The Pros and Cons of Using HIDs on Classic Cars

HID headlights are among the most popular add-ons for modern vehicles today, but what about for classic cars and trucks?  There’s a delicate balance to consider when deciding on whether to install an HID bulb system in your vintage or classic vehicle.  On one side, you want to have a car with super-safe, bright, and stylish headlights.  On the other side, you want to preserve the integrity of the vehicle’s original design.  With HIDs on classic cars, you can often balance both sides if you’re careful in your approach, so below we’ll go over a few reasons for why you should go one way or the other.

Visibility

Chalk this up to an easy win for HIDs.  HID headlights tripled the brightness of older, conventional halogens, and if your car originally used an even older headlight technology, that brightness factor increase will be even more dramatic.  For those who have a hard time seeing road signs and important highway notifications,
HID light better reflects off of standard signage, making it easier to notice them.

Preservation

We’ll have to give this win to traditional lighting components.  Though HIDs will certainly improve upon the lighting capabilities of classic cars, they can’t reproduce the more subtle dynamics of classic car lighting.  If your number one goal is to recreate the exact look and feel of the car during its glory days, you’ll need to use 100% original components. 

Style

Another easy win for HID headlights.  You can select the exact color you want your car’s headlights to be with HIDs, so if you have a beautifully maintained purple exterior on your classic vehicle, you can match that with your HID headlight color selection.  The bright, modern look of HIDs also pairs well with many classic cars, making for a unique retro-future look that’s not easily copied or outdone.

Installation

Let’s call this category a tie.  Older vehicles don’t have many of the more modern applications already installed that would make an HID installation a piece of cake, meaning you’ll have to install wire adaptors, new ballasts, and more in order to make HID headlights work.  However, if you’re working to preserve a vehicle’s original headlight configuration, it can actually be more difficult to accomplish, as original parts are hard to find.  And if you can’t find the original parts easily, you’ll just end up using substandard later parts that don’t preserve the integrity of the vehicle’s design anyway.  So if you can’t use the original parts, you may actually be saving time and getting better, more powerful headlights by using HIDs.