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In 2018 Mercedes introduced 2 types of light for W205.
I have seen a lot of videos and reviews about Multibeam ILS system, which is superior for sure.
But I don't find much about High Performance LED lights.
Is anyone having them on their C43? What is your feedback?
I have the regular high performance LED's on my 2020 C43. Visibility is great and they look mean at night. No auto high beams that I'm aware of but they are best headlights of any car I have owned.
You probably don't find much on the regular High Performance LED lights, because there isn't much to say about them. They are pretty standard LED headlights with manual high beams. They illuminate as much as they can within the laws of the respective market. I believe they don't illuminate into turns, and not sure if they have cornering lights in general.
The Multibeam LED as you probably know light up areas that the standard LEDs may not. They can essentially be driven with the high beams on the entire time and they automatically darken the areas of cars ahead of you, street signs etc. The full functionality is not available in all markets, though. Here in the USA they are dumbed down and act like headlights with automatic high beams, so when the cameras see other cars ahead, they can shorten the light beam progressively to the point of turning off the high beams, and then turning them back on if the coast is clear. They also light into turns and at low speed shine into corners as you turn the steering wheel. Overall they give you better visibility by illuminating areas that the normal LEDs may not reach, and illuminate more of the road ahead w/o having to worry about constantly turning off the high beams when other cars are in your path.
I have the Multibeam in my C63S and while I don't drive with the high beams active very much, they are quite impressive overall and on dark rural roads turn night into day far ahead and do a pretty good job at not blinding other cars. Although during my ED trip I got constantly flashed in Europe even with the high beams turned off. I think the aim is different for US spec vs EU spec cars, or they are just so used that these lights on EU spec cars don't blind them at all even w/o the high beams turned on. It is definitely a shame that our Department of Transportation can't get their act together and allow the full functionality, instead more an more people have trouble seeing at night, because they get blinded by all these bright LED headlights. It's actually gotten to the point where the current situation is a safety issue as several studies have shown.
Last edited by superswiss; 09-28-2020 at 05:29 PM.
I have the regular high performance LED's on my 2020 C43. Visibility is great and they look mean at night. No auto high beams that I'm aware of but they are best headlights of any car I have owned.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
Originally Posted by mike3082
I also have the High Performance LED's on my 2020 C43 and I think they look fantastic. Absolutely no complaints.
Thank you also!
Originally Posted by superswiss
You probably don't find much on the regular High Performance LED lights, because there isn't much to say about them. They are pretty standard LED headlights with manual high beams. They illuminate as much as they can within the laws of the respective market. I believe they don't illuminate into turns, and not sure if they have cornering lights in general.
The Multibeam LED as you probably know light up areas that the standard LEDs may not. They can essentially be driven with the high beams on the entire time and they automatically darken the areas of cars ahead of you, street signs etc. The full functionality is not available in all markets, though. Here in the USA they are dumbed down and act like headlights with automatic high beams, so when the cameras see other cars ahead, they can shorten the light beam progressively to the point of turning off the high beams, and then turning them back on if the coast is clear. They also light into turns and at low speed shine into corners as you turn the steering wheel. Overall they give you better visibility by illuminating areas that the normal LEDs may not reach, and illuminate more of the road ahead w/o having to worry about constantly turning off the high beams when other cars are in your path.
I have the Multibeam in my C63S and while I don't drive with the high beams active very much, they are quite impressive overall and on dark rural roads turn night into day far ahead and do a pretty good job at not blinding other cars. Although during my ED trip I got constantly flashed in Europe even with the high beams turned off. I think the aim is different for US spec vs EU spec cars, or they are just so used that these lights on EU spec cars don't blind them at all even w/o the high beams turned on. It is definitely a shame that our Department of Transportation can't get their act together and allow the full functionality, instead more an more people have trouble seeing at night, because they get blinded by all these bright LED headlights. It's actually gotten to the point where the current situation is a safety issue as several studies have shown.
Yeah, I see. Thanks for your open answer.
