I was under the impression ECE lamps were not legal for use in the USA. Then I saw this in an article:
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Headlights remain one of the most highly regulated systems on any vehicle. And unfortunately for North Americans, the existing European standard, legal but not mandatory in the US, is still years ahead of current minimum DOT regulations. Perhaps some of the high-tech European models will pressure domestic automakers to let us "see" into the 21st Century.
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That is an incorrect statement. The only way a headlight can be "legal" in the US is if it has been pronounced DOT-compliant at the Federal level; some headlights actually have both DOT and E-marks. Of course, local authorities don't usually ticket people for having these lights on their cars, and several states have an explicit provision in their automotive lighting codes that permits them, albeit in apparent defiance of Federal regulations. I've driven with e-code headlights on a number of vehicles over the years, and have never been challenged for it. It's just a political thing that prevents having a universal standard, and has little to do with one design being inherently "better" than the other. You can have poor E-mark lights, good DOT-compliant lights, or v.v.
yep, that's a good point. saying one projector is better then another simply based on it being "ECE" is also not too accurate. kinda reminds me of the whole "jdm" thing amongst some honda/import fans, where anything and everything on their cars has to be "jdm" or else it's not good enough.
JDM is good enough if you live in the US Virgin Islands, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, or Australia, if you want to drive on the left side of the road. Here, they just provide pathetic light down the right shoulder of the road, and blinding glare to all other drivers. Oh, that's it, maybe the purchaser want to be "in-your-face" in terms of getting us to recognize them. Hope that doesn't backfire into a roadrage incident.
"It's just a political thing that prevents having a universal standard, and has little to do with one design being inherently "better" than the other. You can have poor E-mark lights, good DOT-compliant lights, or v.v."
If this were true, then we would have had a common beam, decades ago. And you are surely correct about the luck of the draw getting a good headlamp in either the US or Europe.
Well, politics is an insidious bedfellow. For example, the war between Capitalism, Communism, and Socialism isn't over yet, since politicians in each camp still have something to gain (or lose). The same thing applies to automotive lighting standards; while we seemingly fight the rest of the majority-of-the-world-standard for headlights (with more countries still signing up for the European approach), glare complaints and night driving accidents continue to mount - here. I feel sorry for those poor Germans, whipping along on the Autobahn at night going 120+ MPH, when I know that their feeble night lighting systems are going to cause some serious crashes.
"Don't kid yourself, they are using their upper beam. Their dipped beam is for use only in lighted towns and well lit suburbs."
Oh, darn! I thought you were going to tell me that story about the well-lighted roads and illuminated road signs in Europe, so they don't need lighting standards like the ones in the USA.
