S40 crash damage & lights poor

[krispyKreme]

had an s40 for 4 years i always found the headlights rubbish compared to so many other cars on the road these days, anyway lady cut a corner on me at night & smashed into me at 45mph ish while i was doing about same, hit my front left passeneger area, cars wrecked but i must say the shape held up well considering the impact, im bruised and sore.

anyway if i get another car i must get something with much brighter headlights so can you guys recommend and cars please ? when did these brighter lights go mainstream eg 2010 ish ? no idea how i can specify light brightness eg you dont have that option on autotrader so i need makes and models to consider please and any keywords to help me find cars with decent lights

budget will only be up to £4k max as this is an unplanned for expense, cant wait 8-12 weeks my insurer says itll take to pay out. Ps my sjcam sj4000 actioncamera used as a dashcam recorded the accident so ive sent my insurer the footage

[T5R92011]

To keep it simple, just buy a car that has HID (Xenon) headlamps. You will find loads of cars with this in your price range.

HID bulbs last about 6-7 years and lose brightness as they age. So factor in the cost of putting some new HID bulbs in and you will have very good headlamps.

Cars with LED headlamps will be out of your specified price range.

[LizardOfBodom]

Originally Posted by krispyKreme

had an s40 for 4 years i always found the headlights rubbish compared to so many other cars on the road these days, anyway lady cut a corner on me at night & smashed into me at 45mph ish while i was doing about same, hit my front left passeneger area, cars wrecked but i must say the shape held up well considering the impact, im bruised and sore.

anyway if i get another car i must get something with much brighter headlights so can you guys recommend and cars please ? when did these brighter lights go mainstream eg 2010 ish ? no idea how i can specify light brightness eg you dont have that option on autotrader so i need makes and models to consider please and any keywords to help me find cars with decent lights

budget will only be up to £4k max as this is an unplanned for expense, cant wait 8-12 weeks my insurer says itll take to pay out. Ps my sjcam sj4000 actioncamera used as a dashcam recorded the accident so ive sent my insurer the footage

Are you staying with P1 platform or looking for non-volvo ?
2010-2012 S40/V50 with factory bixenons ABL (active bending lights) are well enough to keep you happy. But if its different brand you are looking for, then its a bit more unknown. You can have 2013 car with great halogen lights (huge free form reflector) and cr*ppy light output from 2017 Passat with LED in freeform reflector. Nowadays LEDs are "trendy" but simple replacing halogens with them is not always good idea (Passat/Quasquai/Peugots).
In general:
- halogen lights are not bad IF designed well, so big reflector and powerful bulb
- halogen projectors can work well if designed properly (KIA Soul for example, tested on rental car and was really surprised with output)
- factory HIDs are usually great, regardless on what you get
- factory LEDs with projector hedlamps (like Audi) are usually great
- if you sell a kidney and get matrix LED system you will never want to drive "normal" car at night again :}

edit - noticed your "4k budget" just now, you can safely cross out last 2 options

[krispyKreme]

cheers for all that info yeah budgets very tight hence why i need advice on makes and models of cars i can get within my budget my 2007 s40 headlights were utter ****e not much better than strapping 2 candles to bonet

Originally Posted by LizardOfBodom

Are you staying with P1 platform or looking for non-volvo ?
2010-2012 S40/V50 with factory bixenons ABL (active bending lights) are well enough to keep you happy. But if its different brand you are looking for, then its a bit more unknown. You can have 2013 car with great halogen lights (huge free form reflector) and cr*ppy light output from 2017 Passat with LED in freeform reflector. Nowadays LEDs are "trendy" but simple replacing halogens with them is not always good idea (Passat/Quasquai/Peugots).
In general:
- halogen lights are not bad IF designed well, so big reflector and powerful bulb
- halogen projectors can work well if designed properly (KIA Soul for example, tested on rental car and was really surprised with output)
- factory HIDs are usually great, regardless on what you get
- factory LEDs with projector hedlamps (like Audi) are usually great
- if you sell a kidney and get matrix LED system you will never want to drive "normal" car at night again :}

edit - noticed your "4k budget" just now, you can safely cross out last 2 options

[krispyKreme]

just thought my car had 130,000 miles i look on autotrader and similar cars are for sale at say £1500 ish , i had new battery 1yr ago £145, ( 10yr battery) new windscreen cost me £100 excess but is worth about £500 overall new , new clutch cost £1070 including labour so i guess about £700 worth of clutch parts which were only fitted may 2018 ( done about 6/7k miles since so clutch is as good as new , £270 2 new keys made in october 2017 as the fob failed so i guess theyre coded just to my car & of no future use ?? , new front right suspension stuff cost £750 including labour couple of yrs ago,( labout at £75ph so maybe £400-500 of parts then, so when my insurer comes back to me with an offer of its value as a write off what should i try and get out of them ? seeing as there are all those good parts they can take off to resell ??

thanks for any help

[StatusRed]

My 9-5 has xenon headlights and they're very good. The car cost me £650!

Any Saab 9-5 Aero will have them as standard.

[LizardOfBodom]

Originally Posted by krispyKreme

just thought my car had 130,000 miles i look on autotrader and similar cars are for sale at say £1500 ish , i had new battery 1yr ago £145, ( 10yr battery) new windscreen cost me £100 excess but is worth about £500 overall new , new clutch cost £1070 including labour so i guess about £700 worth of clutch parts which were only fitted may 2018 ( done about 6/7k miles since so clutch is as good as new , £270 2 new keys made in october 2017 as the fob failed so i guess theyre coded just to my car & of no future use ?? , new front right suspension stuff cost £750 including labour couple of yrs ago,( labout at £75ph so maybe £400-500 of parts then, so when my insurer comes back to me with an offer of its value as a write off what should i try and get out of them ? seeing as there are all those good parts they can take off to resell ??

thanks for any help

I am not sure any of those parts will have big resell value, tbh - although you paid substantial money for it, selling 1 year old clutch, suspension parts or used windshield is probably not something people would be keen on buyng, - dunno, unless I am wrong, but to me its like buying "slightly used" engine oil. Keys are defo not good to anybody (coding + key blade cut).
Also I dont think insurer will look at all parts you had put on - just value of the car and "take it or leave it". Unless in UK its different..
I have spend much more than you on parts within last 2 years (inc wheel refurb, full engine drop and mods) but if *knock on wood* anything happened, insurance would just look for a value of used 2005 V50 and bye bye car...

[krispyKreme]

right my insurer has offered me £2660 minus my £300 excess so id get £2360
for my s40 2.0 diesel with 134,000 miles on it ( bought it late 2014 with 103k miles for about £3200 ) so i dont think thats a bad offer.

id like another s40 but it has got to have xenon/HID headlights so is there a chart/list anywhere to look up which year/model of s40/v50 cars come with factory fitted xenon lights ? it would save me so much time on autotrader/gumtree/facebook etc if i can narrow down exactly what model/year to hunt for , thanks for any help

ps video of the car damage is here ... interior to show air bags etc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX6ZPYgRzrA

exterior to show impact area https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goajptDx4tw

[garethXC]

Dont forget you ca get the excess back from the other cars insurers ( assuming youre not at fault!).
There are some who say 'always refuse the 1st insurance offer..'

[krispyKreme]

not sure what theyve decided re liability yet

yes always question the valuation insurers give , in this case theyve actually not been too bad

Originally Posted by garethXC

Dont forget you ca get the excess back from the other cars insurers ( assuming youre not at fault!).
There are some who say 'always refuse the 1st insurance offer..'