Projector lights.....is it me?

[A5GUR]

Ive had xenons on my previous car (vw golf), i now have the facelift e46 with the projector headlights. I could swear the beam goes just as far in my e46 (non-xenons) then with the golf (xenons). The only difference seems to be the colour of the light. Or is it just me?

[Chaos]

My girlfriends mum has a Golf and she hates her headlights, I had to put high power ones in for her and she still says they're nothing special. BMWs have decent halogens but I think it's more down to VW not having the best headlights tbh. I think there's a couple of Golf guys on here, they're probably better placed to compare.

[A5GUR]

ive heard that too. Apparently the xenons on the MK4's arent too good. Oh well!

[Raj]

The standard VW headlights are very poor IMHO. The corrado was the same the golf no better. I believe its actually down more to the wiring from what I can remember. You could actually get an additional wiring loom for the corrado that made a sh*t load of difference. The Xenons on the golf were excellent over the stock lights. BMs lights are just far better to start with.

[Faisal]

Remember that Xenons are intentionally downward facing so as not to blind oncoming drivers. It's not how far the beam is thrown, but rather the intensity of it -- that is why Xenons are so much better. If you had them facing higher, the beam would be thrown much further -- but you'd also be breaking the law as well as potentially causing an accident by blinding other drivers.

[scorcher]

Must admit I've not noticed the R32's xenons being any worse than on my E39, but the lenses on my BMW were very scratched and pitted with stone chips, which certainly wouldn't have helped.

Haven't done a great deal of night driving in the Golf though