Modern Car Lights - Far too bright

The aftermarket bulbs are a big one.

Totally agree. Did a 4 hour round trip last night and was nearly blinded several times by the time I returned home. Thought it was just me.

I think this should be addressed as a safety issue by government. It's only different bulbs that are needed, an easy fix. Standardise the bulbs that are allowed, that are effective and don't blind other drivers. Other bulbs, not allowed to be sold, fitted or used.

those new type headlamps are like looking straight into the sun,totally blinding,while im absofcukinlutely delighted that the blind-er can see the road 78miles ahead on dipped beam,myself being the blind-ee have to stop until i can see more then bright blue spots in my eyes!!

It's an absolute pain. Grand the other driver can see five years into the future, but the drivers on the other side of the road are forced to slow down and cannot see what's in front of them.

I have the standard lights on car but get flashed every days by other cars who seem to think I have full headlights on. The car is a hatchback so not sure why they get so confused. I resist flashing them with the actual full headlight because if they can't see with the dims they are likely to crash if I did.

We live in an area outside a city which has no street lights. Honestly I think it is just people who are used to street lights and once they hit the back roads they struggle to see. It is very bad when raining because most of the people flashing seem to think they are driving on a motorway and not a small country road, they will flash but not slow down.

I have no problem with lights on cars, you can spot the odd one which clearly has non standard lights put into them but they are few and far between. I do remember a mate of mine years ago who denied they had terrible eye sight and was complaining about driving in dark. Instead of getting glasses like he should of went ot a garage and got new bulbs in so he could see, God love the people coming towards him. A few years later he bit the bullet and got glasses. But that is what you are dealing with.

The NCT checks if the lights are level etc, they don't check the brightness.

In every car I've owned up to now, there has been a headlight level adjustment knob in the cockpit to allow the low beams to be raised or lowered depending on how many passengers there are and if there's a heavy load in the boot

In the Nissan Leaf I'm driving at the moment, there is no adjuster and you need to get a ratchet out and adjust them directly at the mounting I(which nobody will ever do)

I actually think the low beams are set up to be a little but too high on the car, but I'm assured this is the standard set up so i'm going with it

Maybe one of your bulbs is blown, or misaligned, or you're driving around at night with only DRLs on

I live rural and I can't say I have had any problems with car headlight, but I was very concerned one evening when I saw a brilliant flashing light coming towards me on a fairly narrow road. I could not figure out what it was and could not see anything beside or beyond it to try and rationalise it. It was totally distracting. At the very last moment I realised it was a cyclist with a flashing headlight which was the brightest thing I have ever had to drive against. Very dangerous, I tried to slow down as I could not figure out what was going on, but I had someone behind me who was presumably as blinded as I was so I felt I had to keep going.

Guys adding after market lights are a new thing too. Only seen a couple of cases but it's bound to become more popular once they are seen by the easily influenced.

A car approached me the other night with what appeared to be a 3 foot long solid bar of light down at ground level. It was SUPER bright, and very blinding, despite not pointing directly at me. No doubt something bought off TEMU or similar.

It was so bright that I would like to think that as soon as he drove past the guards for the 1st time, they would have pulled him in and taken it off themselves there and then.

There usually is a hint of fog, the bit between the dicks ears.

I remember reading (a few years back) that HID/ Xenon bulbs were only supposed to be installed in specific types of headlamp, which were self-leveling etc. But, now you can put them in any old jaloppey. So, what changed, I wonder?

For what it's worth, my OH's car has automatic dipping and tbh, the technology in it is not great. It sometimes takes way longer to detect an oncoming car than it should. If you try to intervene you sometimes end up switching at the same time as the automatic system and blinding the other car a second time. While it's still a useful feature, the quality in this instance is fairly rubbish. It looks to me like the safety of this technology is not tested by anyone outside the manufacturers themselves.

Annoying as they may be, I wish I had those modern headlights instead of the candle lamps on my 08 Focus.