Bi-XENON Headlights
I was running Phillips VisionPlus H1 & H7 bulbs, with regular H3's in the internal foglamps as well as a set of PIAA 520's amber ion fogs on my brushbar. Good light, although slightly less than legal because on low beams with the fogs on, I actually had 6 lights shining. You couldn't tell because the low beams and integral fogs are so close together. The Hi-beams were good and strong, but the left one seemed to aim high even though the low beams were right on target and correctly aimed. Light color was good, more red-yellow, with great side coverage from the PIAA's.

The group buy at Performance Products caught my attention because they were coming in with 2002 bi-Xenons for a very good price ($1100). Remember, you could get Xenons with the 2001 light set as a factory option, but it was only one beam and you had to buy the sport package as an option, which I didn't want. The PP package included a set of adapters to make the 2002 assemblies work with 2001 and earlier models.

In my opinion the styling facelift with the 2002 lights is a superb change. From a looks standpoint, I see a world of difference between the 2001 and 2002 light assemblies. Also, the 2002 setup provides both hi and low beam xenon lighting.

I was also able to drop the low beam - fog lamp combination back to 4 lights from the 6 previously. Nice to be legal again, with no loss of direct or peripheral light. This also resolved the problem of overloading the fog light circuit withe teh two internal and two PIAA lights. I never had a problem, but why tempt fate?

The lighting pattern of the xenon's is simply unbelievable. Color is a clear, pure white with a little bluish tinge at the very edges of the pattern. There is a clearly defined horizontal cutoff with a rise off the right side iluminating the right hand shoulder of the road. High beams are likewise spectacular, with a semi-circular lighting halo to the front and several hundred yards of good light ahead. In fact, it was hard to notice the PIAA fogs when activated with the low beam except at the left & right periphery - alongside the car & close in.

The retrofit into 2001 and earlier models does not get you the auto-leveling system or the headlamp washers. I think the auto leveling system is a waste of time, but the lack of headlamp washers on all ML's really aggravates me. I think MB went cheap on this, and don't believe that the cost of a system is that high. For those of us living in the snow belt (Wisconsin) crapped-up headlights are tough to live with, especially in a slush & salt environment. Maybe we could trade it for the "door ajar" idiot light, but oops . . . they forgot that, too! Another engineer to the Russian Front!

Anyway, the Bi-Xenon look great, give me what I would estimate is a 25% better light on low beam, and probably 50-60% better light on the hi beams. Since I'm getting older (and wiser), more light at night is a good thing. I've had LASIK eye surgery and find that I get less halo effect from the bi-Xenons than I did from the halogen Vision Plus bulbs. I believe that this is due to less back-glare from a white which is more blue than red, even though we used to use both colors for night lighting on our ships.

This ended up being a lot longer post than I first intended, so I hope you find it useful. Bottom line, spend what you can to get what you want. I agree some MB options are overpriced, but I'm willing and able to pay for those options which I believe provide functionality or convenience that I desire.

Good Luck,
Elmer