Car buyers often consider fuel economy, cargo space, comfort, and price as options, but have you ever wondered about the type of lighting? 

Halogen and LED lights are the two most common types of headlights fitted to vehicles today. At face value, LED lights tend to be a better solution than halogen lights, because they typically last longer, have greater energy efficiency, and are capable of producing a higher light output. 

Halogen bulbs can have the edge in some circumstances, though. A vehicle’s headlight assembly and how it is set up from the factory can have a big impact on the light pattern cast in front of the vehicle, which makes halogen lamps better in certain applications. Read on to find out more about lighting technology in the automotive world. 

### More About Headlights

We all know that a vehicle’s headlights illuminate the road ahead to help drivers see at night, but there is more to them than that. They help other drivers see our vehicles during the dawn and dusk hours and, even in broad daylight, daytime running lights help vehicles stand out against the backdrop, improving visibility and preventing accidents.

Not all headlights are created equal, though. Headlight housing designs can dictate what a vehicle looks like, how the light pattern in front of a vehicle will project from the reflectors, and what types of lights work best. The light bulbs themselves also have a big impact on how dim or how bright the light source is and the warmth or coolness of its color temperature. 

There are typically four types of lights fitted to new cars today: Halogen, HID, LED, and laser, and Halogen and LED lights are the most widely used of the four.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety began instituting lighting technology effectiveness in its vehicle crash test ratings from 2016. Despite the variety of headlight bulbs available on the market, the IIHS rating system operates independently of the type of headlight bulb in any given vehicle.

According to the organization's statistics, only one midsize car tested in 2016 received a good rating, but that number has since increased to 43% across the board. The IIHS does not relate this change directly to an increased number of vehicles with LED lights, rather the increased use of technology such adaptive headlights that pivot with a turning vehicle to better illuminate a curve in the road.

Even though the IIHS does not directly relate the increased use of LED lighting in new cars to better safety over halogen headlights, the greater popularity of LED headlights alongside advanced lighting technology such as auto-leveling and adaptive headlights certainly provides some compelling circumstantial evidence.

### More About Halogen Lights

Halogen headlights are the most widely used lights in new cars. They operate via the passing of an electrical current through a tungsten filament within the bulb. The filament within the bulb releases vapor, which interacts with halogen gas contained in the bulb and makes the light burn brighter than a typical incandescent light bulb used for a domestic lamp. 

Halogen bulbs are typically fitted to cars with a standard, clear headlight housing. A typical headlight housing contains reflectors with a cap in the middle, and behind that cap is where the headlight bulb typically sits. An increasing number of cars with halogen headlights are used with projector headlights, which are designed to focus the beam pattern to a more specific area in front of the vehicle and look like a projector lens inside the headlight housing. 

Some examples of new cars with factory halogen headlights include the [Nissan Versa](https://www.autolist.com/nissan-versa), the [Kia Soul](https://www.autolist.com/kia-soul), and the [Mitsubishi Mirage](https://www.autolist.com/mitsubishi-mirage). Some of these vehicles come with the option to upgrade to LED headlights. 

![2024 Nissan Versa Exterior](https://www.autolist.com/6tuem73u73an/1ciOlSI7zv06AxCz59jh3x/3e043751c77f3892458616793cc9a75b/2024_Nissan_Versa_Exterior.jpg)

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### More About LED Lights

LED stands for light emitting diode. Unlike halogen bulbs, LEDs pass that current through a semiconductor which then releases photons, producing the light that we see. Their design is much simpler, more energy efficient, and has a longer lifespan than halogen bulbs, which explains their surge in popularity. 

LED bulbs can be used with standard headlight housings, but because they are typically brighter than halogen bulbs, they work best with projector housings that concentrate the light source more effectively – particularly low beams. Vehicles still often use a standard reflector headlight housing for high-beam headlights for better visibility and wider light scattering. 

Examples of vehicles with standard LED headlights include the [Honda Civic](https://www.autolist.com/honda-civic), the [Toyota 4Runner](https://www.autolist.com/toyota-4runner), and the [Subaru Impreza](https://www.autolist.com/subaru-impreza). 

