LED Lights - Worth the extra?

[Roc1]

Hi

Great forum and has been really useful to research things!

I'm going to pop into my local dealer (smg Tonbridge) to spec a new Beach, and have been putting together a list of extras I'd like. One question, are the LED headlights worth the extra £1,600?

Wouldn't mind also hearing of any after market tint companies that come recommended?

Thanks!

 

[Amarillo]

One question, are the LED headlights worth the extra £1,600?

I've got them on order for my Beach, (also SMG Tonbridge) but they are probably not worth the money. I added them to my order later for their bling appeal, without telling my wife. I wonder if she will notice that I've blown so much money on a pure bling indulgence...

 

[Lewis]

Didn't order them and do regret it. Standard lights just aren't bright enough in my opinion.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I own two cars - I am waiting for my Cali to be delivered. The cars are a BMW Z4 with Flat Beam Technology Xenon headlights and a Skoda Yeti with standard H7 halogen headlights. The Xenon headlights were a £1200 option. The H7's on the Yeti were std equipment. Last year I took the BMW to Southern France (St Antonin Noble Val) and the Yeti to Corsica. Did I consider the £1200 well spent on the BMW lights? No I did not. Only the marketing folk at BMW thought it a good idea. I will take delivery of a Cali Ocean in the next few weeks and did not specify LED lights based on my earlier experience. I hope I am not made to eat humble pie. If I am I will seek a retro fit, which will almost certainly be cheaper that VW factory fit, if not I am £1600 better off. That's a win, win I think.

Edit: Sorry H7's not 4's!

 

[T6 CFO]

On the "I'm not spending all that money and being disappointed" basis Yes they are worth it.


Mike

 

[steve and lisa]

Why VW charge so much for these compared to other manufacturers is outrageous, our Discovery Sport has LEDs as standard and the overall cost of the car was a lot less than a Cali

I think VW just like to squeeze as much out of us as possible, guess we all have the word MUG on our foreheads!

 

[calimera]

Agree with Lewis.
As stated by other T6 owners the main headlights are poor . We have only recently discovered how poor when driving the country lanes round us . In fact managed to knock the passengers wing mirror ,needed a new plastic mouldings to the back.
If we had realized just how poor we would have ordered the LED.
Still looking at improving them by a change of bulb.

 

[Raf]

I think it all depends on how you are going tonuse the Calif.
I (Sorry I must say we ) own several cars, and on the Calif I have to admint that I am realy happy that we have the ledlights. We drive a lot during the night, exploring country's and regions we had never visit before, so every extra help to find the parking/campingspot is welcome.
I would order it again, but indeed VW's LED is made of gold, or at least they charging it like its gold

 

[estresao]

My Cali is a T5 Beach 2015 with standards and I don't undertand why lights are so poor. I've even replace the bulbs to try to improve them, but they are far poorer that the standar lights of my former Passat (no Xenons)

 

[Meoncoast]

I am not allowed out after dark so standard work for me.

 

[Stuart]

Even at the ridiculous price, I really regret not picking LED headlights. It's not such a big deal on the Ocean as it gets H7 halogens but the Beach only gets H4 as standard and they are awful!

If the dealer had told me how terrible the H4s were I would have gladly given him more money.

 

[Stuart]

Why VW charge so much for these compared to other manufacturers is outrageous, our Discovery Sport has LEDs as standard and the overall cost of the car was a lot less than a Cali

I think VW just like to squeeze as much out of us as possible, guess we all have the word MUG on our foreheads!

I wouldn't mind this strategy if the dealers were in on the game, but my dealer persuaded me away from quite a few options as they were so expensive!

 

[Stoneybroke]

Hi

Great forum and has been really useful to research things!

I'm going to pop into my local dealer (smg Tonbridge) to spec a new Beach, and have been putting together a list of extras I'd like. One question, are the LED headlights worth the extra £1,600?

Wouldn't mind also hearing of any after market tint companies that come recommended?

Thanks!

The price put me off, but I went for the exterior package on our Beach which gave me the twin H7 headlights, plus the cornering fog lights. I have no gripe with the headlights brightness, but I've never had LED ones to compare.
You may be better putting the money elsewhere. What sort of spec are you looking at? DSG, comfort dash, etc?

