retrofit kits produce significantly more glare
> for other drivers. Leave it to the pre-pubes who want to be cool
> with their low output 9000K (more is better! not) purple lights.
>
>
>