Looking like the time has come to replace OH’s car with something a bit bigger & more practical. We’re looking for something about 12 months old from a car supermarket or similar. Cars like Focus, Leon, Octavia and Yetis appeal, particularly if they’re the warm hatch variety;)

The thing that is putting the OH off Skoda and Seat is the rubbish headlights on our previous two Skodas. She has to regularly drive on longish stretches of unlit country roads, where there’s just enough oncoming traffic that you can hardly use full beam lights. She’s currently got a Fiesta and previously had a 2013 Octavia VRS – the boggo lights on the Fiesta are far better than the Octavia (even with unrated bulbs on latter). We’ve been looking on the Skoda forum and noticed that people are still complaining about cr*p headlights on the latest generation Octavias and Yetis.

Does anyone on here have experience of Skoda Yetis or Octavias with Xenons? If so, what’s the dipped beam like on unlit roads? Also wondered about Seat Leons with LED headlights – again, we’ve read mixed reviews on forums. People who use them on unlit roads complaining that the dipped beam is really low and has a sharply defined cut off to the beam – does anyone here have real world experience of the Leon LED headlights?

Any sensible feedback most welcome. TIA

My mk1 yeti with standard headlights is fine on unlit roads on dipped beam. Good bulbs and correctly set up lights are half the battle with most cars.

Had no problems with Golfs or A3 but the works Skoda Octavia ones are shit.

I have a superb with the AFL Xenons and they are chuffin awesome – the light output is bonkers and the way that they ‘steer’ when turning means you really get a great spread of light when needed…

Probably the best lights of any car I have owned (and that includes several other makes also with Xenons..)

I’ve driven a couple of LED equipped Seats, and I was very impressed with the lights, the sharp cutoff works well, as you can set the lights a bit higher without dazzle, I’ve had a couple of cars recently, where the beam cutoff was so soft, and the beam set so low it was actually scary to drive, I think the worst one was a Merc, but I drive so many different cars a week I struggle to remember which are which.
Some cars have the means to raise and lower the beam a bit, to allow for loading, this can help quite a bit.
While I’ve driven several Skodas the most recent a Roomster, most haven’t been in real dark for any distance, although the Roomster was, I felt the dip was a bit low, but couldn’t find an adjuster, but the beam pattern was reasonably sharp edged. My old Octavia isn’t too bad, but it has an adjuster, and I’ve raised the beam a bit.

Loving my AFL bi-xenons on a ’17 Yeti. No issues at all. My bar was set low by the ’03 Jazz which preceeded it though.

FWIW, we tried different bulbs in the Octavia, and had the alignment checked at least twice, and nothing helped. Interested to read the comments on the Skoda Xenons and Seat LEDs – sounds promising. Am going to try and get some test drives arranged while the early nights are still around.

Running Skoda LEDs on an Octavia (Latest gen). Absolutely awesome.

Mrs_oab’s Ibiza lights are better than the Galaxy, if that helps.

My 2011 Yeti has Bi Xenons which are awesome I believe the later Xenons are even better.

MK3 octy got halogen in most trims and not great. Vrs got xenon, and I say they are impressive. Not sure what the l and k got.

You can lease a new Leon FR 1.4 125hp for £4,650 over 2 years / 16K miles atm. Probably no more expensive than second hand over that period when all is taken into account, tax, opportunity cost, consumables etc etc

It comes with LED headlights as standard.

I’ve got the Mk3 Octavia VRS which I think has the Xenon headlights.
Whichever they are they are bloody good!
As per what Drac said, we’ve got Octavias with normal headlights at work and they’re rubbish.

I have a Mk7 Golf with the standard Halogen lights. On the original fit bulbs they were average at best. Maximum possible height set, but didn’t really give much spread and the actual light output was woeful.

But, having now changed to some GE ‘Megalight’ bulbs, they are now as bright as I would have expected initially.

