Xenon's ??? Why £750 and are they worth it???

[Sealy]

I'm about to order my GTI but would like to know more about what you actually get for the £750 Xenon option.

1) Are they worth it?

2) Can you just fit Xenon Bulbs instead of standard?

3) What else does the £750 get you other than the washers & Xenon Bulbs?

Cheers in advance

[SamD]

Xenons are almost always worth it. They really do make a huge difference at night. They also make your car more attractive when selling it.

[Dave]

Yes,

having had them on both of my last Audi's, they are now pretty much first on the options list.

Until you have driven at night with them, they are hard to understand. But you can drive faster and more safely in the dark due to the greater luminescent .

[Sealy]

But can the standard bulbs be replaced with Xenons or are they a differenty head lamp assembly alltogether.

[SamD]

No it is a completely different unit entirely. There is no cheap way of getting Xenons. You can replace the standard bulbs with some brighter (Philips?) ones, but they won't be nearly as good

[DHA]

The xenon gas discharge bulbs on their own are fairly expensive. You will also need to install headlamp washers and self levelling to make them fully legal if you retro fit.

Yes they are worth it and I would consider not buying a car now if they were not available as an option or not fitted to a used car.

[Muppetboy]

I think Petsy or Leman changed their standard bulbs for Xenon look-a-likees, seem to remember the results being reported as very good if not to the same level as real Xenon's!

[Tarmac_Terrorist]

I didn't order xenons but upgraded my bulbs to Philips Blue Visions (white light). This has improved them although the Golf is noted for having very good headlamps anyway. My father in law has just got xenons on his Ed30 GTI. He's never had them before and does like them. However, he'snot certain that they're 'that' much better than those on his 10 year old Fiat Coupe Turbo and feels that although they are better, they are a little overpriced for what they are. I guess it depends on how much night driving you do.

In a poll last year on here I'm sure it suggested that half if not more of those whobought xenons bought them for looks alone.

[sparkzz]

i wouldnt buy a car now without them!!..

The car i bought before the Golf doesnt have them, and when i drive that its awful, i quite often think my lights arent even on!!

[robe]

Its purely down to personal preference and how you value money. If 750 quid is nothing to you, then great - do it. If however you consider 750 a lot of dosh, and you don't drive fast at night, then maybe they are not for you.

My gti has regular lights and i really don't miss not having xenons.

If you visualise a pile of cash on the table in front of you (750 quid) and what you could do with that, if the MOST important thing you can think of doing is swapping regular lights for xenons on your gti then go for it. Personally i can think of a whole lot more things i'd prefer to spend that much cash on.

I've bought whole cars for less..

[RedRobin]

But, robe, if you're going to play Captain Sensible, there's always other things you should be spending your money on rather than car stuff.

[stooH]

Indeed, try and imagine 20 odd thousand sitting in front of you and think what you could do with that, or buy a GTI...

Still smiling!

[wantmygti]

When i got my GTI the Xenons were £725 and the base car was £20,360. That's just 3.5% of the cost for the xenons! They clearly outperform the standard lights and look better.

Plus, i had a crash last year whereby someone drove into me at night and as these lights might slightly improve my night visibility to other drivers I decided to go for it. (well the last reason was just me convincing myself really but you never know!)

[Philbes]

Xenons are well worth having but the current prices are a rip-off and have a huge profit margin. Prices will likely stay high as long as people are prepared to pay.

[Tarmac_Terrorist]

[ QUOTE ]

Its purely down to personal preference and how you value money. If 750 quid is nothing to you, then great - do it. If however you consider 750 a lot of dosh, and you don't drive fast at night, then maybe they are not for you.

My gti has regular lights and i really don't miss not having xenons.

If you visualise a pile of cash on the table in front of you (750 quid) and what you could do with that, if the MOST important thing you can think of doing is swapping regular lights for xenons on your gti then go for it. Personally i can think of a whole lot more things i'd prefer to spend that much cash on.

I've bought whole cars for less..

[/ QUOTE ]

I know what you mean though. I usually look to what car I want to buy, save for it and then consider the extras I need. I put a lot more consideration into if I should spend more on the extras than I do the car.

I wonder if how we finance our cars has anything to do with our attitude to extras. Personally I had to wait over a year for mine as I saved to buy without finance but I think if I had financed it I would have probably thought sod it and put on a couple more extras.

[Snoopy]

As i have said before on this subject i regular drive a fully loaded mk5 GTI and a basic spec MK5 GTI, On the subject of xenons i have comented a few times. IMO the standard lights with uprated bulbs (NOT HIDs!!) are very good, the light off the xenons is whiter but it does not seem to give any wider or deaper beam pattern when driving the cars back to back on the same road. I stress this is AFTER the the xenons have been set CORRECT for UK roads and not the missmash that they set at the factory that seems to blind every other road user and make it scary to drive a car that drivers coming the other way cannot see you as you just blined them and vear towards you!.

The standard lights though need uprated bulbs the standard bulbs are not that great, I cannot remember what i used now but it was what came out top in autoexpress test about 2 years ago and a few others here have used too.

Xenons come with. Washer jets, self leveling sensor on rear suspension and the extra wiring for them.

[mikemod]

I specced them on my car after driving my wife's lupo GTI which has them as standard. I will make sure they are on any car I own from now on.

The real difference you notice is when the light hits a reflective surface like a road sign or safety jacket, they just light up like daylight. As you get older your night vision gets worse so I need all the help I can get

Here is a picture of the Philips Vision Plus Xenon Bulbs in the main beam. You can see they still look yellow compared with the real Xenon.

[Snoopy]

I will admit my main reason i went for non xenons apart from the price is i have to travel down a very bumpy concreat road twice aday and the thought of having to pay ~£120 or ~£85@trade for a bulb if it pops is scary.

Its also obsolete old tecnology soon and will in time be replaced by LEDs as a light option over standard cheap lights.

[JonnyGTi]

I think it depends on how much night driving you will be doing, and what sort of roads you'll be driving on ?

Personally speaking I would not even consider Xenons at £750, as the standard halogens are more than good enough for the roads I drive on at night....mainly urban, suburban or motorways.

There again, if I lived in rural Scotland or somewhere similar they may be the first thing I'd want

[mikemod]

Here is the previous poll

[RedRobin]

There's no doubt that Xenons are awesome....Sometimes their reflection back off large reflective road signs is almost blinding and a nuisance. LED headlights aren't with us yet and I reckon they won't be for a while.

[CarlT]

The xenons are fantastic and I would insist on them !

[bigface]

what exactly is the difference between bi-xenons and xenon?

[DHA]

bi-xenons are for both dipped (normal) headlights and full beam. Xenons are just dipped headlights.

[bigface]

i think id ave to have them, this is the first car ive had with them an i do quite a lot of night driving so i think they are good