The Temple of VTEC - Honda and Acura Enthusiasts Online Forums > 2013 Accord: What we've heard > > Re: 2013 Accord sedan better have at least projector head light

saitamahonda wrote:
owequitit wrote:
saitamahonda wrote:
6thaccord wrote:
The 2012 Camry head light system is way better looking than the current Accord sedan. My Accord is 2002 and I will be buying a new car later this year, and if the new Accord sedan has the old style 'halogen' type of headlight, I will likely make my move to Camry SE V6. Honda designer is so out to lunch in the past 2 generations. Being over priced with limited option compare to the 2012 Camry SE, the new Accord will NOT sell if Honda will not price it competitively against the Camry SE. Until next week... Do you guys agree that the car head light, make or break the design. We are into 2012 now, the LED and project style, HID are much more affordable now...move with time Honda designers, if not get the right people for the job. Cheers.

+1

However, there are actually pretty decent aftermarket projector headlights for the current Accord. A retrofit may be in order but the aftermarket projectors themselves are pretty good quality from my experience. Look up ebay with 2011 honda accord smoke projector headlight. That query should give you a few results that are now fairly priced and if I were buying an outgoing Accord sedan pre-owned I would likely go for one of the aftermarket. That there are still aftermarket parts available for the Accord sedan is a blessing (thank you filipines/thai). The Honda Inspire didn't have projector headlamps while they were still HID. Truth may be that it's not necessarily bad if its a reflector housing, it just ought to look decent.

The taillights too need revamping. Do Honda/Acura designers envision the car while it is running at night? The minimal LED lighting in the Acura taillights, namely the MDX, is an awful use of space. The ZDX taillights are decent. The RLs design is nice but could use light tubes and such.

HID does NOT specifically require projectors. In fact, Phillips makes both D2S/D4S (for projector HID setups) and D2R/D4R for reflector based setups.

The difference between reflector headlights for HID and reflector headlights for halogen is all in the reflector lens. Since HID's produce more lumens, the lenses have to focus the light slightly differently to avoid flare and glare. However, if you look at the Acura cars that came with reflector based HID standard (like the 2nd gen TL), they work just as well as the projectors for the most part.

That said, older reflector based headlights don't work so well with HID bulbs, but Honda's new ones (~2005 on) work well enough that aftermarket HID's actually work really well in them with virtually no glare at all. In fact, they are so good, you really can't tell them from the OEM reflector setups, as long as the owner isn't a dumbass and puts 35W instead of 55W bulbs in. The 55W bulbs will produce a lot of glare regardless how they are installed.

There is nothing WRONG with reflector based HID. Both the last two versions of Honda Inspire were HID reflector headlights. The facet angles are different than the USDM Accord due to the bulb shape and beam orientation. Problem is that they are typically bulky and ugly compared to the clean, compact pod the projector shape is. My point is that if you're going to have a projector, it might as well use HID lighting.

OP wants projector headlights, so reflector bowls are a moot point.

Projectors with HID bulbs use particular cutoff shields that are shaped differently than halogen projectors. They are called ECE and DOT. In my experience taking apart headlights and making retrofits the ECE cut off line looks better. People tend to say that "ebay" headlights are crap, but honestly they are well made according to strict standards. The projectors aren't too shabby and the bowl and lense can be swapped with other higher quality clear lenses or fresnel depending on your taste.