I might be booed out of here, but why do you people need those crazy blinding lights in the first place? Because they ARE terribly uncomfortable, just think of all those morons who ever blinded you.
Every time one passes me at night I feel like jumping out of the car and hammering the front lights to bits...

Drive your coop in the dark and you'll see why. Not fitted them myself yet but it's on the list.

Wishy, I did drive it in the dark, on an A40 stretch without any street lights, a bit dim, but nothing unmanagable

With halogens, the standard Coupe headlights are appalling. They have hardly any useful range and the light given off is weak and patchy. When the road is dark with grime and rain and poor road markings it can get downright dangerous, especially with a car which has the straightline performance of the Coupe but not really the handling to go with it.

Last night I had my girlfriend drive around 25 metres in front of me on the A1 with me behind her with the HID's on. Even on the higher setting '0' she said they were fine and weren't producing glare and dazzling her. She did complain like hell to me later on though when she was blinded by a Range Rover sporting HID's coming the other way though.

Looking at the Auto Express vid, the headlight units on a R-reg Megane are completely unsuited to a HID conversion as the main focusing of the beam is done by the pattern on the outer cover or lens and is not capable of keeping a powerful HID bulb in line without spilling light all over the shop. Modern halogen lights use a completely unpatterned clear lens and use precisely angled mirrored internal surfaces to focus the bulb, making them more suitable for use with a HID kit. The projector type lenses as on the Coupe are even better still.

Ermm yep

There is a reason for that, if you look closely you will see tiny little crazing all over the clear plastic cover. This is either the cover itself or the plastic film that covers it. The crazing deflects much of the halogen light output back into the headlight.

I bought new headlights and with the standard halogens provided (cheapest bulbs going) the light output is actually very good.

You could always try and dismantle the covers and clean the inside as they do get dirty within a few years. As most cars out there are six years plus old now, they are bound to be filthy.

or see about getting someone to make a glass cover for them although im sure this wont be cheap.could take the covers off and get them buffed up

Well I got my HID`s fitted tonight and what a difference . I`ll just echo what everyone else has said by saying that it`s well worth the £120 for the kit .

I forgot to take my camera with me to take an "after" photo so I tried with my phone but it`s way too bright to get a good image . Anyway from my own comparison on the beam setter the HID image is perfect and is much sharper than the old halogen image,certainly isn`t scattered all over the place like Auto Express is reporting .

Baz

That's because you have projectors

It's the idiots that have standard halogens that are causing the problems when they fit HIDs.

I've taken my HID's off the blue coop which has new headlights anyway and installed the kit on my LE. The blue coop has a pending MOT, so don't really want any excuse for them to give it a fail.

I put HID's in the main beams (overkill?) and the result wasn't much. Normally run on 100w H1's which work fine but get pretty hot even though no wires or plastic has ever melted.

HID's weren't as good as the halogens. Very bright but no proper beam seemed diffused all around. Taken them out and back to the bulbs. Main beam reflector problem?

I think this proves the theory

hello everyone. i have halogen in my early 96 16vt both myself and my wife think the lights are great, even though the lights are a little crazed.
all the best