Car enthusiasts know that lights are important on a car, particularly because driving at night would be a near
impossibility without effective headlights and tail lights on your vehicle.

ut car lights aren’t only about functionality, as style and efficiency are other elements that play into deciding what to replace, what to upgrade,  and what to keep the same.

When it comes to headlights specifically, it can be hard to weigh one headlight type against another, so we’ve broken down three areas where HIDs and halogens compete, so you can come up with a final verdict on your car’s headlight situation on your own.

Style

If you are looking for the most glamorous car headlight type, consider exactly the look you’re going for. If
you want your car’s headlights to be fairly inconspicuous and not detract from other elements on your car’s
exterior, stick with conventional halogen headlights that are already so common on the road.

For those who like customized lighting types better and really want to impress others with their car’s headlights, go with HIDs instead.

HIDs are 3x as bright as halogen headlights, so they’ll pierce right through the darkness, and better yet, you can customize HIDs by color. For blue, white, or even purple headlights, pick up an HID kit and you’ll get the lookyou’re going for.

Efficiency

Halogen lights are much like incandescent light bulbs: they work very well and they provide sufficient lighting, but they also waste a lot of their energy, expending plenty of it as heat.

With HIDs, your car’s headlight bulbs won’t give off nearly as much energy as heat, leaving more pumping directly into your car’s light output. With 10x the longevity of halogens as well, HIDs are about as efficient as lighting types get.

Installation

This may be the one area where halogens take the cake, but don’t be so sure. While halogen bulbs can simply
be unscrewed and replaced with new ones, installing HIDs is not so easy.

You can just put HID bulbs in where halogen ones had been. Instead, you’ll have to install several other components, such as ballasts, in order to make HIDs function in your car’s headlight array.

While this time drain may sound like a problem, consider this: once installed, you won’t need to change out your car’s headlight bulbs nearly as often, and when you do, you’ll now be able to directly replace them, as installing the new HID headlight components is only required once.