The wife's Audi has bi-xenon and they are fantastic - and the DRL LED's are always on...and the taillights? Brilliant in broad daylight...looking close, the LED's are all "Hella" brand. Ford LED taillights on all their cars are the best LED's 10 Mexican pesos will buy. Sorry, brutally honest opinion, there. I've been behind several Edge, Explorers and Fusions recently and the taillights suck.


There's a lot of people wanting LED's as standard, but I've got to say, I'd be happy if they just built high quality halogens as well. My pickup truck gets dirty and does work around the property. Now and again, stupid crap happens. If I back into a tree and crack a taillight lens on an LED taillight, that's going to be one heckuva expensive mistake. (To the tune of around $800 bucks on the F150 if Edmunds.com is accurate). Get rear-ended? No big deal, insurance will cover it. But sometimes we all do something stupid. Fortunately, this has not happened to me (yet), but you never know. I'd rather drop 800 large on a new chainsaw, new rifle, new pistol, new bow, doo-dad for the motorcycle, couple tools for the garage, etc...not a taillight.


Sorry for the ramble....I guess I'm just saying "be careful what you wish for". And I get it, not everyone puts their truck in situations where they could get easily damaged...

 

Careful - lots of Hella parts are made in China now.

Its funny, I have a different opinion. The Ford LEDs I have seen appear to be as bright and modern as anything from Germany. I will agree that Audi invented the LED DRL craze, and pioneered the technology for headlights. The last Audi I had was a 1999 A8 many years ago. It had factory low-beam xenon headlights. They looked great but were terrible in terms of output. That car also had the worst backup lights of all times, utterly useless. Great car when everything was working. After the second transmission failure, it was time to say good bye.

 

No disputing the fact that the SD is a superior product...I'm sure back in 06 when I bought my current truck I felt the prices were high too. I guess when I look at what a truck costs compared to what I paid for my house that's when it hits ya lol

I just hope that the '17 drives some of those with a more expendable income to trade really nice clean trucks so that those of us that don't want to spend the money can give them a great life.

Sadly around here a nice 3-4 year old SD will command almost as much as a new 1, so that's what makes my decision a little harder. I will be in touch with FRANZ when the time comes to either buy new or used.

Sarge

 

the sd upgrade to leds are $1080 thats after you pay for the premium package so its not included. You just have to have that package to have the option to get the leds.
I wonder if that means it would just cost the 1080 to get oem light assembly or would they charge 1600-1800 like the f150. I tried to see what the f150 led option cost on a new truck but i think it only comes with the package along with other stuff, so i cant find what they would cost alone, to compare.

 

I'll deliver! I love road trips.

 

I upgraded the lame headlights in my F150 by baking them in my oven, ripping them apart, and epoxying FX-R HID projectors in them. See Amazing photos: FX-R Retro in my F150 vs Nissan Titan w/ Silverstars - F150online Forums for details. They literally light 4 lanes to the right and left of my truck as well as the cars in those lanes do. I can see deer 50 yards away from the road and can light around turns.

These lights are the best I've ever seen on any car or truck. Do you think the new LEDs will perform similarly? I could just get the standard headlights and rip them apart as well. It takes all day though.

 

i would have to agree in the 16 impreza. I just bought one a month ago, and the halogen lamps are excellent. My F250's headlights are garbage in comparison. But my BMW has Bi xenon headlamps that steer, and are by far the best lights I have ever had.

 

Part of the other stuff is the wiring harness, which is required since the attachment of the LED's is different and the connection to the truck wiring harness. I believe there are some diodes and other pieces which make the truck know the headlights are correct. One of the boondoggles of these fully computerized vehicles is making the vehicle understand there is nothing wrong in the system. For instance, I installed a switch to shut off the bed light in my Ranger so that it did not come on every time I turned on the interior light. What a nightmare and although it was a simple diode which had to be added to the system you would have thought the truck became possessed. And that was 27 years ago.

 

yeah if i remember right, the plug and play harness is $100-200. I think it has a ballast or something in it as well to make it all work.

 

Another question why cant a guy that wants an XLT get the lower accent paint. Just for giggles, I built a XLT and honestly after I equipped it it was still 62k or so, but I would have loved to add the lower accent.

I can do without the leather seats, heated and cooled etc, so I pretty much built an XLT with all the Lariat eqiuipment but I couldn't get the lower accent paint wich I like.

My color choices were (1) Oxford White, (2) White Gold, (3) Ruby Red. When I built the Lariat I loved each of those colors with the Carabeau accent. sad to see you cant do it on an XLT.

Sarge

 

I dont know. I think they offer the accent paint on the f150 xlt. I guess the sd's are different, just like you cant get earth gray interior in the sd, but you can in the f150.