[XeNonCiViC]

Tate, you sure love quoting other people, without having much experience yourself. I am more experienced and knowledgeable than you when it comes to automotive lighting, and it's annoying when internet surfers LIKE YOU think they are suddenly experts on something just because you can surf the web.

CivicWithNav, I've read a lot of your posts regarding HID, and you are full of crap when you say you've had a 8000K kit before. You are new to HID like most of the people on this site, and I can prove it by pieceing together a history of all the posts you've made in the lighting areas. Don't make up personal experiences about an 8K kit you've never had so you can be an internet expert also. An 8K HID kit will still be a huge improvement IN THE RAIN compared to stock halogen bulbs. 8K Halogen bulbs would hurt your vision in the rain compared to stock halogen bulbs.

I will probably stop posting on this site because I'm sick of this HUGE VAT OF MISINFORMATION.

FACT: NOT EVERYTHING YOU READ ON THE INTERNET IS TRUE.

I was a manager for a "tuner" shop for 3 years between 1997-2000 in Denver, CO. The shop I worked for was one of the pioneers of bringing "Hyper White" headlight bulbs into the mainstream. We were importing these headlights straight from Japan even before the big shops in Cali could get their hands on these bulbs. I was doing HID conversions on cars back in 1998, and you probably didn't even know what HID was back then. I have a lot of experience and knowledge when it comes to automotive lighting.

Just because one HID cheapo kit has less lumen output than halogen bulbs, doesn't mean they all do. I agree that some cheapo HID kits could possibly decrease lumen output (& only kits that had tinted Xenon bulbs, not true blood stained capsules), but not all do. Again, you don't understand the difference between fact & fiction.

I am aware that the higher the temperature color, the LOWER the Lumen output. Based off testing I have seen on QUALITY HID bulbs, this is my analysis of lumen output.

Stock Bulbs 1000 lm
4K-6K - about 3000 lm (3x brighter than stock)
6K-8K - about 2500 lm (2.5x brighter than stock)
8K-12K - about 2100 lm (2x brighter than stock)

So based off my chart above, all colors 12K and under still have at least double the lumen output of stock halogen. Keep in mind, the cheapo HID bulbs you are talking about, usually have "tinted" bulbs that give off the blue or purple color. These cheap HID bulbs give the same effect in rain as a tinted halogen bulb, which is horrible visibility. A quality 12K bulb, like in my McCulloch Kit (not all McCulloch kits come with the same bulbs, it depends on the retailer), is not a "tinted" bulb. My 12K kit provides GREAT lighting in the rain. My bulbs have the blood stainted capsule inside (just like the Philips bulbs), indicating that they are a good quality bulb.

I agree that the higher the color temp., you will have less lumen output and you will produce more glare to oncoming drivers. That's all I agree with you on. I'm not an internet self proclaimed expert like you are, I have real credentials to back what I say.