I have asked similar question to one of the groups on FB and some people are indeed very disappointed with standard LED headlights. They even want to change them to multibeam. I guess it is possible to do that, but requires some programming.
I have multibeam on family owned glc and they are working very good, same as "superswiss" mentioned.
However, now considering to buy c43 amg and it has standard LED lights and no PE exhaust But the price is considerably good.
I have asked similar question to one of the groups on FB and some people are indeed very disappointed with standard LED headlights. They even want to change them to multibeam. I guess it is possible to do that, but requires some programming.
I have multibeam on family owned glc and they are working very good, same as "superswiss" mentioned.
However, now considering to buy c43 amg and it has standard LED lights and no PE exhaust But the price is considerably good.
Help me to decide!
However good the standard led may be, since you know the existence of better ones, you better get the multibeam or might have regrets down the road.
I have asked similar question to one of the groups on FB and some people are indeed very disappointed with standard LED headlights. They even want to change them to multibeam. I guess it is possible to do that, but requires some programming.
I have multibeam on family owned glc and they are working very good, same as "superswiss" mentioned.
However, now considering to buy c43 amg and it has standard LED lights and no PE exhaust But the price is considerably good.
Help me to decide!
This was would be more than enough for me to pass "no PE exhaust ". It is seriously the single must-have option on these cars. I had the standard high-performance LED headlights and while I would have wanted the multi-beam, the car that I found for a great deal didn't have them and it was never a deal-breaker for me. Also, there's a thread on there I believe (try searching) that talks about how the multi-beam headlights have very short lighting distance when compared to the standard LED ones. I remember that write-up saying that they are borderline dangerous at low-beam distance.
I found the article and the adaptive LEDs also received a poor rating by IIHS though many owners on here who have them claim that they perform well (I don't have them, so I can't speak for them personally)
The optional Exterior Lighting package for $900 is a must-skip. Not only is the design quite off-putting with its giant centrally-mounted projector ball, but the actual low-beam performance is very poor. This package brings auto highbeams that are super bright. But driving around the town or city with low beams? Shockingly bad. The light cutoff is about 20 feet in front of the vehicle when it should be about 60 feet. We have a hunch this relates to different lighting rules for the US versus Europe, where the auto highbeams can be on more often. But as it stands for US customers these low-beam lights are almost a deal-breaker in how bad they are."
I found the article and the adaptive LEDs also received a poor rating by IIHS though many owners on here who have them claim that they perform well (I don't have them, so I can't speak for them personally)
The optional Exterior Lighting package for $900 is a must-skip. Not only is the design quite off-putting with its giant centrally-mounted projector ball, but the actual low-beam performance is very poor. This package brings auto highbeams that are super bright. But driving around the town or city with low beams? Shockingly bad. The light cutoff is about 20 feet in front of the vehicle when it should be about 60 feet. We have a hunch this relates to different lighting rules for the US versus Europe, where the auto highbeams can be on more often. But as it stands for US customers these low-beam lights are almost a deal-breaker in how bad they are."
very interesting comment, as I had the more advanced lighting on both my last e300 and current c43, had no complaints with them whatsoever and they are better than the standard ones I drove in. Also, when you make turns the light extends to where you are turning into which helps visibility out as well.
Additionally, how reputable is car rev daily.com? First time ever reading something from them.
Last edited by jhpmbusa; 10-03-2020 at 09:27 AM.
Reason: additional
I found the article and the adaptive LEDs also received a poor rating by IIHS though many owners on here who have them claim that they perform well (I don't have them, so I can't speak for them personally)
The optional Exterior Lighting package for $900 is a must-skip. Not only is the design quite off-putting with its giant centrally-mounted projector ball, but the actual low-beam performance is very poor. This package brings auto highbeams that are super bright. But driving around the town or city with low beams? Shockingly bad. The light cutoff is about 20 feet in front of the vehicle when it should be about 60 feet. We have a hunch this relates to different lighting rules for the US versus Europe, where the auto highbeams can be on more often. But as it stands for US customers these low-beam lights are almost a deal-breaker in how bad they are."
