totalfixation

So when you start the car up with the lights on. On the wall I can tell it's adjusting, starting up high then leveling out in the middle. I haven't really been able to tell if it's doing it's job on the road, but ill probably try to pay more attention and see if it's doing something. Obviously the best way to find out is from the other driver's position, I just haven't don't that yet.

arU4ic

Interesting topic - I'm probably the only S3 owner on the forums that's had both - I've had 2 2015s, the Daytona version with LED and my present one with Xenons:

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the look of the LED headlights, and I like the LED 'bad weather' setting that acts like fog lights - but dispersement and distance sucked IMO.

The Xenon's look like 'old' technology (Crazy huh) but the functionality is far better IMO.

bruinmac

The old Xenon lights on the A3 are like that too. It takes the current payload/weight of the car into consideration. That way the beam is not projecting high or low onto traffic.

rdvt4me

Can anyone post pictures of what the LED headlights look like, from inside the car? It would be interesting to see what the actual light pattern looks like.

DHS

Very interesting and timely as I am looking for a '15 or '16 CPO car and had the LED's as a must have. Perhaps not if they do not function as well. Did you find that the throw and dispersion is less with the LED's for both low and high beams. All things being equal (and without regard to the cosmetics) do you find the Xenons to be more illuminating - which is all that matters to me.
Thanks

CHCCubs

I don't have a direct Audi to Audi comparison, but I find the LEDs on my current S3 do a much better job of lighting the road in terms of brightness and distance than the xenons on my previous BMW 3 series (2013).

gamegenie

It's been known to us for a while that the LEDs on the pre-facelift are simple eye-candy. They look nice, but their light-output in both the low-beam and main-beam are poor compared to the Bi-Xenons.

The LED tech was also 4 years old made in 2012 for the first production A3. LED technology may have improved on the facelift 8Vs now.

Matrix LED is not offered to North America due to NHTSA restriction. So if you go for LED, you're going to get the basic LED headlight, that will lack the dynamic indicator, or the fancy light adjustment shown in those Audi marketing videos.

But you are getting 4 years of developed hopefully improved LED technology, that should have better light output.

(p.s. if this is indicator, IIHS tested and passed the 2017 A4's LED headlights as acceptable, so there's a good chance the 2017 A3's LEDs are just as good. )

Also Audi dumbed down the Bi-Xenon on the facelift. Where as before it carried the car's signature DRL like the full LED headlight. Now the FL Xenon have been stripped down to just a straight line running LED. Not sure why they did this. But full LED headlight is an affordable option now on the Facelift as oppose to the 2015 A3 where you had to buy the expensive Prestige trim package to get a beautiful but not so powerful LED headlights.

arU4ic

Yeah, the Xenon throw was more targeted than the LEDs so they lit the road further ahead - without any doubt the LEDs were less effective and not as bright further ahead than the Xenons. The high beams were about equal in brightness, but again the LEDs were not as focused.

TS2131

For 2017 rated the LED headlights as acceptable, and the HID as poor. This is the opposite of the pre-facelift ratings, where HID was acceptable, and LED was poor. All of this seems to agree with what was written above.

2017 Audi A3

Heshua1

I have a 2017 A3 premium plus with the LED headlight package. I had to have it checked out, and they brought me a 2018 a3 premium with HID. I am SO glad I opted for the LES compared to the HID. In comparison the HID suck. They aren’t as bright, and the distance isn’t there. The only thing with the HID is I would get flashed allll the time. Way before people should have. With my LED, I almost never get flashed. Now I’m not a jerk driving around trying to see how close I can get to people before they get mad at me. But I did drive around the day I got it with my brights I’m assuming I had the auto dimming headlights, when in fact I don’t. Then the few times I forgot to turn them off. My theory on this is that with the HID, you have the one bulb sending out the light from the single projector. Now my car doesn’t have the matrix lighting as far as it shutting down certain beams as cars pass, or are in front of you. But it does have the matrix set up. You can even see this just by looking into the lenses during the day with the lights off. So people aren’t getting the full brightness of the light directly at them, so it doesn’t appear as bright to oncoming traffic. But the light output from the driver’s seat is phenomenal. The only thing I wish is that the beam pattern came up a little bit higher. but that’s being picky.
Bottom line, if you’re even questioning which one to get, that shows you’re one of the light guys like so many of us are. You WILL be disappointed if you don’t get the full LED. Plus it comes with the fun dynamic turn signals. Hehe