>>I have never had a test drive at night.<<

Have you asked for one ? I do, and it gets a very mixed reception. Some dealers will let you have a car for a couple of days. If not, then I've asked if they have a rental that I could hire.
My 16-year old primera has HID xenons (as std) - and they're excellent. I want something equally good in a replacement.

if the road is clear of oncoming traffic the main beam has amazing range.

Oh, absolutely F. The Saab 9-3 had world class lights when launched in 2003. In mine I’ve fitted Osram Night Breaker Unlimited bulbs in both HID and halogen positions. I regularly travel the Fosse Way between SW Leics and Wiltshire (home to my brother’s) and tend to travel mostly at night when the roads are quieter. As you say, the range is phenomenal, easily useable out to 400+m (which well exceeds stopping distances even when pressing on – on the track my car will stop from 150 in just 280m) with an effective reflective range easily exceeding a mile. Back in my rallying days, you had to spend big bucks on Cibies or KC Daylighters to get that kind of performance – how I wish we had headlights like todays back then!

And it’s not just the range. Light spread, beam pattern and glare are all well under control. No bright or dark spots, no wasted light heading skywards. I will never go back to a car with halogens (no choice in the wife’s C1, but then it’s hardly a ‘performance’ car, lol).

Scott22, your're welcome.

I am rather perturbed by comments made by RT regarding the lower wattage HID - much appreciate finding out at this time.

With regards to Cyd's comment about headlight upgrades, I'm pretty sure fitting of the +100 type H4 or H7 bulbs to halogen headlights woudl be road legal, but certainly fitting a HID conversion to replace a halogen unit (ie the whole headlight assembly) is not road legal.

Edited by Smileyman on 18/08/2016 at 21:11

"Note that these conversions are illegal. MoT inspectors are supposed to look for them and fail them"

Really? This extract from the current tester's manual seems to say otherwise.

Vehicles equipped with High Intensity Discharge (HID) or LED dipped beam headlamps may be fitted with headlamp washers and a suspension or headlamp self levelling system. Where such systems are fitted, they must work; however, it is accepted that it may not be possible to readily determine the functioning of self levelling systems. In such cases, the benefit of the doubt must be given.