Few things on your Mustang impact both style and safety more than your headlights and tail lights. Stock Mustang lights look good and are powerful enough for easy sundown drives. But when it comes to easy and affordable upgrades, a quality set of Mustang headlights and tail lights will make your ride turn heads by day and cut through the darkness at night.
History Lesson
When it comes to the evolution of the automobile, lighting technology has been behind the times, at least until the last few years. An interesting example… For 17 long years, from 1940 to 1957, federal regulations mandated that every car in America be equipped with the exact same headlights. Ford, Chevy or Plymouth, your car had the same headlights as your neighbor’s.
Breaking free from standardized lighting was a big step forward. But traditional incandescents were the only lights used for decades, until halogen lights emerged in the mid-1980s. This was a big improvement, but remained your only choice until just a few years ago, when automakers were finally pushed to investigate better lighting options due to consumer demand for brighter lights that used less energy – and of course, new opportunities for styling.
Improve Your Style
Today, lighting provides drivers with better visibility and style than ever before. Car designers weave headlights into the natural flow of a vehicle, instead of working around them. The Ford Mustang is a great example of how lighting can add safety and style to an already awesome automobile. But Mustang owners still hunger for better style and performance from their headlights and tail lights!
When it comes to style there are plenty of great options, so making your Mustang stand out in the stampede is easier than ever.
- Black Mustang Headlights: This very popular style uses black housing or a smoked glass lens for a sleek, stealthy appearance.
- Chrome Mustang Headlights: You can never go wrong with the classic look of chrome.
- Mustang Projector Headlights: A style found on some of the most expensive cars in the world. Projector headlights enclose a concentrated halogen bulb behind a technically advanced lens that maximizes beam distance and width, while looking way cool at the same time.
- Mustang Halo Headlights: Halo-equipped lights feature a cold-cathode halogen(CCFL) or LED illuminated ring around the enclosed halogen bulb. The result is a dramatic display that catches the eye by day or night.
- Mustang LED Headlights: As lighting designs get better all around, some styles use small internal LED lights to help them further stand out in the crowd – a lot of bang for a low energy cost.
Most of these styles can be obtained at a minimal cost, but provide a dramatic appearance upgrade over stock Mustang headlights.
Type ‘o Light
If you’ve never thought of your Mustang’s headlights as a safety feature, consider that traffic fatalities are 3 times more likely at night, even though road traffic during the dark hours before dawn dwindles to just 25% relative to daytime use. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 2,300 pedestrians are killed every year in auto-related accidents due to poor driver visibility. Better lighting means safer driving.
HID:
HID (High Intensity Discharge) lights are the current state of the art in automotive lighting technology. Also called gas discharge, or Xenon, these lights produce the most light (lumens) while using less energy. Simply put, HID lights project a brighter beam that travels nearly twice as far as halogen lights. This means you see farther down the road and with improved clarity during nighttime driving. This translates to more time when reacting to changes in the road.
Halogen:
Officially called tungsten-halogen or quartz-halogen; this is the current standard in automotive lighting. Though the general description of this technology remains the same, several advancements have been made including high-output bulbs, reflector lamps and improved optics. Brighter and whiter halogen replacement bulbs from companies like Sylvania and Luminics are an affordable way to step up nighttime visibility.
Care and Feeding
Personalizing your ride and making it look distinctly your own should come second only to safety on the road for you and those around you. Fortunately, there are many affordable Mustang headlights and tail lights that offer both. Here are a few tips for keeping your lights looking and running right:
- Headlights dim over time. Check your halogen lights every year and always replace both at the same time. LED and HID lights can be checked every other year.
- Clean your headlight covers regularly. Having high-output lights yields zero benefit if the light can’t get out.
- If you don’t already have them, consider adding fog lights. Mounted lower on the car, they project a wider beam to improve visibility in adverse conditions. They look cool too.
