Car warranty

The US AFAIK, was the only place that used sealed beams because of govt regulations and they sucked for lighting. As DPB said, you could probably put a glass lens in most of the current cars, just changing that. The alleged bad reflector nonsense was why we had poor lights, that didn't light up the road well, didn't focus the light, while the rest of the world had modern, well focused ones. In Germany they were driving 150 mph on the Autobahn. Here you could not see to safely drive half that speed. Why you want to go backwards, idk.

That tiny hit you take in

It's not aerodynamics, it's far superior lighting.

You mean I can't be like all my American friends????

No,putting today's lightingin a "sealed beam" would not necessarilly solve the problem - if the lens of the sealed beam - like many in the later years, was polycorbonate. - and would not eliminate bad reflectors either as MANY of the later sealed beam reflectors also fained - to the point you could actually see through them. What WOULD work is lead crystal glass lenses - but you would REALLY cry about the price then. In 1973/74 dollars the euro lamp assembly on my 1967 Peugot 204 was worth $400 to replace --- - - It survived a T-Bone crash at 30MPH that shortened the car by a full 3 inches and swayed the front enf over by 6 inches - not a mark on the glass and only a small dent in the steel reflector which caused a slightly distorted beam. What is 400 1973 dollars today???????? ANd each headlight weighrd close to 5 lbs. Over 3 anyway.

I paid $37 each for replacements for my 2003 Taurus and about $42 each for my '96 Ranger. OEM parts were significantly more (about $350 each for the Taurus in today's dollars) Dorman replacements are very close to OEM in quality and fid at about 10 cents on the dollar - many chinese imports are even cheaper.

Don't personally see these problems with my cars. Probably because I park in the garage all the time. Sunlight is the major enemy of paints and plastics.

That's really lame .

Bullshit, all around. A new style foggy light is clearly inferior to the oldest technology sealed beam that you can just wipe off with a McDonalds napkin and make like new. They fill the sealed beam with a noble gas that keeps the reflector from corroding. You also assume there is no way you can put a modern bulb in a sealed beam. A LED seems like a natural

As for the current design, it is more about looking cool than actually being better

What was wrong with the Pyrex they used for decades. It was optically effective and dirt cheap.

Cars are garaged here, too. You probably live in a much less harsh climate and may change cars more often, besides...

So it's OK for you to say "must be a democrat" everytime someone says something a) stupid or b) something you disagree with but I can't say you need to read the instructions and Joke about Republicans being uneducated and unable or unwilling to follow instructions (or rules)???? Given Trumps main support is from the lower educated sector of America??? Really now -- - --

Actually, No. There has never been a sealed beam headlight with the controlled light pattern and the lumen output of today's headlamp designs - and if they DID make a "sealed beam" version of today's lights they most certainly would not be sold for $30 (or less). ANd they WOULD be made of the same plastic current headlights are made from. The latest sealed beams didn't even have a "noble gas" fill. The halogen envelope did - but the rest was just nitrogen or dry air.

You could cheap out and use pyrex - but the issue of precision encapsulation of LED or other high-tech lighting inside a hermetically sealed glass envelope would still cause issues - and today's lights are focussed by the reflector design - not by the glass lens. Part of what makes the light better. As far as ever manufacturer and model going back to using the same headlights?????? That one's left the barn - and is NOT coming back.

You can give any discussion a political bent - - and usually do

Delaware is not that much different from Tennessee, maybe a little cooler. I generally drive a car until repair cost exceeds value. We are seniors and do drive less.

I worked in polymers R&D and for a few years that included auto-body resins and that included painting. It has been many years and major pollutant from an auto assembly plant was from the paint shop. I don't know how new regulations affected the product but if like for us homeowners it was probably negatively.

and the lumen output of today's headlamp designs - and if

ANd they WOULD be made

That's very likely, but like DPB said, they probably could make them with a glass lens in front too.

The latest

The old sealed beams were a cheap, crude light. I agree that today's lights have the issue of the plastic lenses wearing, but they have huge advantages over the old sealed beams too.

On 12/14/2019 9:25 AM, trader_4 wrote: ...

Indeed, if they hadn't thrown away the good part along with the improvements, it would be _agoodthing_(tm)

There's no really good reason to have to put up with the shoddy plastic other than it's simpler and cheaper for the manufacturer. They also probably don't worry about longevity too much in their design decision process for such--consider it either a consumable or that the original owner won't keep the vehicle long enough to notice combined with the fact that the largest majority by far don't have such climate and road conditions as do here for rural use so don't really care as it would be designing to more nearly the extreme instead of the mass market.

On 12/13/2019 7:12 PM, Clare Snyder wrote: ...

...

So seal with the plastic but use a better material for the outer shield/lens. Can't be too hard a concept.