![2024 Honda Civic Exterior](https://www.autolist.com/6tuem73u73an/6FnDN0BNsi9OcK7w5L30tA/e2675fdc3f75659b186120ae4f49ede3/2024_Honda_Civic_Exterior.jpg)

High-intensity discharge headlights, sometimes called xenon or HID headlights, should not be confused with LEDs. HID bulbs contain xenon gas which is charged from electrodes rather than a filament or a semiconductor. They can be found on some new cars, but are not as popular as LEDs. They provide a similar long lifespan and color temperature that LED light bulbs can provide, but they do not provide quite the flexibility of LEDs.

### Advantages of Halogen Headlights

Even though Halogen headlights are being phased out in favor of LED lights, halogen bulbs still have quite a few advantages over other types of lights, and there are still plenty of used cars that use them. 

#### Cost

One of the biggest advantages of halogen bulbs is their upfront cost. They're popular, they've been used for years, and they're still all over the market. This makes them cheap and easy to repair or replace when they burn out. On top of that, they are typically easy to find at just about any car parts store, such as AutoZone, O’Reilly’s, or Advance Auto Parts. 

#### Color and Brightness

Halogen headlights typically emit between 3,000 and 5,000 lumens of light. A lumen is a measure of how much visible light a given light source produces. This is typically a lower output than what both LED and HID bulbs are capable of producing, but some people like that. If you've ever been dazzled by an oncoming vehicle with those bright, bluish headlight bulbs, you likely prefer the less obtrusive and warmer light that a typical halogen bulb produces. 

### Disadvantages of Halogen Headlights

Naturally, halogen headlights have drawbacks compared to LED lights which has contributed to their waning popularity in new cars. 

#### Lifespan

Halogen headlight bulbs can last for between 1,000 and 4,000 hours. This is far less time than both HID and LED headlight bulbs. High-quality LED bulbs can last for the entire lifespan of a vehicle, well over 100,000 miles of typical driving. Halogen bulbs therefore require replacing several times during the course of your typical car ownership period and will become dimmer over time. 

#### Energy Consumption

One of the reasons that halogen bulbs need to be replaced more frequently than LED bulbs is because of their comparatively higher energy consumption. In fact, replacing your factory halogen headlight bulbs with an aftermarket set of LED headlights will often require a resistor, which slows the baseline current that's sent to the LED, preventing it from burning out over time.

Upgrading your headlights, DRLs, or turn signal bulbs from halogen to LED bulbs, will often cause your vehicle’s ECU to sense that much less energy is sent to the upgraded lights, and will sometimes cause a warning light to illuminate on the gauge cluster. 

#### Color and Brightness

The color and brightness that halogen headlights provide can contribute to both their benefit and their downfall. Many people prefer the white and more efficient light pattern of LEDs, and halogen bulbs are also less visible in the daytime, which is why many car manufacturers fit LED daytime running lights, even if the low beams, high beams, and fog lights use halogen bulbs.

### Advantages of LED Headlights

Some of the biggest reasons that LED headlights are becoming more popular on new car models are because of the several advantages they provide over halogen bulbs. 

#### Headlight Assembly Design

LEDs provide much more space efficiency than halogen bulbs. They require a much smaller area in which to operate, and therefore, manufacturers can design smaller headlight strips and more interesting headlight housing designs, while producing the same amount of light as a larger halogen equivalent. This can easily be seen in many new cars with stylish LED daytime running light strips surrounding a typical headlight housing.

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#### Durability

We've already touched on the efficiency advantages of LED lights over halogen bulbs. Even though this contributes to the greater overall durability of LEDs compared to halogen bulbs, the LED’s lack of a filament to produce light is one of the other factors that helps it to last longer.

A halogen’s tungsten filament relies on the heating to produce its light. The repetitious heating of that filament causes it to wear out over time, but that filament can also fail prematurely if it gets broken from too many sudden movements. 

