It *IS* worth it!!!

[Buchholz, Steven]

> Sorry, but I beg to differ! The type44 has always had flush, aerodynamic
lights.
> Types 43 and 81 too. Only the stupid light laws in the US made them put in
those
> 4x5" 4-eye setups. The only Euro-Audis that used the square 4-eyes were
1980-82
> Urq, GT some 4k and the T-43 200.
> 
> > Only till recently have auto makers started
> > doing cool things w/ lights.
> 
> In the US yes. In the free world, headlights has been almost 
> all different shapes
> since the 70s. VW, MB, Renault and Euro-Dorf had oval 
> headlights in the 60s, H4s
> since the early 70s (it was even stock on my 73 VW type3 Squareback!)
> 
... actually there was a bit of good reasoning behind those "stupid" old
US-DOT sealed beam laws IMO.  Given that headlamps are mounted up in front
of the car and made of glass they are in harm's way and likely to be
damaged.  Ever priced a set of good old US DOT round or rectangular sealed
beams?  Since every car in the US used them they were plentiful and cost
maybe $4 a pop.  If the lens got pitted you could always go out and buy
yourself a new set without too much trouble.  Nowadays even headlights on
different models of a particular marque are different from others from the
same manufacturer ... and cost $200 and a lot more to replace a single unit.
Look at most of the cars on the road today in the snow belt ... just about
all of them have sandblasted lenses and a good number of them have taken
hits that have broken the glass ... do they get replaced?  No, because they
are too expensive!  So yes, when your car is new it puts out superior light
in a well defined pattern, but what happens when those cool projector/HID
units get pitted from a few winters of use?  There will be more dazzling the
eyes of oncoming traffic and less effective lighting for the driver.  

In some ways it is unfortunate that the US didn't stick to its guns a bit
more and allow the benefits of the new lighting technologies while retaining
the benefits of mass production.  It might have been possible to have made
it so that the owners of older cars would be able to buy replacement bulbs
that had projection optics ... and even those to perhaps be upgradeable to
HID!  No matter what, once the lamp's lens got badly pitted it could be
replaced at a reasonable expense.  In terms of solving the general problem
of having drivers being able to have the best illumination possible this
would have been a tremendous benefit.  

... I certainly don't buy the proposition that the crappy lights we got here
in the USA with the 5000CS were a result of the US DOT laws.  There
certainly were a lot of other cars sold in the US during that time that had
acceptable lighting systems.  If there is anything to blame on the US in
this instance it was for the US not rejecting the inadequate design that
Audi installed.  

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)