I was in the dealers yesterday (as my car has been off the road all week.)

When I was there I saw the showroom model Superb SE Plus at what i think is the most silly price (cheaper than my L&K when i got it)

I said to the saleman that if he could get me in the car at the same monthly that I am paying, he has a deal.

When I got home I realsied that the SE plus does not have Xenons. One of the things I like most about my car is the visibility with the lights.

has anybody changed back from Xenons to Hallogens as I said I never would.

Although I don't have xenon a on my octavia, I have had them on a Saab 9-5. They were good, but the best lights on any car I've had were on a mk2 Nissan primera and they were halogen - separate h1 bulbs for dipped and main beam.

Beam pattern is key. Although xenons put out more light its no good if the beam pattern doesn't make use of it

I'll be interested in this too, my Leon has xenons and every vrs I've seen has halogens.

I had this when my mk1 octavia l&k was written off and at that point (2005) the mk2 l&k had haligens. It was definitely a step down. And I traded for a new l&k as soon as they reintroduced xenons.

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Although I don't have xenon a on my octavia, I have had them on a Saab 9-5. They were good, but the best lights on any car I've had were on a mk2 Nissan primera and they were halogen - separate h1 bulbs for dipped and main beam.

Beam pattern is key. Although xenons put out more light its no good if the beam pattern doesn't make use of it

Although I don't have xenon a on my octavia, I have had them on a Saab 9-5. They were good, but the best lights on any car I've had were on a mk2 Nissan primera and they were halogen - separate h1 bulbs for dipped and main beam.

Beam pattern is key. Although xenons put out more light its no good if the beam pattern doesn't make use of it

thats interesting. all I know is that what I have read on the skoda website is that the xenons are 2.5 times as bright, and you can really notice the difference.

I have xenon on the Yeti and halogen on the Fabia, the Fabia has candles in comparison to the Yeti!

If you're that fussed (and assuming the superb has projector lenses and you don't mind fracturing the odd law) you could always stick HIDs in?

If you ever have a leveling motor fail on the xenon's... perhaps you would not be so keen!

Personally speaking like a lot of goodies, great when they work and a right pain when they do not

Halogens are a very cheap, effective and reliable lighting system

I suppose I should really arrnage a test drive at night to see.

my last 3 cars have had xenons been in a friends car with halogen and the answer is no I would never go back

I have never had any problems with xenons on my 330 m bmw or my toureg alltitude the ones on my vrs are also good but will be changing it soon but which ever car I get it will have xenons

If you ever have a leveling motor fail on the xenon's... perhaps you would not be so keen!

But isn't the levelling motor itself the same as those fitted to halogens, the only difference been that the input to the levelling motors is controlled by sensors under the car instead of the thumb wheel on the dash...

The first Octavia we bought (Scout) has xenon's.

I therefore waited and waited unti I found a vRS with them because they were so good.

My last car, vx omega mv6, had factory xenons. The car i had before it i fitted an hid kit. My vrs has halogens. Theres a BIG differance, imo, between the factory xenons and the halogens, loved the xenons and dont think the halogens are much use tbh! The hid kit was somewhere in between i feel, but still not a patch on factory fit. Took me a couple days after getting my vrs to get used, i live in a rural area and never used high beam in the omega, yet feel the need in the vrs more often. Took a couple days to click that i never had the xenons anymore...DOH Plus, i think xenons add a nice upmarket look to a car!

Oh and my xenons turn and that also helps

I testdrove a handful of Octavias over the last few weeks, both pre and post facelift, and I have to say I prefer the light pattern from the pre-facelift xenons. They don't turn, but the beam is noticeably wider.

I also think the pre-facelift lights use the US DOT spec light pattern, where the FL turning lights use the ECE one. I didn't park against a wall or anything when I drove a 2007 model, but it looked a lot like the "flatter" DOT pattern.

Edited 11 November, 201213 yr by Perc

But isn't the levelling motor itself the same as those fitted to halogens, the only difference been that the input to the levelling motors is controlled by sensors under the car instead of the thumb wheel on the dash...

Maybe, but I imagine you can't (or most places won't) replace jut the motor. One of mine has recently failed and the dealership are replacing the entire headlight under warranty.

I know a guy who is looking to replace a ballast for xenon lights on a C4 grand picasso, doesn't sound too bad, £240+VAT that is just for one side!

