[Barbera335]

Just stumbled upon this, very exciting news.

http://www.autoevolution.com/bmw-blo...hts-69117.html

[cc3]

Originally Posted by Barbera335

Just stumbled upon this, very exciting news.

http://www.autoevolution.com/bmw-blo...hts-69117.html

Nice good find

[barcelona]

For 2014 F15, maybe same for F25.
Traffic Jam Assistant is not avail in Canada & USA.

LED is packaged so expect to pay, at least you can choose. May depend on pricing of Macan.

[dmode]

When does the LCI go into production and starts shipping ? I am in the market for X3 and wondering if I should hold out for the LCI. Need to have the car before April, as my warranty runs out after April.

[barcelona]

Originally Posted by dmode

When does the LCI go into production and starts shipping ? I am in the market for X3 and wondering if I should hold out for the LCI. Need to have the car before April, as my warranty runs out after April.

http://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=930106
X3 LCI - debuts at 2014 NYIAS (April)

[RhoXS]

Only considering how much light is emitted, which provides more light; HID or LED headlamps?

Until recently I thought the auto industry was making great strides at improving the ability of headlamps to light up the road. Although I am generally not pleased with our Lexus RX350, it does have outstanding headlamps. It uses an HID lamp for both low and high beams but it also supplements the high beams with a conventional but truly excellent quartz-halogen lamp. My 2011 X3 uses a single HID lamp (the inner lamp is a dummy) and although it is good, it clearly does not do as good a job as the Lexus system. This both surprised and disappointed me because I was expecting a great lighting system based on experience with other BMWs even going back to my 1988 E30 M3 (that had incredible lightning even though it was not an HID system). Therefore, I am skeptical about the LED system and really have no interest in it unless it is as good or better, in terms of light output, to a really good HID system like our Lexus has.

[The X Men]

The LED lighting is a $1900 option on the 5 series. It includes adaptive LED headlights, auto LED high beams, LED fog lights and LED cornering lights which reside in the inner light housing. I would imagine the X3 will not have the inner light housing cornering lights and continues to use the fog lights as cornering lights, therefore, it might be a cheaper option on the X3.
As far as brightness, those who has it say it is brighter, I have seen it at night at a dealership and it does seem whiter in color but not necessarily brighter. The energy savings is negligible, the bottom line is that you are paying for the cool factor and not much more.

[RhoXS]

Originally Posted by The X Men

... it does seem whiter in color but not necessarily brighter.

... the bottom line is that you are paying for the cool factor and not much more.

That is exactly my take on it.

People do indeed confuse whiter meaning brighter but as you pointed out that is not necessarily the case.

It shouldn't but it bothers me a lot how many people degrade the performance of their headlights by buying bulbs with a "cool factor". The unreasonably expensive blue tinted "high intensity" bulbs are a good example. To get the blue tint it is necessary to filter out a significant amount of the yellow light energy that actually constitutes most of the energy available from the filament. It is just beyond anything I can understand why anyone would put appearance before function when it comes to something like headlamps. I guess that is the mentality of HID wannabes.

[The X Men]

Originally Posted by RhoXS

It shouldn't but it bothers me a lot how many people degrade the performance of their headlights by buying bulbs with a "cool factor". The unreasonably expensive blue tinted "high intensity" bulbs are a good example. To get the blue tint it is necessary to filter out a significant amount of the yellow light energy that actually constitutes most of the energy available from the filament. It is just beyond anything I can understand why anyone would put appearance before function when it comes to something like headlamps. I guess that is the mentality of HID wannabes.

Some tinted bulbs are brighter, but they burn at a higher wattage or they run the filament hotter to compensate for the tint, either way, its not very efficient and it also shorten the life of the bulb.

[Teemo Panda]

Yea, this is a no brainer. BMW is always saving the good stuffs for the LCI =_=.

[barcelona]

The BMW literature seems to emphasize the advancements compared to say, halogens. Perhaps a better comparison would be HID and LED hence less to discern

A liitle old 11-26-08:
http://www.atzonline.com/index.php;d...lloc=35/id=137

[liverman]

Originally Posted by dmode

When does the LCI go into production and starts shipping ? I am in the market for X3 and wondering if I should hold out for the LCI. Need to have the car before April, as my warranty runs out after April.

Factory production starts 1 April 2014.

I don't know if they will shut down before or after 4/1 for any re-tooling needed. the 2013 to 2014 transition required no downtime since there were no real changes to the vehicle.

If you want the latest and greatest, think about bridge transportation for a few weeks. If you want to save a little, you might be able to get good deals on '14s pretty soon

[Bimar]

I wonder if it will also have the new interior design language with floating screen

[Booty]

Originally Posted by inamik75

I wonder if it will also have the new interior design language with floating screen

Doubt it very much. It would have been in X4 if they were going to. It will be in new X3 in couple years.

[ReturnZero]

Originally Posted by inamik75

I wonder if it will also have the new interior design language with floating screen

Yeah they probably won't make any major interior changes until a new body style.

If they do stuff like this, I'd say it's worth it. Look how cool these are!

I'd guess the LED are equally bright as HID, not any less.

[barcelona]

Originally Posted by ReturnZero

Yeah they probably won't make any major interior changes until a new body style.

If they do stuff like this, I'd say it's worth it. Look how cool these are!

I'd guess the LED are equally bright as HID, not any less.

Simultaneous HBeam/LBeam is available in Europe. Canada & US, it will switch between H/L, meaning not both at same time. Laws of the land dictate, supposedly.
http://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...&highlight=led

[richard in NC]

I may be the only one that doesn't like the look of LEDs, especially on Audi & MB. But the LED option on the 5s looks good, not so different than HIDs, other than squared off angels. If the headlights are truly better, than yes I would get them.

One interesting downside to HIDs is the sharp drop-off of light outside the focus area. Their design allows very good lighting within the allowable areas but leaves dark areas outside of that. And yes, I believe the US is more tightly regulated regarding lighting oncoming lanes. On really dark nights in the country I really felt the need for high beams, especially to scope for deer. Are LEDs the same?

RohXs, could that be why the Lexus with its Halogen supplement seems better?

[The X Men]

The cut off of a headlight beam is more a function of the lens than the type of light source. A halogen bulb in a projector lens will have a sharp cutoff as well and a HID or LED in a reflector housing will have a taper cutoff. The whiter and bright light from the HID and LED will make cutoff seem more pronounce. The reason why the Rx350's high beam is so bright is that it use a bi-xenon high beam as well as a halogen high beam.

[ReturnZero]

Originally Posted by barcelona

Simultaneous HBeam/LBeam is available in Europe. Canada & US, it will switch between H/L, meaning not both at same time. Laws of the land dictate, supposedly.
http://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...&highlight=led

Booooo, that's a major bummer.

[RhoXS]

Originally Posted by The X Men

The reason why the Rx350's high beam is so bright is that it use a bi-xenon high beam as well as a halogen high beam.

What is the purpose of the headlights? Obviously that is to effectively as possible light up the road ahead of the car. So, given the choice between a really impressive high tech system as described in the video above, and being able to noticeably see more of the road ahead simply because more light is available, as I can in my Lexus, I'll take the system tossing out a greater amount of light. It really is not that difficult to turn the high beams on and off manually. In my opinion, the whammy dyne system above is an irresponsible application of unnecessary expensive technology that certainly must have some finite failure rate associated with it.

Now, I am sure BMW will argue that the slick dynamic redirecting of the high beams does allow the driver to see more. I seriously doubt that will be the case or even that important when driving in traffic.

[DonC]

I find the technology impressive and look forward to the new cars that incorporate it.

[ReturnZero]

Originally Posted by RhoXS

What is the purpose of the headlights? Obviously that is to effectively as possible light up the road ahead of the car. So, given the choice between a really impressive high tech system as described in the video above, and being able to noticeably see more of the road ahead simply because more light is available, as I can in my Lexus, I'll take the system tossing out a greater amount of light. It really is not that difficult to turn the high beams on and off manually. In my opinion, the whammy dyne system above is an irresponsible application of unnecessary expensive technology that certainly must have some finite failure rate associated with it.

Now, I am sure BMW will argue that the slick dynamic redirecting of the high beams does allow the driver to see more. I seriously doubt that will be the case or even that important when driving in traffic.

It absolutely lights up the road better, as it allows you to use your high beams even when oncoming traffic is coming without blinding them. Granted the system is seriously limited in the US as we can't have that functionality, but the system over the pod is a definite win.