#### Lighting Versatility

As much as some drivers do not like the brighter light that many new cars with LEDs produce, they do an excellent job of illuminating the road ahead. As long as the headlight housings are directed or adjusted correctly, they can illuminate the road ahead without blinding oncoming traffic. 

LED lighting is often used in off-road applications because of its illumination power. Some of the most powerful off-road lighting can reach 10,000 lumens, easily lighting a dark trail in the middle of nowhere. The same can be said of LED emergency light bars, which can produce a bright enough light to be seen in both the daytime and at night. 

Finally, aftermarket LED ambient and decorative lighting can be placed almost anywhere on a vehicle. Underglow, specialized headlights, and even “dancing lights” that change color with music, can all be fitted to vehicles without being seen. Halogen light bulbs do not have the amount of flexibility with space and color that LEDs provide. 

#### Safety

LED lights that shine directly into a driver’s eyes because of incorrectly installed aftermarket lighting or poor headlight design from a manufacturer can be dangerous. However, LED lights provide some key safety advantages over halogen lights when they're installed and calibrated correctly. 

Halogen lights tend to produce a warmer light than LED lights with their signature bluish or bright white light color. Any lights that a vehicle has on during the day, dusk, dawn, or night hours have the potential to stand out, but the cooler color temperature of LED headlights and DRLs tends to stand out more against most backdrops than standard halogen headlights or even dimmer halogen DRLs.

LED lights can also be more specifically designed to shape projected light better than typical halogen bulbs, even with projector headlight housings. LED lights’ compact size allows manufacturers to use the light’s design alongside technologies tested by the IIHS to increase visibility. 

It's not impossible for vehicles with halogen headlights to have technology such as self-leveling and adaptive headlights, but it is much easier to integrate LED or even HID bulbs into that technology than larger halogen bulbs.

### Disadvantages of LED Headlights

Even though LED headlights have the upper hand in automotive lighting technology, they do have some disadvantages. 

#### Upfront Cost and Availability

LED headlight bulbs will typically last longer than halogen headlight bulbs, but they have a higher upfront cost. H11 halogen headlight bulbs, for example, typically cost anywhere from $10 to $25. If you were to buy the same LED headlights, you'd most likely pay between $20 and $60, depending on the brand and the vendor. 

That said, many plug-and-play aftermarket LED headlight bulbs that serve as simple replacements for halogen bulbs are not as easily accessible in physical stores as replacement halogen bulbs. There are plenty of online vendors that sell LED upgrades, and finding ones to replace just about any halogen headlight bulb is easy.

Vehicles that come with factory LED or integrated LED lightbars and daytime running lights can be pricey to replace. This is because LED strips or smaller lights are often integrated into the headlight housing itself, which means the entire housing must be replaced rather than a single bulb. 

#### Lighting Power

A bright LED light can be a powerful tool if it's set up correctly. LEDs do come with a reputation for blinding oncoming traffic with the bright blue or white light they produce, but this is often a consequence of how the light is set up on the car. If someone chooses to upgrade their halogen lights to a brighter LED, the ease of plug-and-play bulbs available on the market today does not mean the light pattern is automatically set up to shine correctly.

SUVs and trucks that sit higher than the typical family sedan or minivan can also have a negative impact on other drivers. Their higher ride height can cause an LED to shine into oncoming traffic, even if the lighting setup is correctly configured. 

### Which is Actually Better?

Both halogen and LED headlights have a wide variety of benefits and disadvantages, but LEDs are becoming the standard on most new cars thanks to their overarching benefits over halogen bulbs. LEDs last longer, provide a wider range of lighting flexibility, consume less energy, and provide more light than comparable halogen lights. 

These are just some of the reasons that they are generally better than halogen headlights. Just remember that a vehicle’s headlight assembly and how it casts its light source have a huge impact on a vehicle’s light pattern, regardless of what kind of headlight bulb it has.

LED headlights tend to outclass halogen, but the latter are cheaper. Find out how each type of headlamp stacks up.

Halogen vs LED Headlights: What's Better?

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