I'm looking at some high-end replacement lamps here in Finland.

The options are:

- Mega Blue, blue glass which gives very white light, €14.99

- Mega Blue, blue glass which give very white light, gold gilded metal stem

Anyone any idea what benefit you get from the gold gilded metal stem, must say, I don't have a scooby-doo! €19.99

Gold would reduce oxidation if you were plugging them in and out all the time....

So in a car naff all difference apart from costing more and wasting some gold.

I'd personally say try and find a supplier for phillips extreme or osram nightbreakers as these perform well.

Cheers for the advice. I think you're right, I should go for the Philips extreme (probably from ebay). I was just trying to cut corners... a bit unwise here as by the time we get to December, sunrise is 10am and sunset is 2.30pm, so it's all night driving and no cat's eyes on the roads :( (snowploughs would scrape them off). Anyway thanks again!

I've run Phillips and Osram bulbs and what I will say is that in my experience the Osram silverstars are the best light output per £.

Also the Osram bulbs seem to last longer than the Phillips ones, but that could just be bad luck. The extreme and nightbreakers are certainly both good as we are running both in the family

Ach, I just ordered a pair of philips x-treme form ebay.

It's still so light here that haven't even had chance to try out the standard bulbs yet, am just going on the advice on here that the standard ones are pants.

The x-treme are fine, I'm running them in my Octy II at the moment as they were all I could get at short notice (eg 2 hours) prior to going off for a long night drive.

I've had a pair of X-tremes in the Astra for about 6 months, no problems.

Yeah I found Osrams seem to get about 2 years and the Phillips 1 year to 18 months.

One of my Osrams just crapped out two weeks ago, after more than 2 years. But I never tried Philips' though, as I hate the blueish light they put out.

My all time favourites for all year long hours driving are the Osram all weather.

Yellowed light coming out but 30% brighter and so at least as birght as OEM. I know most people hate yellow light, but it makes late night driving and driving in belting rain or fog so much easier due to the massivly reduced amount of glare coming back at you from the fog/rain etc.