HID conversion vs. Factory Bi-x???
HID conversion vs. Factory Bi-x???
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From: West Los Angeles
Midnight Blue 2004.5 C230 Kompressor Sport Sedan. 2002 w210 E320, 2009 w211 E350 Sport
It depends on how much the "dealer" price is. Steve (MBenzNL) is very reliable as well and he comes to the LA/OC area quite often, so you can have your xenon programmed to "present."
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don't make appt, and just drive in for dirve in testing then you can have it set for free, that's how i did it.
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List price is only $1,700 each side, so figure $3,664 including tax, not bad. Then if you are lucky and can pay the same price Duval charges, they would be 1,326 each. MB of LN, like many dealers carges list plus, from my experience 125% of list and then discount to list for special customers.
You could get them from Steve for about half that but I believe they are factory seconds, blems, ask him. Also ask if they come with bulbs but you may not want the factory 4300K bulbs. Also figure if they put them in it's going to set you back a few hours labor since the bumper comes off.
Or you can put an HID kit for $100, get the same light output (why, because they are the same exact bulbs). It's DIY, a half hour.
Watch out at that dealer, their service department used to be good, I've been a customer for over 20 years since they were Mission Imports, but they changed management recently and they are now a bunch of thieves but they do have a great car wash.
You could get them from Steve for about half that but I believe they are factory seconds, blems, ask him. Also ask if they come with bulbs but you may not want the factory 4300K bulbs. Also figure if they put them in it's going to set you back a few hours labor since the bumper comes off.
Or you can put an HID kit for $100, get the same light output (why, because they are the same exact bulbs). It's DIY, a half hour.
Watch out at that dealer, their service department used to be good, I've been a customer for over 20 years since they were Mission Imports, but they changed management recently and they are now a bunch of thieves but they do have a great car wash.
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That's great that Steve was able to get you perfect new ones at a good price. Sometimes he gets factory seconds for an even better price. Shipping from the Netherlands is actually pretty quick, sometimes quicker than UPS from the east coast.
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List price is only $1,700 each side, so figure $3,664 including tax, not bad. Then if you are lucky and can pay the same price Duval charges, they would be 1,326 each. MB of LN, like many dealers carges list plus, from my experience 125% of list and then discount to list for special customers.
You could get them from Steve for about half that but I believe they are factory seconds, blems, ask him. Also ask if they come with bulbs but you may not want the factory 4300K bulbs. Also figure if they put them in it's going to set you back a few hours labor since the bumper comes off.
Or you can put an HID kit for $100, get the same light output (why, because they are the same exact bulbs). It's DIY, a half hour.
Watch out at that dealer, their service department used to be good, I've been a customer for over 20 years since they were Mission Imports, but they changed management recently and they are now a bunch of thieves but they do have a great car wash.
You could get them from Steve for about half that but I believe they are factory seconds, blems, ask him. Also ask if they come with bulbs but you may not want the factory 4300K bulbs. Also figure if they put them in it's going to set you back a few hours labor since the bumper comes off.
Or you can put an HID kit for $100, get the same light output (why, because they are the same exact bulbs). It's DIY, a half hour.
Watch out at that dealer, their service department used to be good, I've been a customer for over 20 years since they were Mission Imports, but they changed management recently and they are now a bunch of thieves but they do have a great car wash.
now about your statement on the hid kit: is it really the same output at the BiX hid? so it is just the headlights itself that makes a difference in terms of superiority?
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Chadski - Check out the sticky on the top of the forum for the HID thread. You would get more info from that large thread than what this forum could answer.
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hey buellwinkel, i just wanted to say i read your posts with great care. your advice is really something i pay attention too.
now about your statement on the hid kit: is it really the same output at the BiX hid? so it is just the headlights itself that makes a difference in terms of superiority?
now about your statement on the hid kit: is it really the same output at the BiX hid? so it is just the headlights itself that makes a difference in terms of superiority?
The thing that makes BI-X superior is the projectors. Not only do they have a clean cut-off, but the functionality of bi-x is the key. The whole concept behind bi-x is based on the ability of the assembly to change the angle of the HID beam, so that the high beams (in conjunction with the halogen high beams), provided more clarity.
When you just add an HID kit, the angle of the HID beam stays the same and the halogen beam becomes your primary "high beam".
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You can get a seperate kit for the high beams, they are cheap enough. But as to a reflective surface in the standard headlights work better than projecting a beam through a lens. I look at it this way, collecting light in a telescope is key, and many telescopes use mirrors to project light back to your eyepiece. I figure that if it was not that good that people would just use lenses to gaze into the stars instead of mirrored lenses but generally they don't. So I can't imagine that projecting through a lens would be anymore effecient than bouncing the light through a reflective surface. As to the light pattern, I get a pretty sharp pattern with my HID and the standard lenses many called frosted. I don't know what the benefit of having a sharper pattern as long as it's tapered away from uncoming traffic.
This is a picture of my HID lights on my garage door using an inexpensive HID kit with standard reflector headlamps on my 2004.
Don't get me wrong, if money was no object I would do the bixenons but with 6 vehicles, it's tough to do what I want on every single one.
This is a picture of my HID lights on my garage door using an inexpensive HID kit with standard reflector headlamps on my 2004.
Don't get me wrong, if money was no object I would do the bixenons but with 6 vehicles, it's tough to do what I want on every single one.
Last edited by Buellwinkle; Dec 18, 2007 at 04:26 PM.
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From: Sacramento/San Gabriel/Riverside
01' C32o
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From: Sacramento/San Gabriel/Riverside
01' C32o
i mounted mine with zipties and screwd one onto my cars body
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From: Boston
2003 C240
Originally Posted by Synergy001
sorry to bump this from the dead but where are you guys mounting your ballasts if you installed an aftermarket kit? thanks in advance.
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2nd, the cost is insane, now that i have the c32, the differences arn't really that big. I mean yeah its a cleaner look, but for 3k, its not worth it.
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