But from my point of view I would certainly have them again, xenons really are good and should be standard on all cars from a safety point of view.

My last car, vx omega mv6, had factory xenons. The car i had before it i fitted an hid kit. My vrs has halogens. Theres a BIG differance, imo, between the factory xenons and the halogens, loved the xenons and dont think the halogens are much use tbh! The hid kit was somewhere in between i feel, but still not a patch on factory fit. Took me a couple days after getting my vrs to get used, i live in a rural area and never used high beam in the omega, yet feel the need in the vrs more often. Took a couple days to click that i never had the xenons anymore...DOH Plus, i think xenons add a nice upmarket look to a car!

. I've not really considered too much whether there is a huge difference in performance of factory fit vs HID (although I assumed the cances are if one was better, it would be the OEM ones).

Out of curiosity, did your car with the HIDs have projector or reflector lenses. I'd see little reason why OEM would e better in projectors but can very much see why reflector fitted HIDs wouldn't be a patch on factory fit xenons

factory fit are friendly to the oncoming motorist, home fit HID are not and dazzle everybody coming in the opposite direction

factory fit are friendly to the oncoming motorist, home fit HID are not and dazzle everybody coming in the opposite direction

.

I'm not gonna get into a boring argument over dazzle or legality - the only reason I asked is because (as far as I am aware) with the Octy headlights there's no difference between the two, except for self levellers and auto washers. That's why I assumed performance would be equal

I am not arguing mate, I would love to change the Fabia to xenon/HID but I don't think I should. I have been looking for a trashed Fabia II with xenons to maybe retro fit the headlights to our car.

^ post wasn't meant to antagonistic.

I have Xenons in my Octavia and Halogens in my Fabia.

I have to say that the Halogen headlights in my Fabia are pretty good compared to cars I've had in the past. However they are nowhere near as good as the factory xenons in the Octavia.

Without wanting to get into a whole debate about after market HID kits, I am considering fitting them to my Fabia. The reflector headlights in the fabia have a pretty good natural cut off and I am sure that with H7R HID bulbs and a slight downward adjustment of the beams, they would be no more dazzling than factory xenons, which are slightly more dazzling than standard halogens anyway......I very occasionally get flashed with my factory xenons.

I testdrove a handful of Octavias over the last few weeks, both pre and post facelift, and I have to say I prefer the light pattern from the pre-facelift xenons. They don't turn, but the beam is noticeably wider.

I also think the pre-facelift lights use the US DOT spec light pattern, where the FL turning lights use the ECE one. I didn't park against a wall or anything when I drove a 2007 model, but it looked a lot like the "flatter" DOT pattern.

my 2011 FL with factory fit dynamic (turning) xenons is definately of the "DOT" type cutoff, based on the pics above.

not ECE type/

I bought a set of Octavia xenon headlights from Ebay (with the projector lens) and fitted a Pilot 6000k set. The ballast fits into the rear "box" on the headlight units. Don't have washers or levellers. When it's time for yearly technical inspection, unplug the headlights, remove them, and refit the halogen headlights. Independant next to the inspection place will check the alignment of the halogens, then I go through the inspection with a big box in the boot that contains my xenon headlights. After inspection, straight swap back to xenons and the independant checks the levelling again, all for 5€.

I live in Belgium, it's illegal to drive around with xenons without washers or levellers.

In the Netherlands, they did a study that said if everyone had xenons, there would be 30% less accidents; So over there, they are abolishing the washer/levelling rule and they will allow all cars to have(aftermarket) xenons.

I would *never* go back, and my next car will have OEM xenons...

You need to remember that it's possible to get the facelift octavia with AFS xenon headlights, chances are that if your lights have the turning function then you have AFS. AFS dynamically alters the vehicle headlights based on road speed and weather conditions, what this means in practice is that parked in front of a wall the beam pattern will be very different to 30MPH, and 60MPH plus.

from octavia pages on Skoda UK website.

Xenon headlights with AFS II (standard on L&K, optional on vRS and Elegance) are 2.5 times brighter than standard halogen headlights. The AFS II (Adaptive Front-light System) includes cornering headlights, the headlights move to illuminate the corner more than normal headlights and are dependent on speed and angle of the steering wheel. These provide the driver with increased visibility therefore enhancing safety.

The superb Elegance uses the same AFS system, there is a good description of AFS here.

http://www.carpages.co.uk/skoda/skoda-superb-07-11-08.asp