[EldRick]

I ask because those on my Spark EV are the worst I've seen in decades.

I know the Bolt has HIDs and the LED DRLs (which might help with cornering) but how well do the headlights work in dark rural areas?

Pictures on the garage door, anyone?

 

[DucRider]

Pictures on the garage door, anyone?

Probably one of the worst ways possible to judge headlight effectiveness.

OEM HID's are generally very good to excellent - much better than current LED technology. Nothing like the fleabay kits people use to replace stock halogen bulbs.

 

[EldRick]

Duh, of course HIDs are generally better than halogens and cheap LED kits, but a lot of actual headlight performance depends on how the optical engineers vs. designers debates turned out.

Any owners who drove their Bolt in the dark care to comment?

 

[LeftieBiker]

I'll bet the Spark's high beams are better than the Leaf's. At least I hope so! I replaced my Leaf's halogen bulbs with Philip's "X-Treme Power" bulbs, and that just raised them from "awful" to "bad."

 

[EldRick]

I'll bet the Spark's high beams are better than the Leaf's. At least I hope so! I replaced my Leaf's halogen bulbs with Philip's "X-Treme Power" bulbs, and that just raised them from "awful" to "bad."

I did exactly the same thing with my Spark EV, and got exactly the same results. It's hard to believe the Spark lights would be worse than anything since 1950.

 

[LeftieBiker]

The Leaf's low beams are fine. Good coverage and brightness. The high beams are very 'patchy', with large and small "holes" scattered through the end of the pattern, and are amazingly dim overall. The brighter bulbs brighten up the dark patches a bit, but the difference is only visible on dark country roads. What are the Spark's lights like, exactly?

 

[EldRick]

The low beams on my Spark came with the top of the cutoff set to about 50 ft. in front of the car. I adjusted them and got the top-of-the-line Philips non-blue bulbs. Still not bright, but better.

With them set up where they belong, the low beam pattern is not too bad in front, but there is very little light off to the sides to let you know what's there in a curve or corner. The high beam pattern is too high when the low beams are useful.

Overall, I'd give them a 3 out of 10 - worse than average.

 

[kicoken]

I just drove my Bolt back in the dark and I think the headlights are pretty good, bright with good coverage on the road.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Good. Thanks. One of the several reasons I won't be considering a 2017 Leaf is that they don't seem to have fixed the headlight problem. Or the charge limit problem, or the steering wheel heater problem...