The Mercedes I saw was several years old and was developing a fog on the lens. Perhaps it was water vapor inside, but definitely not as clear as glbutt. Some type of action is better than sitting on a stool on a Saturday polishing your lenses with toothpaste so you or your partner can see at night. Perhaps we should spread this link around to friends outside the ng's. I suspect if enough complaints were received at the right places, they would at least consider doing something. Who does NHTSA report to that we can rattle? Rick
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Well...no. It is only very recently that Mercedes has used anything but glbutt lenses. Don't think that glbutt-lens headlamps can't degrade, they can. The degradation, though, is slower and less severe. ...........
Good luck on that one. FMVSS 108 scarcely ever changes significantly. The last time a change was made that could be considered major was twenty-two years ago. And the last time a major change was made that consbreastuted a tougher, more stringent requirement for material specifications and durability was exactly never ago.
What's more, the man who was in charge of FMVSS 108 for about a decade retired a few months ago, nobody has replaced him, and the search for a replacement is not being carried out with any urgency. And even when a replacement is found, the position does not carry the authority to make any changes to FMVSS 108 without proof that failure to make the change can be directly and demonstrably linked to a large pile of dead bodies. The automakers have a great deal of veto power over auto safety regulations in North America; all they have to do is say "You can't prove this change is necessary to save lives" and NHTSA is legally hamstrung. The system is broken; it will take a great deal more than a replacement 108-manager to fix it. Congress would have to effectively dissolve NHTSA and comprehensively rework the way auto safety regulations are devised and written, and that's not going to happen.
Sealed beams were good. Their performance wasn't amazingly great, but it was certainly adequate, and it was certainly better than that from a great deal of the model-specific junk that has disgraced US-market cars in the last 22 years. They were all one of four shapes-sizes, they were inexpensively available everywhere, they could be replaced and aimed with simple hand tools, they were resistant to environmental factors, they were resistant to idiots bearing blue and overwattage bulbs, and because they were all standard-sized, old cars got constantly updated to the newest headlamp performance every time they replaced a burnout, and the sealed beams could easily be replaced with European conversion lamps for those who preferred (or were moving overseas).
DS
