hayde_bre

Watch again.
Start at 1:50

"Outside the US".
Thank you US Regulations for screwing with us again.

Same thing happened to BMW. I got the $1500 add on LED headlights which is supposed to just this, create a tunnel for oncoming vehicles without blinding them "anti dazzle" they called.. Turns out they were crippled in the USA! This is nonsense, to be honest.

hayde_bre

Yes, the LED on X5 is amazing, like I mentioned above we still got the crippled LEDs, they are still very good. Not great, because LEDs on X5 have a very wide spread pattern, you don't get the usual straight line cut-off you get from Xenons, also they don't level up/down properly while driving like Xenons did. When I hit the gas, it would stay steady like it's on a self stabilizing level, but with current X5 with LEDs, it doesn't actively level. It levels when you are driving up hill/downhill, but not "continuously". So I think no matter what car you go with, if it has LEDs, they are most likely crippled by regulations. Thanks to outdated USA laws, and maybe we don't have our own LED factories but we have our own Xenon factories? I don't know the logic or the intention behind these regulations.

BigKutta

You can however, code the BMW anti-dazzle in the US. You cannot "matrix" your Audi LEDs, however.

hayde_bre

Coding still does not allow 100% functionality. It's half-way there, it adds some of the "tunneling" function but full Euro spec Anti-Dazzle requires hardware upgrade.

gsobol

Same with Audi matrix - hardware upgrade and then coding.

ConservativeConsumer

I was surprised to find it on new Q7 as well. My VW Touareg was equipped with lights able to move left-right 15%.

On the other hand, the Q has pretty decent side lights with no pan needed and they work almost as well as primary lights. Less mechanical parts = higher reliability.

@OP:
Nice review! I agree with most if not all observations.
The ugliest thing current (and previous) X5 models exhibit is "recommended" aftermarket hitch receiver. Out of place, out of style, just simply wrong for otherwise very nice car.

A5007

OP here. Couple of observations on the lights.

I miss the dedicated fogs that the X5 had, the Q7 fogs aren't as good. I loved the BMW LEDs but had to special order them, no dealer kept stock vehicles with them. Frankly the pricing for the BMW LEDs is insane at $1900 even with the auto-brights feature being very cool. I like how Audi charges less for them even though I think they should be standard equipment now.

There is a lot of noise about overly bright headlights now, no idea if BMW will have to back off.

Good observation on this. I missed it in my review.