Headlight deflectors for EU

pairofpears

Going to France & Belgium this summer with a 2018 Superb and wondering do I need headlight deflectors or is that a thing of the past?

Hurrache

Depending on the trim of your car and the type of lights you have, some have a Travel Mode option within the settings which allow you to set what side of the road you're driving on.

pairofpears

I must check the settings as that would be a hell of a lot easier. Its a Superb Ambition which is the basic trim but still has heated seats and other bits so maybe it has the Travel Mode.

munchkin_utd

A 2018 suberb surely has the ajusting option.

If not, the adjustment stickers are available on the ferry for about a fiver and actually is cheaper than buying it at many places online.

What you will definitely need to keep an eye on is the environmental zones. For most major french cities you need a crit air sticker, available online for €4 direct from the government. Signup takes a minute, you just need a photo "proof" of your emmissions class, so a photo of your registration documents. Enforcement is only really done on parked cars on the street.

For Belgium, Bruges doesnt need a sticker but Gent, Antwerp and Brussels city centres do need it. To gain access you do an online registration AND theres big brother style cameras checking every car entering the city centres. The online registration is a pain, and its different for each city (well, brussels + one of the regional cities is together but the other has their own system), so if you can get that done before travelling it would save a lot of hassle trying to do it on the phone with patchy mobile data.

Should you be driving through England, London also has an environmental zone (M25 is grand though) , and foreign cars sign up via a completely different system (on the site of the baliffs who come chasing the fines abroad) than the brits . You'll need to create an account with them, then add your car and supporting documentation, pretty much the same as for Belgium and France https://www.epcplc.com/tfl_registration/register

pairofpears

Car has the travel mode setting so thats one less thing.

I am driving through the UK but skirting London on the M25 and will probably stay on the west side to avoid the Dartford charges. Wont be in France long but to drive from Calais into Belgium.

When we are in Belgium I would rather use trains if we are to visit Antwerp or Brussels to avoid any extra charges.

Thanks for the help on this.

CiniO

I run into that problem last year - but other way - when I took my continental Suzuki to Ireland for couple of months.

Car is equipped with LED lights, but no option to switch between LHD and RHD mode.

Using beam bender stickers failed. IMO they are not adequate for LED projector lights. I tried two sets and couldn't get satisfying effect.

Driving without them was also terrible because I was clearly dazzling oncoming drivers as first night I was coming back from Galway to Mayo - every single driver flashed me on.

I ended up manually lowering the beam, which stopped the problem of dazzling oncoming drivers, but made my road ahead visibility really poor - without full beam headlights it was really hard to drive.

Luckily I was there mostly over the summer, when night driving is rare.

granturismo

For Antwerp - look up park and ride car parks, there are several dotted outside the Low Emission Zone. I paid €1 for 4 hours parking and approx 2.50 each way for a 25 minute tram ride to the centre. I parked on the north side, multistorey car park with a tram stop just outside.

Arnout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120468555#Comment_120468555

My car (xenon) has levers inside the headlights to level the beam to completely horizontal. Maybe your Suzuki has something along those lines as well?

I must say I didn't bother the first time I brought it to Ireland (it requires taking the bumper off, then the headlight units out of the car, to get to those levers) and nobody complained. Now that the car resides here permanently I did level them, as I haven't found an offside RHD headlight unit yet.

munchkin_utd

Regarding visiting Antwerp etc, there no entry charge. It’s not a congestion fee. It’s a “keep stinking diesels out of our cities” outright ban on older diesel cars.

if you have a petrol or relatively modern diesel then you can register for free and enter for free.

banchang

I have an Ioniq 5. Apparently it’s a requirement when driving in France to have a warning triangle, hi viz jacket, breathalyzer & a set of spare car bulbs - did anyone with LED bulbs buy & carry a set of spare LED bulbs ?