9005XS (HB3A) SilverStar zXe High Performance Halogen Headlight Bulb - Bright White Light Output, HID Attitude, Xenon Fueled Technology (Contains 2 Bulbs)

Nice bright, great quality, nice white light

I really like these lights. Installed on a Mercedes W204, I agree with the ad copy that they give off a little more "attitude" than stock lights. Main thing to know is that they are a whiter light than stock, so if you have any other lights on the front (in my case, there are smaller lights over the main headlamps) you may want to swap everything out so you don't have color mismatches. Yes, I worry about those things. Anyway, design is exactly H7 here and fits precisely. Light quality is really rather good - they aren't going to be mistaken for the lights in a football stadium, but certainly very appropriate for night driving with better illumination (in my opinion) than stock. Now for longevity. I get about a year out of them. Frankly, for me this is a non-issue, since the lights are very easy to swap and the price is certainly approachable. I stop short of calling these "high performance" but I do think they perform better than stock and give a whiter, almost LED-like light. These will NOT be mistaken for true LED though, but for applications (like mine) where one doesn't want to bother with an all-out conversion these are certainly reasonable substitutes. This is my second set of these and I have zero problem using these lights going forward.

I bought and installed these bulbs in my 03 outback H6 sedan in June. I wore gloves and was extremely careful when I installed them making sure to get no skin oils on the glass and to not touch the bulbs themselves at all. (I forget where but this was highly suggested to improve the life of the bulbs.) I absolutely loved them and bought the high beam bulbs for my car about a month later. Now in January I have to replace the low beams because they burnt out, both in the same night (nerve racking while driving to say the least, I'm glad I have bright fog lamps too). I went to an auto parts store and just picked up some cheap bulbs($26 not so cheap really) for now. I am planning on getting new lamps soon since mine are quite foggy. (I wonder if this contributed to the short life) Once I install the new lamps I do ultimately plan on getting these bulbs again (possibly grab 2 packs and the high beams too just to have on hand if they both blow together again). I feel that the pros outweigh the cons for me. Pros: Easy to install. Bright white light. Great for lighting up the sides of the road. (I live about an hour out back country roads, with no street lamps. Seeing the sides of the roads is important for avoiding running into the animals that like to jump into the road in front of cars.) They make the roads and trees the correct colors as if in daylight. (Again this makes it easier to see the animals) They do look nice. Not horribly expensive. $40 compared to the $26 I had to spend at the store for cheap ones quickly. Cons: Not any better at seeing down the road than normal bulbs. (However the high beams fixed this for me) Seem to last about 6 months for me. I was hoping for longer with the price but considering where I live I drive a lot, around 2 hours a day or 80 miles. Over 6 months that's about 360 hours of my lights being on constantly (I can not turn them off even during the daylight)

Vehicle: 2010 Mercury Grand Marquis with fog lamps (H13 headlamp, 9145 fog lamp) I had read from other reviewers on Amazon [among other sources] that these headlights really provide nothing more than that of the Sylvania Silverstar Ultra platform. While I agree with most reviewers that the advertisement of the zXe's is misguided ("the halogen equivalent of HID Xenon"), the light of the actual bulb appears brighter than any factory bulb - old or new. I ran a road visibility test with the baseline Phillips H13, the Silverstar Ultra H13, and the zXe. By a longshot, the zXe provided the best contrast downroad, but not necessarily the brightest light. That isn't to mean that the zXe's are a ripoff or not worth the money - they most definitely are, provided they last a year or more as advertised. The biggest difference in these over the Silverstar Ultras or the stock bulbs is that they offer the widest spread, effectively utilizing the reflectors in your headlamp housing, rather than creating lots of glare like in the Silverstar Ultras. Even in the rain or fog, these lights do not seem to cause that much scatter - which to me, is rather odd. I'm not sure entirely how these lights pull that off, but they do. Over stock bulbs, these allow you to see more of the sides of the road, further down the road and with the highest contrast that a halogen could offer. You'd be hard pressed to find an HID or LED conversion kit that provides this kind of lighting, especially at a price that is strikingly competitive to ballast kits and conversion upgrade kits (all of which are not DOT certified) One quirk that I must report for anyone considering the zXe's is that the initial use of these bulbs in my car seemed rather dim - after a day or two of driving in the dark, they became significantly brighter - at least 4-5x brighter. I'm not aware of a break-in period, but it would be helpful to know if there is.

These replacement light bulbs are just as bright since I purchased them!

These bulbs are fantastic! They are definitely whiter and brighter than a stock bulb. Compared to the 6k LED parking bulbs on my miata (see pic) they are probably closer to 4k, whereas stock is closer to 3k. This works out great for me because my miata has terrible headlights. I constantly have to turn on my high beams where I live because there are so few street lights and my forward projection is terrible. I was mulling getting HID bulbs, but most miata owners complain about the narrow projection angle on HID bulbs. Also, HID conversion kits are stupid expensive. This is a perfect intermediate step that gives me whiter and brighter lights without jumping off the HID cliff, but allows me to install LEDs in my other sockets without creating a huge color difference.

Es una luz blanca sin llegar al extremo de un de xenón... Buena iluminación

Arrived on time works good and bright

Definitely not on the whiter scale, replaced my Piaa bulbs that were much whiter, but these seem brighter.

Probably one of my favourite head light replacement bulbs ever purchased. They are bright and clear; emitting a strong light that goes further than most stock head lights. Easy to install (depends on vehicle though); lasted about two years.

Very dangerus