Hummer Forums by Elcova - WSJ - Car Customizers, Government Clash

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Car Customizers, Government Clash
Furor
Over Headlight-Conversion Kits

Is Ultimately a Collision of Cultures

November15,2004
Bright, high-intensity discharge headlights have become a
status symbol for a lot of American drivers, including many who can't afford
the high-end German sedans that made them popular. Others, still seeing blue
after an encounter with a set of these intensely bright bulbs, consider HID
to be a four-letter word.
Now, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is
pursuing a crackdown on companies that sell certain HID headlight-conversion
kits, and the organization that represents America's car-customization
industry is crying foul.
This dispute is highly technical in many respects. But the
underlying issue is fairly basic: It's a culture clash.
The past few years have seen an explosion of interest in car
customization. Movies like the "Fast and the Furious," television
shows like MTV's "Pimp My Ride," and music videos that feature
outlandishly modified SUVs have taken what were fringe movements and given
them visibility in front of a mainstream audience hungry to give their
look-alike rides some flair. An increasingly creative and entrepreneurial
galaxy of companies that make and market spoilers, wheels, high-performance
suspension parts, trick lights and other gear has now made the so-called
aftermarket components business a $29 billion-a-year industry in the U.S.,
according to the Specialty Equipment Market Association, or SEMA, the trade
group that represents the customization industry.
It was only a matter of time before the customization
industry's outlaw streak got it into trouble with the national safety cops.
About three years ago, the NHTSA responded to a growing number of complaints
about headlight glare by opening a formal review of the issue. In the course
of that inquiry, the NHTSA began getting complaints about high-intensity
discharge headlights, which were starting to appear on expensive, mostly
German, luxury cars. These lights cast a bright, blue-white light that is
distinctly different from the yellowish beam from a standard headlight.
Moreover, HID lights tend to create a sharp line between the beam and the
darkness surrounding it, in contrast to the fuzzy borders of a standard
headlight beam.
<REPRINTSDISCLAIMER>From behind the wheel, factory-spec HID
lights give you the feeling that you are zooming down the highway behind a
magic lantern that beams a bright, powerful ray at threats lurking in the
darkness. But for oncoming motorists, NHTSA researchers found, these bright
lights could be a problem. An NHTSA report on the issue cites a study that
found HID lights prompted more complaints about glare than standard halogen
headlights. Still, NHTSA hasn't yet seen enough data to rule out
factory-installed HID lights that meet federal lighting rules.
Then, the customization industry began selling bulbs and kits
designed to give less-expensive vehicles that didn't come equipped with HID
headlights a facsimile of the high-status, HID look for prices that ranged up
and down from about $500 a set. Coolbulbs.com1,
one of many Web sites that offered these conversion kits and bulbs, put the
proposition with refreshing directness. Next to a photo of an Audi with
shining, bright headlights, a headline declares: "You know you want this
look."
NHTSA regulators, however, concluded that many of these HID
conversion kits didn't comply with federal standards. Some aftermarket HID
lights, NHTSA found, produced "many times the permitted glare
intensity." Many didn't have proper low- and high-beam functions -- they
were just on. Some weren't aimed properly.
In early 2003, NHTSA began cracking down. The agency began
contacting sellers of HID conversion kits and effectively ordering them to
stop selling lights that didn't comply with federal rules, and to recall kits
they had sold. One big supplier of HID kits and replacement lamps, American
Products Co., was socked with a $650,000 civil penalty. In all, NHTSA says it
has taken action against 24 companies that retailed what the agency contended
were illegal HID kits.
In the most recent action, against Astex USA of Dayton, Texas, NHTSA Administrator Jeffrey Runge stated in a letter that a replacement light
"must have the same [within a tolerance] luminous flux [a measure of
power] as the light source it replaces."
In other words, NHTSA is warning the customizers that new
headlights have to be pretty much like the headlights that came on the car in
the first place. Mark Lee, identified by NHTSA as the proprietor of Astex USA, didn't respond to messages last week.
The NHTSA headlight crackdown has raised alarms at the SEMA,
which late last month declared that it intends to fight the NHTSA crackdown
on replacement lights, in court if necessary. SEMA spokesman Steve McDonald
says SEMA, which represents 5,727 members, fears that NHTSA is trying to
declare illegal replacement parts that comply with federal safety standards
-- but don't perform exactly like the original equipment the auto makers
sell. "Our fear is this could pertain to all kinds of equipment,"
he says. SEMA, understandably, is concerned about a federal standard that
puts more power in the hands of the car makers, and limits the freedom of
customizers to go beyond the factory's basic designs.
This fight could take a while to reach its end, and it could
have broad implications for the whole car-customization movement. In the
meantime, custom-parts merchants like Andrew Falk, president of
Coolbulbs.com, have put their HID conversion businesses on hold for fear of
expensive fines and legal hassles. Mr. Falk says Coolbulbs was once one of
the top three sellers of HID conversion kits, but adds that "we have not
sold any since [the government] contacted us. We stopped. All of the
suppliers dried up."
Mr. Falk cautions that kits you might see for sale on Internet
auction sites probably don't comply with the law, although whether a citizen
who put an illegal kit on a car would get a ticket is unclear.
Mr. Falk's site still carries promotions for the HID kits.
"They are our most-viewed pages, so I wasn't about to take them
down," he says. But if you try to buy a kit, a pop-up message appears:
"Due to pending government legislation on these types of kits we are not
allowed to sell them at this time." The message adds: "Please check
back soon and don't try and order this type of product from another store
without finding out if they have it in stock first because almost no one
does. Sorry for the trouble but there is quite a bit of debate going on right
now in Washington about aftermarket HID and we are just waiting to see what
happens."
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Had to upgrade headlights. Stock lights provided very poor visibility.

That's one thing I've noticed since getting the H2 and being up higher. There are ton of people with a misaligned headlight that's aimed up too high. Seems every day I get some putz behind me with his errant light on the back of my head. Can't wait to get over to the tint shop.

Not to hijack the thread, but is there a way to put the inside rear view mirror on dimmed mode all the time?