I have only driven a car (if a renault laguna merits that description) with Xenon headlights since 2001 and about to take the plunge and buy either an Octavia or a new Superb.

Opinions please on:

Will I notice a significant difference going back to "conventional" lights - has the technology advanced?

If the opinion is "yes" then is there a marked difference between Octavia Xenons and the replacement halogens recommended in other posts?

I do at least 180 miles per week of "B" and unclassified road driving in Yorkshire Dales and north Lancashire - 90% in the dark in winter

Thanks

Peter K

Yes.

HTH

Definately yes.

I had them on my TT and they were really good but I don't do a lot of night driving hence didn't bother for the VRs

Oh yes - this is my first car with xenons and they are worth every penny in my opinion. Bright light that goes further, I need to use my main beams less.

I'd have trouble going for a non-Xenon equipped car, now I've got them

They are really rather good - I find the quality of light output helps in night driving too, my eyes don't get as tired. And coupled with uprated main beam bulbs, cross-country A and B road night driving is made much easier.... :drivesaf:

Steve

I dont have Xenons, only a HID kit and the difference over Halogen is amazing - Looks the dogs ballsack too!

Yes. They are the mutts danglies.

Factory fit xenons are well worth the money. I had them on my Octy and they were fantastic. The washers are pretty cool too.

Hi Harry vRS what HID kit are you using. is it one from HID's 4 u? if not which one is it?

I had them as factory fit on my Octy II and can say I found them very clear and bright. One thing that disappointed me was because of the very sharp cut-off of the beam, you can not see anything that is not in the beams direct line of fire. Unlike the less bright Halogen which has a soft fill/flood effect that lets you see the contours of bends that you are going round (I am thinking of tight cross county types of bends) the Xenons don’t give you any clue and the contrast of the bright beam and very dark non-illuminated areas can be a bit of a pain if you can’t use your main beam. Also the main beam isn’t Xenon (at least mine wasn’t) and you can see the difference of the lights intensities quite markedly in the overlaps of dipped and main.

So to sum up for me, yes they are good, but there are some drawbacks and for cross country work I think they are not really any better overall, at least at when you are on very winding roads and unable to supplement the lights with your main beam. And before anyone says it……..I did have my lights checked professional a couple of times too.

Yes get them.

I really miss them in my works mondy after a weekend driving the Octavia.

If you do a lot of driving on twisty roads that aren’t illuminated I would still try to get a test drive at night with Xenons. My current car (non Skoda)has Xenons and the beam pattern seems to be better for cross country work, they aren’t any brighter, just a slightly different beam pattern

Hi Harry vRS what HID kit are you using. is it one from HID's 4 u? if not which one is it?

Hi.

Bought the kit from Awesome GTI, its a "Virtual Daylight" 8000K kit. Looks proper menacing at night

I'll post some pics up tomorrow.

Also the main beam isn’t Xenon (at least mine wasn’t) and you can see the difference of the lights intensities quite markedly in the overlaps of dipped and main.

Yeah, you need a Bi-Xenon setup for that. But uprating the main beam bulbs all but sorts the issue. My Nightbreakers have a very similar colour of light output to the Xenon dipped setup. They also throw light a heck of a lot further down the road

Steve

Yeah, you need a Bi-Xenon setup for that. But uprating the main beam bulbs all but sorts the issue. My Nightbreakers have a very similar colour of light output to the Xenon dipped setup. They also throw light a heck of a lot further down the road

LOL, so they start flashing you from 10 miles away rather then the usual 2

But you see them earlier, so what's the difference?

Bi-Xenons, as on the Superb (both old and new) are fantastic. I've not been so impressed by the dipped beam Xenons on my Octavia.

If you do go for them, you will want to get some increased output bulbs for the high beam, so that the light intensity matches more closely.

If you go for the Superb, then I'd say definitely get them. If you go for the Octavia, then I'd suggest a test drive with them first.

Bagpuss.

Yes, but after a Golf GTI MK5 I was disappointed to go back to mono-xenons, rather than full bi-xenons which illuminate the future they stretch so far*

(*not strictly true, they just see further in space, not time)

I have found them very good on motorways - a good spread of white light over all three lanes - much better than standard halogens, but I agree the sharp cut off can be an issue especially in fog.

You should see a small improvement in fuel economy too - both lights use 40W in total rather than 120W- about 0.3% saving if the engine is being used at 25%!!!

IMO Xenon's are all well and good unless you are unlucky enough to be driving the car in front of someone who has them

But like you said you do a lot of country driving so probably a good thing to have.

But like you said you do a lot of country driving so probably a good thing to have.

I think the opposite can be true, I really didn’t like them in certain conditions whilst driving through twistys. There isn’t much beam spill to illuminate the fringes.

Could well be worth going out in an Octavia with halogens, but with uprated bulbs. That's if there's a Briskodian nearby, so equipped.

Steve

IMO Xenon's are all well and good unless you are unlucky enough to be driving the car in front of someone who has them

That's why we have auto dim mirrors

Correct me if I am wrong, but I always thought that the headlights could only project to a certain maximum distance by law, so I couldnt see how with Xenons you can see further - only clearer.