 

[calimera]

Even at the ridiculous price, I really regret not picking LED headlights. It's not such a big deal on the Ocean as it gets H7 halogens but the Beach only gets H4 as standard and they are awful!

If the dealer had told me how terrible the H4s were I would have gladly given him more money.

Ours is an Ocean &the headlights at night are really poor.
Our C3 picasso is so much better !!!

 

[Stoneybroke]

Ours is an Ocean &the headlights at night are really poor.
Our C3 picasso is so much better !!!

Full or dipped, or both?

 

[Stuart]

Ours is an Ocean &the headlights at night are really poor.
Our C3 picasso is so much better !!!

You should try a Beach and then you would appreciate your H7 headlights

My 12 year old Subaru had much better headlights!

 

[larrylamb]

As Raf says, depends on your Cali use. As our Cali is purely for camping and days out the extra expense was not worth it in my opinion. If you are going to use the Cali daily and a lot at night then might be a good idea. I fitted brighter lamps to my headlights and think they are fine.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Those of you with a T4,T5 or T6 Beach can you not upgrade to an H7? the bulbs are about £5 each. Must be worth a try.

By the way if you go for the "full monty" LED's you should consider the expensive spare bulb you need to carry when travelling in Europe. A quick look on the net suggests they are about £140.

 

[B J G]

Part of the LED package includes headlight wash and self levelling (both legal requirements with Zenon & LED) so that accounts for some of the cost.

I have active Zenon lights on my BMW which are the best part of £1500 extra. Worth it? not really as I have previously upgraded H4 lights with top spec bulbs and achieved almost the same results.

I haven't spec'd LED's on my Ocean order as I'll merely change the bulbs on all lights with a £1200 saving.

LED headlights do give a bling effect & an ego boost (if we are honest). They will soon be standard fit in my opinion. £700 to £850 cost option would be acceptable to me but by the time all the taxes are added it becomes hard to justify.

Not arguing about light efficiency of LED's merely the cost.

 

[kave]

Over 40yo get the LEDS, they are so much better than my BMW's Xenon (which was a similar price option 5 years ago).

 

[Bellcrew]

My Ocean was a cancelled order that came with most of the options, I would have been happy not to have the navigation package and just the ordinary cruise control but the LED's, particularly on dip beam, are just fabulous, stupid money I know but they make night driving a pleasure.

 

[owen_h]

Those of you with a T4,T5 or T6 Beach can you not upgrade to an H7? the bulbs are about £5 each. Must be worth a try.

Unfortunately not as (on the T5 at least) the headlight units are different. The Beach uses a single reflector (and twin filament bulb) for both dip and main beam. The SE's that I have seen have separate reflectors and bulbs.

Changing to one of the 130% brighter (Phillips Extreme) bulbs was one of the first things I did on my Beach. I thought it made a worthwhile improvement. Main beam is good, dip is now acceptable. Neither is as good as the Volvo V50 I had before though, and that was std Halogen bulbs.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Just spotted a comment on VWCV facebook page from Matt Sutherland. I post below with anwser from VW.

From Mark: I mentioned a growing concern among T6 owners about the very poor headlights fitted as standard; the H4s on most vans are particularly poor but the H7s (fitted to Californias and Caravelles) are sub standard too. We (I'm taking about 500+ forum users) are generally very happy with our vans (California Ocean 204 4motion for us) but the lights aren't good enough. VW needs to address this issue as it's actually very dangerous. You asked me to PM you and contact my dealer but it's not a dealer issue; it's a VW commercial vehicle issue. The longer you ignore the issue, the more expensive a fix will be. Something needs to be done fast.
VW Reply: Hello Matt, all of our lights meet the standards to drive on UK roads though if Customers are experiencing problems we will need to investigate these complaints on an individual basis. If they share with us with their contact details, van registrations and the names of their Van Centres then we will pass these onto our Customer Care Team.

 

[calimera]

Husband uses our Ocean as daily drive. Goes to work in the dark & returns home in the dark. Narrow dark country lanes aren't fun with poor lights. In fact dangerous.
We live on Dartmoor . Still finding it difficult to locate bulbs for the T6 Ocean, fine if it was T5.

Not on face book but will contact local VW centre

 

[Nottledim]

Well worth it, the headlights are very good and its also worth thinking about the Main Beam Assist to go with them.