Also a royal PITA the change. On the 2.0TDI model there is no clearance to remove the dipped beam bulbs without taking the headlamp unit out. Not difficult, but frustrating and time consuming.

I own a Leon with LED headlights and although they are much brighter than my previous car’s halogen headlights, I tend to agree with the comments about them being set too low.

It isn’t something that can be adjusted either since they are self-levelling (so I don’t quite follow CountZero’s post above about setting them a bit higher).

And the full beams are great – in fact full beam is basically the dipped beam angled up which gives you an idea of just how bright the dipped beam is.

I’ve never found driving just on dipped a problem though. Sounds like you might be best trying them out first if you can arrange an extended test drive.

As an aside, the fix for older VW headlights – he said, as the owner of a Corrado and a Mk2 GTi – has always been to install an uprated headlight wiring loom that takes power directly from the battery to the headlight bulbs and is triggered by a relay on the original circuit plus uprated bulbs.

Do that and the headlights are good to very good even on a mid-90s car. I suspect the same fix might work with later VAG cars too. At the very least, change the headlight bulbs for some of the latest Philips +150 ones as bulbs aren’t created equal to begin with and lose output as they age.

All of which sounds like a load of hassle, but is actually pretty straightforward and well worth the effort considering the alternative is to drive around with the modern equivalent of a couple of guttering candles on the front of your car.

Got a 65 plate Octavia with standard lights – way better than the lights on our 11 plate Fabia.

I find a lot of the xenons have harsh cutoff, my focus was terrible. Lights were brilliant on dip in front or on full, but at the horizon on dip the light just went. Used to make driving on unlit roads a real problem. My T5 is shit all round, cant see a thing, and the halogens on the a3 are really good. So theyre not all equal even across brands, at least this time of year you can go and test drive in the dark and see for yourself.

The standard ones in my Wife’s ’16 Fabia are rubbish on dipped beam. Quite a lot of debate on BRISKODA around fixes but none are very simple. The Xenon’s on my Yeti were very good indeed. Best lights I’ve had both on dipped and main beam. Didn’t notice a particularly bad cutoff.

I’ve just swapped from a 2012 Skoda Fabia Monte Carlo which had the worst headlights I’ve ever used, improved slightly by installing Osram Nightbreakers, to a 2016 new shape Fabia and the headlights are much, much better, to the point that I’ve not noticed them even on standard bulbs.

People who use them on unlit roads complaining that the dipped beam is really low and has a sharply defined cut off to the beam

It’s easy to sort that by just adjusting the angle of the low beam with an allen key on top of the light unit under the bonnet. I’ve had to do that on all my cars to get the low beam high enough to be useful.

My 2016 Transporter on standard headlights are beyond woeful, I’d go as far as saying damn right dangerous. I’ve changed them for Phillips 150% something or other which are an improvement but not what I was hoping for in a 30K plus vehicle.

Probably not much use but I had a 16 plate Octavia as a hire car for the last week and was shocked at how bad the headlights were on dipped.

Oddly I find the lights on my 14 plate Octavia fine on dipped beams with halogen bulbs. Certainly better than the S-Max I had before. Had an Accord prior to that and it was awful. Ended up putting some eBay HIDs in it which improved matters greatly. However these only work well on projector style units so won’t work on the current Octavia, unless the latest facelift has altered that.

Directional HIDs on our yeti were awesome. The new LEDs on our kodiaq are even better with a great beam pattern (adaptive & directional with AFS depending on the road type). I’ve even conceded that the auto dip/main feature is pretty amazing.

For some reason the germans appear incapable of making good halogen headlights.

An abrupt cutoff is meant to be better. I’d dig my bosch automotive handbook out to find out why but its in the loft.

My brother raves about the LEDs on his Leon.

Anyone remember Xenon 2 Megablast on the Amiga? Great stuff, better than lights.

The led ones on our 1 Series are miles better than the boggo ones on the Kuga if that’s any help.

