Safest Truck according to IIHS

[Royalist_Ram]

I rarely drive at night and would not be in favor of adding $600-$2000 cost to the price of the truck for upgraded night lighting. While driving at night is inherently more dangerous than driving in the daylight, if you don't outrun your lighting regular old-time headlights are more than suitable. Brighter lighting gives drivers more confidence and I suspect a tendency to drive at higher speeds than they would otherwise, much the way people with 4WD think that it gives them a license to increase their speed on winter roads.

There’s no evidence that supports that. LED’s are better in pretty much every way. They last longer, are way brighter, can be adaptive, use less power. They’re even brighter in Daylight conditions during inclement weather. A Halogen’s cut off suck and it’s just not suitable.

I can tell you during our snow storms, they make a huge difference, even during the day. Ram has been increasing prices regardless for years. You wouldn’t even notice. Not to mention, there are plenty of cars that have LED’s standard for the $30k or less price range. Absolutely ridiculous that Ram doesn’t just because the competition is keeping halogens standard.

 

[mikeru82]

LEDs all around the vehicle are very expensive. Even my $76,000 (Sticker) RAM has a halogen light in the vanity mirror. that's the only non-LED I could find in the truck but as you go down-trim and down-market, you'll notice less LEDs because of cost. Every time I buy a new car, I find it a personal goal to find where they cut costs and lighting is usually pretty easy.

My point was that the feds aren't requiring it because manufacturers threaten to raise prices which prices more people out of new vehicles BUT they are shaming companies that don't use all LED by telling consumers this vehicle is less safe. I'm with Royalist, every vehicle should at minimum, have LED Low beams + LED Tail lights. It would add at least $600 and at most, $2000 to every vehicle's sticker price based on what these companies charge for their "lighting package"

Okay, lets say the feds require all companies to only use LED low beams and tail lights. Adaptive cruise control and lane sense are also safer. So should the feds also mandate that all vehicles should have those? What about pedestrian emergency braking? That makes things safer too. Where do you draw the line? Pretty soon you wouldn't have much of a choice anymore, and everyone will be driving the same very expensive trucks. Things like power disc brakes, power steering, shoulder belts used be optional, and I'm sure you won't argue that those make people safer. Now nearly every vehicle comes standard with those. Eventually all vehicles will probably have LED lights (or next new innovation) instead of halogen. Consumer demand drives those sorts of things to happen. Why do you want to get the feds more involved than they already are?

I'm really not a fan of federal regulations, but I'm sure I didn't need to tell you that.

 

[AdamChandler]

"where to draw line" is the question on every single policy we have. It's a never ending spiral as the goal post, the bar, the line and the sand continues to move every year. People say they want to live forever. not me. I'm not sure I can mentally deal with the laws and policies in 50 years. it's a good thing we only live so long

 

[jdmartin]

There’s no evidence that supports that. LED’s are better in pretty much every way. They last longer, are way brighter, can be adaptive, use less power. They’re even brighter in Daylight conditions during inclement weather. A Halogen’s cut off suck and it’s just not suitable.

I can tell you during our snow storms, they make a huge difference, even during the day. Ram has been increasing prices regardless for years. You wouldn’t even notice. Not to mention, there are plenty of cars that have LED’s standard for the $30k or less price range. Absolutely ridiculous that Ram doesn’t just because the competition is keeping halogens standard.

I didn't say they weren't better. I said that I wouldn't be in favor of adding $600-$2000 to the cost of a truck for the better lighting. It's not enough of an improvement to warrant the extra cost in my opinion, especially if you don't drive much at night and don't outrun your headlights. Who cares whether they last longer or use less power? That doesn't make them worth that kind of cost increase for me. There's a billion things that could be added to vehicles that would make them safer or better than the way they are now, but everything comes with a price. Full-size trucks are already ridiculously expensive even at the base model level; if we try to turn them into Mercedes or BMWs they'll soon be unaffordable to most people.

Would I like to have LED headlights in my truck? Sure, if they didn't cost anything extra or a bare nominal cost. But that's not how it is. Perhaps one day in the future they'll be so cost effective that they'll be cheaper than the old way, and when that happens all vehicles will have them. Until then, I'd prefer to have some ability to opt out of improvements that will have marginal value for me. If I don't drive in inclement weather or at night, headlights have zero usefulness to me.

 

[Royalist_Ram]

I didn't say they weren't better. I said that I wouldn't be in favor of adding $600-$2000 to the cost of a truck for the better lighting. It's not enough of an improvement to warrant the extra cost in my opinion, especially if you don't drive much at night and don't outrun your headlights. Who cares whether they last longer or use less power? That doesn't make them worth that kind of cost increase for me. There's a billion things that could be added to vehicles that would make them safer or better than the way they are now, but everything comes with a price. Full-size trucks are already ridiculously expensive even at the base model level; if we try to turn them into Mercedes or BMWs they'll soon be unaffordable to most people.

Would I like to have LED headlights in my truck? Sure, if they didn't cost anything extra or a bare nominal cost. But that's not how it is. Perhaps one day in the future they'll be so cost effective that they'll be cheaper than the old way, and when that happens all vehicles will have them. Until then, I'd prefer to have some ability to opt out of improvements that will have marginal value for me. If I don't drive in inclement weather or at night, headlights have zero usefulness to me.

Trucks are the only real vehicles that still use halogens widely. They’ll get rid of them, and everything will flow downstream to them eventually. Just like the safety systems did from the luxury makers to the mainstream brands. Headlights are usually cheaper from factory than aftermarket anyways. I can get LED’s on a $25k car no problem. Hell even my defender which was way cheaper than my Ram has LED’s standard. