Headlight upgrades can be aesthetic, practical, or both. Upgrading your old halogen headlights to LED or high-intensity discharge (HID) effectively replaces dull, yellow beams with a cooler white or blue, and if done right, you can also get brighter headlights that effectively improve your night vision without blinding other drivers.
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Other upgrades, such as increasing the brightness of your halogen pods or simply refurbishing your headlights, are purely practical. These upgrades won’t change the way your car looks at night, but good headlights reduce the risk of accidents at dusk and at night, so they’re still worth considering.
When looking for brighter headlights, it’s important to ask yourself whether you want headlights that look cool, or whether you want headlights that make driving at night safer. Brighter headlights, and especially cool white or blue headlights, look great at night, but brightness is only part of the equation. All that extra light needs to be directed down the road, and not into the eyes of oncoming drivers.
Most headlight upgrades are easy enough to do at home without much experience, but some are more complicated than others. Some headlight upgrades are also easier or more difficult depending on the vehicle you drive and the type of headlights it came with from the factory.