My 2007 octy headlights are pish… you’ve just reminded me to hunt for better bulbs!

My 2017 yeti lights are da bomb diggy…..
Get them.

DrP

Anyone remember Xenon 2 Megablast on the Amiga? Great stuff, better than lights.

Still knows the theme tune.

In my personal experience:

2009 Octavia halogen lights weren’t great.
However, 2015 Skoda Superb Xenons, and 2017 Leon LEDs are very good.

I had the directional Xenon’s on my Octavia VRS and they were very poor. On wet roads it was as if you had no lights on and could only tell with the reflection from road signs. Dry roads weren’t much better.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbimxbKSEY4[/video]

I have a 2014 Octavia with Xenon lights – they are plenty bright for me.

Still knows the theme tune.

that’s because it just nicked the Assault on Precinct 13 theme!

VAG can be a bit hit or miss it would seem.

2011 A6 – HID lights – awful and really weird beam pattern cutoff on full beam
2013 Touareg- HID lights – miles better than the A6
2015 Golf – HID lights – pretty much the same as the Touareg, or a smidge better
2017 Golf – LED lights – Really, really good!

i recently had a 67 plate golf gti as a hire car. it has the led lights that steer round corners, but not AFL. The light output was great, but as mentioned, has quite a sharp cutoff that seemed a bit low – a bit scary on unlit twisty roads. On main beam, they lit the whole county! I found them better than the HIDs in a CMAZ i had previously.

I got used to them quickly, and didnt think they were that great until i went back to standard halogens.

In recent experience, anything with ‘projector’ style lights and halogens seems to be rubbish. the normal style halogen lights are ok, but if i could choose i would have LEDs every time

Some interesting comments re sharp cutoff on LED headlights. I have this on my 1 series. Exactly as Matt notes above on the Golf GTi – great output and would light up the county on full beam!

I found the bi-xenons on a previous 3 series much better all round. Mind you the high-beam assist must have been an early design (’09) as it was shockingly slow at responding and never got used!

Double check whatever you test drive re. LED vs Xenon as both can look very similar (i.e. very white) to the eye. IMO Xenons are better performing but I think they use more energy and are more expensive when they go wrong..

Thanks for all the feedback. I’m going to visit the local Skoda dealer tomorrow and see what Yetis they’ve got – and try and get a test drive of a Xenon equipped one.

Interesting to read about the Mk7 Golfs lights being sh*te. I quite like the idea of something like a Golf or A3 and had hoped that, being VAGs more premium brands, the lights would be better…..hmm. Also going to try and get a test drive of a halogen equipped Focus, as the halogens in my ‘13 plate Transit van are great – nowhere near as bright as Xenons, but miles better our Skodas.

On a slight tangent

In terms of light output on main, the LEDs on my new BMW are pretty similar to the Xenon’s on the yeti I just gave back to the lease company. Based on a test of how much of the woods light up on a long straight back to our house.

The Yeti ‘looked’ round corners but I never really noticed, the BM has the adaptive light upgrade and it’s amazing. Certainly doesn’t blind oncoming cars but not sure how it reacts to cyclists. So I always manually dip them for that.

I was very skeptical and wouldn’t have spec’d them but I bought this car as UK stock they wanted to shift so it came with what it came with. Two weeks driving in the dark and I’m almost thinking it’d be worth the cash.

https://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/performance/spot-lights/cibie-super-oscar

Mk 7 Golf with the swivelly bi-xenons here. They’re very good. Wife has a Leon with LED and they’re excellent. Either would be fine I think.

I’m wondering if the reason some people are finding their dips poor is an equivalent of the bike light wars where everything is getting brighter. As I understand it modern Xenon ‘dips’ are actually just the main beam with a shade pulled down which is why you get such a sharp cutoff and why modern beams have to be autolevelling now. Got an XC60 with these things on now and you can now properly see at night – it’s great