Buellwinkle

I looked that Hid4Less set and it looks nice but you have to pay extra for the 6000K bulbs (what they call Stage 2). Also Hid4Less doesn't have the best reputation according to some other posts. I was looking at E-Bay and there are Phillips kits with the 6000K bulbs in the $450 range. Some with Osram bulbs but the Phillips ballasts. Also there are 6000K Hella kits and Hella has a good reputation like Phillips and they are the same price, about $450. Or will the prices come down real soon as plain jane cars will have HID lights as standard equipment.

Has anyone tried a kit other than the HID4Less group buy one? Also does the HID4Less kit include something that these other kits don't?

greg230

i think its too early to ask the question of reliability or quality of service with HIDS4Less.... most people havent even recieved theirs yet.

give it a week or two then we will see if they are as bad as the folks on the VW pages say.

Buellwinkle

I missed out on the group buy so even if HID4Less was a perfect vendor, is the Phillips Stage 1 kit for $550 a good buy in comparison with vendors on E-Bay that have the Phillips Stage 2 kit for $450 or the Hella Stage 2 kit for $450. Also is the Hella kit the same, worse, better? Also they offer the Stage 2 with a bluish light (like MB) or a purplish light (like Audi and BMW and Hid4Less). Choices, choices, choices!

young

autolamps sells the philips ultinon kits - 6000k - and dngan got those. search for his post and they were reasonably priced. but i think you have to fax them a letter of intent that says you will only use them for offroad purposes and of course, they come w/ manufacturers warranty which means you don't get a warranty. tell them you don't need the relays.

hidkits.com some acura people had good experiences w/ them.

and of course, you could possibly wait for the oem bi-level hids when they come out at the end of the year but they'll probably cost $1600. but the dealer may install them.

although there have been some mistakes/problems w/ hids4less, i'm still giving them the benefit of the doubt. and their US warranty is somewhat reassuring.

Buellwinkle

The Hella kit that sells for about $445 (they show $499 on site but they do Buy It Nows on Ebay for $445) can be seen on the this website;

www.importfan.com/product.asp?3=1851

The kit is 100% Hella (ballasts and bulbs. The bulbs have a hood on them. Is that good or bad?

Buellwinkle

Now I'm at a quandry. I can get the Phillips Stage I like what HID4Less has for $550 for a mere $400+shipping (there goes the group buy theory) or I have a local shop that swears the Hella is a better designed product for $410 shipped. Do I get the 4300K Phillips setup or the 6000K blueish/purplish Hella system. It seemed that most of the group buy folks got Stage II purplish system.

young

actually, the hids4less kits are <b>special</b> kits.

heh, sorry if i seem like i'm messing w/ you. but i find your indecision a little humorous... but i completely understand; you want the best product possible and it is not an insignificant amount of change (unless you were in that $300k+ demographic :p)

here's some more info:
<b>When I first did some research...I had spoke to the folks at Sylvania, Phillips and Hella. They gave me some valuable insights however there was no way that I was going to be able to obtain the components from them to put together the lighting systems.

So hence, I was referred to two companies that are OEM for HID lighting systems. www.HID4less.com which is a division of MTC lighting and www.hidkits.com. HID4less is from the East coast and hidkits is from Texas.

I chose to go with HID4less because they have a VERY unique HID lightbulb from Hella that is stage II the difference between a standard DS2 HID light bulb and a stage II DS2 from Hella. This light bulb is used in racing cars such as the LeMans 24 hour racing cars and also the stage 2 light bulbs are used in the Ferrari 360 Modena, the Lamborghini Mucielo, the Astin Martins and such. The color on the Stage II is much whiter with a tint of rainbow in it and when you first turn on the lighting system it will be purple then when the ballasts heats up it will turn to blue then white. It is really nice..I have posted a couple picture in another thread comparing the difference between the halogen 9006 and the HID kit. When I turn the lighting system on the HID lights cast a blueish tint around the edge of the lense(light housing) </b>

i can't attest to the veracity of the above statements... it may just be marketing hype. but the hids4less kits do come w/ the 5 year warranty which sort of pushed me towards them.

but what else can i say? i don't think there is a great amount of experience w/ the hids in this forum as most people either got the oems (if sedans) or they just got some - renncpe from hids4less and dngan from autolamps. my only recommendation would be to wait until more of us receive our packages and actually install them. that may help you decide.