this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
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The issue is vehicle height has gotten obscene. A lifted truck with halogens still blinds me in my sedan
The headlights for most new SUVs and trucks are at the same level as the rear-view mirror in my normal-sized car. The hood is higher than my roof. It's ridiculous
They're supposed to adjust their lights and point them down, but I guess most people don't.
OEM and correctly angled lights will still blind you from pretty far away due to the angle of attack on the beam.
Think of the lights like a triangle, inside that triangle you will be blind, and to get the same length of visibility with a taller vehicle, you will grow the triangle.
Where as my sedan is low to the ground. I could improperly aim my lights and have them firing out at 90° and still most people's eyes wouldn't be low enough to be in the triangle.
I replaced my work truck headlights with LEDs and parked out in front of several lines of fencing to angle them downward.
I ended up having to get a different headlight geometry because the reflectors weren't designed for LEDs and there was too much spillage.
When I ask people how hard it was to get to the angle adjustment screws and usually get weird looks.
Honestly I don't even know if modern cars HAVE adjustable angle headlights. Every old car I've owned has though. Not a huge amount of play but enough to angle up or down by about 10-15 degrees if needed.
My wife's car is a 94 and low to the ground, even with brights on I don't have a problem when she drives by me. 10/10 headlights on that thing.
Auto adjusting headlights aren't common in the US. Our automotive lighting laws are extremely outdated
Yeah on my old car it was very easy to aim. My new one has everything hidden behind panels that need to be removed
My buddy had a Malibu where you had to remove the front of the car to get to the headlights. It's ridiculous.
That is obscene. Why on earth would they design it that way
To make you take it to the dealer for all repairs
Good point. Fuckin lame
It doesn't seem to be limited to tall cars for me. I'm constantly blinded by little sedans and I drive a mid-sized pickup truck. I think they're luxury cars with the power of 10,000 suns captured inside their headlights. Also, I drive a mid-sized pickup truck with aftermarket LED bulbs, but I don't blind passenger cars. I had my wife pass me on the road in her sedan after I adjusted them to be sure I wasn't being an asshole.
They probably have their brights on and just don't care. I'm seeing a lot of that from luxury car drivers. They've basically entered an arms race where tall cars blind them, so they leave their brights on. An easy way to tell is too look for their cutoff line. If you don't see a cutoff on the road then they're an ass with their brights on
Another issue is the "auto brights" that never seem to work as advertised.
The auto brights in my wife's Honda work pretty great! But we've rented a couple cars that shut off way too late. I guess it depends on the manufacturer and model.
Agreed. My friend's Lexus is too eager to shut off the brights and turns off from a street light a mile away. The American brands seem to lag
They work great in my Hyundai too.
Only problem is I have to turn on the brights to cancel the auto brights.
That's not a great design decision.
I'm in an element, so I'm pretty high up and I get blinded. When I drive my wife's Mazda 3 it's fucking horrible
Dude, I drive tractor-trailer and still get blinded frequently, with my eyeballs like eight or nine fucking feet off the ground. It’s ridiculous. New Subarus are the worst offenders right now, their low beams are literally aimed up on like a 15 degree angle
I feel like in that case they just have their brights on because Subaru drivers
Even an element has the driver's eyes below the hood of a lot of these new SUVs. I agree, shit sucks. There needs to be regulations around vehicle heights and weights. I don't get why I need a special license to drive a work van that weighs less than these things
Light trucks exist in kind of a legal loophole in the US
These vehicles have been pushed hard because they're not held to the same standard as cars and are more profitable as a result
I'm pretty sure that even tho cars have gotten more efficient that average fuel economy has gone down because of the proliferation of these massive vehicles sold to Americans a daily drivers