Now sure if this is across the country, but in Virginia, on Aug 15. 2003 they decided to ban the selling of aftermarket HID systems on cars. They gave a 1 month period for all owners to get rid of them and sell them off.

As of Sept 15, which is already passed, all companies will be returning their HID systems back to their manufacture (Virginia, not sure about rest of the country).

Cars with factor HID systems by what I know are allowed to keep them, and all future cars, which I believe will be 2004.5 cars and newer will not be allowed to have HID's. They can have look a-like halogen bulbs though.


I've heard this from many sources, if anyone knows anything else about this, please comment. I hope this law isn't true, but I've heard it from many shops as well as friends.

 

if you can find some stores that are selling them off at a super cheap price....pick me up a set...i'll send you a check (but, let me know about prices)!!

 

thats false. that was all just a rumor, you can still buy them from just about anywhere.

 

ok, nevermind then!

 

Not so fast there ...

http://www.enjoythedrive.com/content/?ID=25405

http://www.enjoythedrive.com/content/?ID=25377

http://www.cars.com/news/stories/072...ory&aff=boston

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/rulings/glare.html

http://www.consumerreports.org/main/...lder_id=113261

APC Gets Fined:
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/nhtsa/annou...e=pr21-03.html

The Petition to stop it:
http://www.petitiononline.com/hidforum/petition.html

 

I'm sure the links above contain more info than this. But this is old news. I remember reading about this many weeks ago where non-compliant HID light sales are being banned. Some of those being sold were already illegal, it just wasn't being enforced.

 

this in only regarding the sales of aftermarket HIDs, as they were not DOT approved and were blinding other motorists. but i doubt that they can ever restrict the sales of the aftermarket HIDs, i'm sure you'll always find them on eBay.
as for getting caught with an aftermarket HID kit, I doubt that police officers are gonna remember which cars come with HIDs from the factory and which are aftermarket.

 

I don't think that they're not gonna allow HIDs from being provided in newer cars. I thought they said that newer cars just need to have self-adjusting mechanisms to be allowed with HIDs. Our cars don't have them because our lights are pointed straight at the ground so we don't blind anyone... We also can't see either.

 

It won't be that hard for cops to remember what cars have HID's from the factory or not. Normally high priced vehicles like bimmers and benz's come with standard HIDS. But if a civic or integra pulls up with HID's I'm pretty sure a cop will know if they are supposed to be there or not. Now for our Z's since some come with and others without it would be a little more difficult.
Most manufacturers are not selling aftermarket HID's and some shops will not install aftermarket HID's.
If you want them I suggest you find them soon.
I have a set of 7k HID's that I'm debating whether to sell them or put them on the Z. I'll figure that out later.

 

How would anyone know whether you have factory HID's or not anyway. You think cops know that much? I have a Z with aftermarket HID's i guarantee i never get pulled over for that.... They assume your car comes with it.
Plus every car should have xenons. You can see much better. Not take it away....

 

its all fake, no one will stop selling them, all you have to do is say they are for off road use only and thats it.

 

I believe in California you can't go pass 8000K...

 

Some cops know quite a bit. After leaving Hot Import Daze in Chula Vista, the cops pulled us over and one knew quite a bit about what could be factory installed options for each of our cars. Only since we were nice did they not give all of our cars tickets. Only one of our teammates got unlucky. But point is, he knew a lot of stuff about each of our cars and that included multiple European cars and some Japanese vehicles.

 

I've met police like that too... It's not easy to be a police... gotta know alot of stuff...

 

Its not false - the ban DID take effect on August 15th and remains in effect as far as we have been told.

Anyone selling them now is subject to hefty fines, though we have heard they are only going after the distributors, noone else for right now.

For the time being it does not impact cars with factory HID kits and the optics needed to properly run them....only aftermarket kits

 

Right, that's what I read too. It's just after-market stuff.

And I believe they are cracking down because so many places were flagrantly selling stuff that didn't meet required specs.

 

Yes, my Z has them from the factory but I guess I differ from others because I could care less if it had them or not. I just want handling & performance. That is also why I did not get a performance, Touring, or track model because I did not want the VDC either. I guess that is why it is good they have 5 different models. Different stokes for different folks.

 

Dont people search?

There is no sudden "ban" -- HID retrofits have always been illegal, because in almost all cases people are buying rebased HID bulbs which again, in almost all cases results in very poor lighting.

HID distributors were sent letters requesting they show documentation on their kits PASSING -- its quite obvious that all these false advertisements (beam corrected, DOT approved, etc).. were starting to fall apart. And this my friends, is why companies stopped selling HID kits. It has nothing to do with the law changing -- the law did NOT change. It has to do with the amount of enforcement. Now after all the complaints, the NHTSA is actually starting to go after all these distributors and manufacturers of these rubbish kits.

Its so easy to take a customers money and sell them a kit, call it "offroad use only" or "beam pattern corrected." Its a shame none of these companies are standing behind their products now, where the sale of each kit can result in a 3,000 dollar fine -- per instance.

Oh well, this will just force manufacturers to make a better product if they want to try to compete with OEM HID -- which they should have done from the beginning.