IIHS Trashes Most LED Headlights

People are paying a premium these days for LED headlights, at least in part because they’re supposed to do a better job of lighting up the way at night. Well, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety isn’t sold on the tech, at least not across the board. The safety organization just issued a scathing report of new headlight designs, showing automakers still have some big improvements to make.

What’s really a slap in the face is that car headlights are brighter and reach farther than ever before. That’s still not good enough, according to IIHS. Automotive News has an interesting writeup on four studies done by IIHS, and all of them draw the same conclusion.

At a glance, LED headlights all look impressive. However, IIHS found models from all kinds of brands with marginal or poor light output. One problem is that quite a few vehicles come right off the assembly line with headlights that aren’t aimed properly, resulting in glare, wiping out the benefits of LEDs.

To understand just how widespread this problem is, understand this: out of 100 models studied by IIHS, only four earned a good rating. Forty grabbed a poor rating, and the rest fell into the marginal group. Because headlight performance is factored into the new Top Safety Pick Plus awards, a mere 15 2018 models landed in that prestigious group. For 2017, 38 vehicles earned that top honor.

If you’re not a fan of most car headlights, it’s time to let the automakers know.