New IIHS ratings show most headlights are lacking

Also interesting -

 

Its b crap that cars (especially luxury cars) can't make safety features standard. Blind spot, back up camera, and adaptive lighting should be standard.

 

^^

My neighbor just bought a brand new M3 sedan. Almost 70K. No back up camera....

 

Back up camera is useless in our environment... always dirty. A proximity sensor should be standard, not the camera.

 

I have front and rear proximity center + back up camera in the Lexus. I find the camera to be much more helpful...

 

Important to note that they don't rate based on brightness alone. Based on that article, it seems that points are deducted if the headlights cause glare for oncoming drivers. I wonder if some of those cars with LED lights have that problem? I've generally found LEDs to be superior to halogen lights.

Halogen < LEDs < HIDs < Lazer headlights

 

All Hondas now have 3 angle backup cameras standard. German cars love to nickel and dime you. Federal law is making backup cameras standard soon in the US as a safety feature

 

I've noticed comparing Halogen to last Gen HIDs is:
- HIDs give a wider and whiter beam
- HIDs illuminate overhead signs and side markers atleast 2X further down the road
- I've never felt down the road range was an issue compared to wider/brighter.

Sounds like it would be an easy fix for Acura since the LEDs are in their own housing. Just change out one lens on each side to focus further down the road. I wounder how the RLX with the double lens design or MDX/RDX with the higher LED placement would do in the same test?

 

I like down the road range & light to the shoulders. Lots of loose deer here.

 

To be fair...

He bought the model from the BMW performance division. It's purposely spartan in some areas to save on factors like weight and cost.

He bought a track car. The luxury features aren't there on purpose. I bet it has PDC, though.

If he would have bought the regular 3 series or a 5 series... different story.

 

My track car (Lotus Elise) came standard with Nav and Back up camera. I think his M3 sedan + back up camera (negligible weight for the camera), he would have been fine on the track

He tracks an Ariel Atom. He went to dealer over weekend, picked the cheapest M3 sedan to daily drive, and took what they had. Traded in his CTS-V which has been in the shop 8 times in the last 13 months

 

Fair enough.

Not surprised a GM product was living in the repair shop. I'm not really sure which is worse: Chrysler and GM products of 10 years ago or now...

I would love to be able to pick up an M3 because I need a daily

Maybe one day...

 

So I think Acura's LED lights are great, only thing needed to make IIHS happy is probably raise the aiming a bit. I have always thought every TL/TLX I have owned the aiming was too low. They light the immediate road bright and wide, but their long distance throw is weak, but cranking them up a few degrees would likely help a great deal. I do think the TLX LEDs throw better short distance and width light than my A6 LEDs did.

 

Would be nice if the jewel eye headlights swiveled around corners. It was a nice touch in my 05 RL. I know it may be more difficult with the jewel eye lights but maybe next gen theyll have it

 

I don't think of a back up camera as a luxury item.

 

Forget that rating, I love my LED headlights. I think they could be aimed a bit higher, but I drive through some dark roads and they're great

 

What I find interesting is that based on this research, it appears that Honda Accord Touring model (with LEDs) also offer worse lighting performance than lower Accord trims with Projector Halogen bulbs.

Seeing this, I would not be surprised if 2nd gen TSX and 4th gen TL with HIDs had better lighting performance than new TLX. Wonder if this is another cutting corner measure on Acura part? Offer something that in theory should offer better performance, but the facts show the opposite.

 

I agree with you. I also think the aim could be a tad higher. Maybe this is something the dealer can adjust?

 

I believe there's an adjustment guideline in the manual, though can't remember off the top of my head.

For my use it's perfect. There's actually a small amount of light that shines up, almost like a reflection, that helps light up signs above the car.

I think just like any other car there should be a screw around the headlight housing that will adjust the aim of it.

I always sorta found my 3G TL aim to be a bit low, but never had any issues with it not lighting up any overhead signs on freeways or anything.

 

Points are taken away for glare from another driver's perspective. That explains why the Accord and TLX with LEDs are rated somewhat lower.

And no, the LED headlights are more expensive, not less. Acura's main reason for going all LED was to reduce power consumption, therefore reducing alternator draw and increasing fuel economy.

I think the Jewel Eyes could use some tweaks for around corner performance, but I'm very happy with them at night, they are FAR better than my 3G TL. The light is much cleaner, brighter, and goes further.

 

For adjusting the headlights, EE4Life provides the links to the procedure at this thread:

https://acurazine.com/forums/fifth-g...stment-936363/

 

bingo!!

People are glossing over that point. From the drivers perspective, other than for a lack of automatic height adjustment, and no swiveling around the bends, these lamps light up the road better than the HID projectors I've had in my BMW, Acura, Lexus, and Audi.

Having said that, I have also been flashed as if I had my high beams on more often in the TLX/MDX than in any other car.

 

Neither Accord or TLX loose any points due to excessive glare. They loose points for mostly poor straightaway performance.
See below - the first column of numbers is for Accord with projectors, the 2nd one is for Accord with LEDs and the last one is for TLX. In some scenarios we are looking at 17-30 meters performance difference when comparing Accord's projectors to TLX LEDs. I think that is fairly decent difference in performance.


LOW BEAMS

Straightaway right edge 93.5 m 75.6 m 76.4 m
Straightaway left edge 59.9 m 49.3 m 50.9 m
250m radius right curve, right edge 60.4 m 53.7 m 68.7 m
250m radius left curve, left edge 51.9 m 47.5 m 46.5 m
150m radius right curve, right edge 49.1 m 49.4 m 52.7 m
150m radius left curve, left edge 42.7 m 46.3 m 42.8 m

HIGH BEAMS

Straightaway right edge 163.9 m 129.0 m 132.7 m
Straightaway left edge 127.7 m 121.3 m 102.1 m
250m radius right curve, right edge 73.1 m 61.4 m 72.4 m
250m radius left curve, left edge 66.7 m 58.8 m 57.4 m
150m radius right curve, right edge 57.2 m 53.8 m 54.6 m
150m radius left curve, left edge 53.9 m 48.8 m 46.3 m

Hopefully Acura and Honda will react quickly and make necessary changes to correct the headlamp performance.

 

Where's the straightaway centre? Did they not measure that?

One thing I noticed when I test drove the Accord in the evening was that the light wasn't nearly as bright for what it did light up.

It also looks like the TLX lights are better on the right curves, but slightly lower on the lefts.

I don't feel they perform poorly, since I can see a lot better at night than I could in my 3G TL or the 2016 Accord Coupe EX-L V6 I test drove. IIHS measurements say they should be worse on paper, but it certainly doesn't feel like it.

Also note the other premium and luxury manufacturers. Very few of them are out of the Marginal weeds according to IIHS.


I wonder if it's because LEDs have a sharper cutoff?

 

Issue is LED's have less "usable" power than HID's and halogen but at the same time emit more glare than HID bulbs or halogen bulbs, cutoff is a moot point because the LED is focused by a lense that directs the light.

IMO HID lighting is the best consumer lighting for cars until laser lights hit the market. HID's have much less glare (depending on how large the glare cutouts are in the projector) and illuminate further when properly aimed than LEDs.

 

Great lights at night, very wide and white beam. They could go a touch further and higher but pretty good. When going up slight inclines or bumps they really light up signs. They probably tuned them low to not blind people.

Been getting flashed a lot. One guy pulled over he didn't like my lights behind him!