Come to think about it, are they driving with the high beams on in the city? If so it will automatically lower the beam to not blind the incoming traffic, thus it may look like its emitting lower than the standard ones.,, I think this is an user error on their part trying to drive around in the city with the high beams on lol, if in fact thats what they were doing.
Come to think about it, are they driving with the high beams on in the city? If so it will automatically lower the beam to not blind the incoming traffic, thus it may look like its emitting lower than the standard ones.,, I think this is an user error on their part trying to drive around in the city with the high beams on lol, if in fact thats what they were doing.
Multibeam LEDs will automatically switch off high beams in a built up area.
Not sure what this guy is talking about, and I've also never heard of them. Arguably they look much better than the standard LEDs, and really don't know what his issue with the low beam light is. It's so good, that I never really have to use the high beams, unless I'm driving in a rural area in pitch black darkness, or I'm flying down a canyon road at speed at night and wanna make sure I see the wildlife far ahead.
This & my last Merc both have multibeam LEDs.
Makes driving on dark country roade or unlit motorways a breeze and no eye fatigue. The curtain effect as the lights sweep up the road, and black out around oncoming cars is incredible.
The no PE is the bigger issue here. The headlights are really not that much of a difference, unless you drive somewhere that requires high beams often, a lot of twisty roads in the dark, and for a long stretch then the multibeam helps since you can just leave on high beams on and it will automatically adjust to not blind people and adjust to give you better lighting around corners. I have a buddy that has the multibeam and comparing it with my own, it's really not that much of a difference at all. Surprisingly, the high performance LED actually does reach out further and wider (low beams) and the color is a little bit less blue which provides a bit better contrast than the multibeam LED. However, this is really not noticeable unless you have both cars side by side to compare. Again, the main reason to get the multibeam is to have the automatic adjusting of the high beams. There are still plenty of cars out there with halogen headlights and people drive just fine; I wouldn't worry about which type of headlights you get since they are both very good.
To some extent these headlight systems are a matter of you don't know what you are missing unless you've experienced them yourself. My wife's car still has halogen lights, and after having had multiple cars with Xenon lights and now LEDs I feel like a blind mouse every time I drive her car at night and I think something must be wrong with her headlights.
I found the article and the adaptive LEDs also received a poor rating by IIHS ...
Seems like the NA-manufactured C-class cars arrive with headlights aimed too low. This was the case with both our 2017 C43 Sedan and 2016 C63 S Sedan (both have the auto/intelligent light package). On a dark road at legal hghway speeds you'd be outdriving the high beams. After proper aiming, they're both fine (and, as noted by superswiss, significantly better than our 2007 E350 with the xenon lighting).
If you search the forums, you'll find instructions on how to (easily) re-aim the height of the headlights. It's worth the effort ... in fact, for safety, it's a requirement.
From afar, the standard lights do look more modern, but if you do a close-up comparison the multibeam headlights have a lot more too offer and has a lot more details and different components to it. Whereas, the standard is just a redundant design. At least this is my opinion.
Even the below pic doesn't do justice. Really just have to see it upfront on your own to appreciate it haha.
I'm a headlight fanatic, on any new car I get a demo car of what I'm getting or ordering with the exact headlights and give a drive at night. I will say the Multibeams are so far the best. Have them on my 2019 C43, they are part of the Advanced lighting package. They extend from close to far and follow the road and turns. I bet the next AMG I get is even better but for me it was sure worth the $900 for the package.
Having test drove both before buying the car, the multibeam lights are superior in every way. Brightness, throw, width, color. Even though half the function is crippled here in the USA, there was a noticeable difference driving in the dark.
Having test drove both before buying the car, the multibeam lights are superior in every way. Brightness, throw, width, color. Even though half the function is crippled here in the USA, there was a noticeable difference driving in the dark.
Well possibly you are not missing anything with the functions that are disabled ...some of them are a bit gimmicky anyway!
You get the basic good lighting which is most important.
09-28-2020, 10:10 AM
High Performance LED vs. Multibeam headlights
But the price is considerably good.
First time ever reading something from them. 
