Bi-Xenons worth it?

Y

yetti96

Member
:
'13 Maxda CX-5 Touring w/ Nav & '09 MINI Cooper S
So before you blindly answer yes to the question, travel with me through my thoughts. I am a huge proponent of getting xenons if at all available from the manufacturer. I have done a couple of retrofits on the last few vehicles I have owned as the halogen lighting was insufficient for my needs and I wanted to be as legal as possible and not blinding to oncoming traffic.

On this vehicle (CX-5), the base touring is what fits the needs of my wife as we shop for one (it is going to be her car after all). Mazda makes you get the Moonroof/Bose package before you can even choose to get the Tech Pack. So basically you have to spend $1,130 before you add the check box for the reasonably priced Tech pack at $1,185. So $2,315 is what I need to spend to get OEM xenons for a CX-5.

Mazda loved projectors, even for the halogens (we had a cx-7 and the mother-in-law has a 3) I haven't done it but I would imagine a proper 35w HID kit could drop into the halogen projectors and still not have annoying or blinding glare. I have yet to see this mentioned at least in the CX-5 section of the forum and am putting this thread together to gather discussion. I am not sure but I do understand that the high-beams might be a separate bulb and complicating that but 99% of the time we only use low beams.

So thoughts on wanting an optionless CX-5 touring and adding HIDs from say DDM tuning for under $50 or do I really need to spring for the headlights at a cost of over $2,300 and get the bonus of the Bose (the rest of the stuff is a mute point IMO for us)? If we plan to add the TomTom subtract $500 and then the car is basically $1800 more then a base once we add the Nav.

Using basic figuring the difference is almost $2k, meaning a difference of ~$40 a month if financed.


Now that you made it through this endless mumbling, what say you fellow forum dwellers?
 
I was in the same boat as you are and I decided to skip it. Here is my way of thinking

1. $2k is way too much for xenon lights
2. My father's Toyota has xenon headlights and everything (ballasts, wiring, self leveling) is internal inside the headlight and the headlight is totally interchangeable with regular halogen one. If Mazda went the same route (and I see no reason why not) you'll be able to just buy the headlights later and swap them (probably much cheaper than $2k)
3. if 2. fails you can still put aftermarket kit in it.

P.S. After about 100 miles in my CX-5 during night I like the halogen projectors enough to put xenon project on the shelf for now.
 
After using my bi-xenon's for the past two nights, I am in heaven. There is no comparison between the old headlights on my Mazda 3 SP23 (which I considered quite good), and the xenons. The AFS turn feature is quite good, although I think it will be most useful on country roads where it's going to be the difference between missing and hitting a Kangaroo (I've missed many, many, many Kangaroos with my Mazda 3 - which is fortunate, because hitting one not only can write off a car, but you have to check the pouch of a dead Kangaroo for unborn Joeys, and I don't want to do that).

With that said, I really like the auto high beam function as well. Today I was driving through the suburbs and put the high beam on to test. The camera mounted in the windscreen auto detected street lights and noted it in the display as being auto dimmed. This will be another useful feature on country road trips at night.

In Australia, the Xenon with AFS is standard on the GT - but the auto dimming headlights are an option that is combined with blind spot monitoring and lane departure warning as part of what we call the Teck Pack.
 
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On my Mazda 3 (mps/mazdaspeed) bi-xenons are standard. They are great on dark country roads with their range and brightness and there is also the directional part where they turn a bit on a bend. The CX5 I'm getting has the same package as inodes so these come as standard. Whether I would pay extra for them on their own, with nothing else, is doubtful. Some manufactures charge a fortune for them. If they were part of a package where other things were useful (to me), then maybe. It depends on whether the sum of the parts of the package is worth it.
 
Just did some testing tonight on some darker roads in the south of Sydney. It was the best test I could do in Sydney, because there are very few really dark places in Sydney (and it's an hour drive in any direction to get out of Sydney, so I'll save that for another time). But the road I chose let me test a few things.

Firstly I thought it would take a dark road to test the Xenon's at the best. I was wrong; even in the city, it made an impact on me. Unfortunately, driving over a couple of speed bumps slowly, it made an impression on pedestrians crossing the road as my nose climbed the bump (they weren't impressed).

But going into the darkest roads I could find in Sydney, I was able to put the Xenon's and the auto high beam to the test. The auto high beam seemed to work quite well. It would respond well to street lights and ensure the lights were dimmed. I thought they would be slow to react, but once I got into darker sections the high beams reacted almost as quickly as I would operate them myself. And oncoming car or bright street light, and the high beam would quickly dip.

The line of the dipped lights is very clear and strikes perfectly high enough for vision, but low enough never to annoy cars in front.
Creating a video of that trip now (although I am trying to get the shaking out using Final Cut) because it was handheld while driving.
 
2k for a retrofit.... crazy pricing... I must be undercharging... *shrug*
The 3 will see a retrofit when things slow down a bit. If someone is charging 2k for a retrofit that is NUTS
For what it's worth the halogen projectors are good... not as good as a proper HID retrofit IMO.
But to each their own and no biggy if someone decides that a few hundred bucks would be better spent on something else.
 
I think we will see how drop-ins do in the halogen projectors, then if necessary I'll do a retro.

BTW we take delivery of a Sky Blue Touring with no other packages or options.
 
Puja McGriddle said:
Having aspired to get Xenons for over a decade, I am surprisingly pleased with the stock headlamps on our CX-5!
Click to expand...

They significantly better than any lights I've used previously. Very happy with how precise and clear they are myself. Very, very pleased and worthwhile investment.
 
inodes said:
But going into the darkest roads I could find in Sydney, I was able to put the Xenon's and the auto high beam to the test. .
Click to expand...

I agree this is a great feature (as well as the Xenon lights themselves). I live in a rural area so I generally leave my lights on high beam all the time. Like you, I was impressed with the sensitivity of the auto dimming. In manual mode, I would normally dip the headlights as soon as I see even a hint of an oncoming vehicle. The auto dimming feature does exactly that. It is equally sensitive when it sees the red tail lights of a vehicle up ahead.
 
One of the best tech features of the two mazdas I have owned. One of the few actually worth paying for.
 
Do we get the automatic hi beams in the US? I never noticed but I sure will look out for it.

Anyways, yes, tech package. No regrets. Tom-Tom isn't bad as well.
 
I'm thinking about doing a retro for the CX5. I had SC430 retro on the civic and I miss that big time.
Somebody posted that replacent bixenons are 750 each plus bulbs. Not sure if that includes ballasts.

If I do a retro, I'm really thinking about doing a quad FX-R's. If I can figure out a way to retain DRL function. Ive seen on other posts there are OEM LED DRLs for euro market. If I can figure out how that wiring works, I'll get the retro done.
 
Mazda3UR said:
2k for a retrofit.... crazy pricing... I must be undercharging... *shrug*
The 3 will see a retrofit when things slow down a bit. If someone is charging 2k for a retrofit that is NUTS
For what it's worth the halogen projectors are good... not as good as a proper HID retrofit IMO.
But to each their own and no biggy if someone decides that a few hundred bucks would be better spent on something else.
Click to expand...


You do retros?

Are you going to do your cx5?
 
OE projectors seem quite good on the CX-5. Great, clear output and great cutoff.

You should see the junk they put into the Speed6. Worst projectors I have ever seen. Almost makes having HID useless.
 
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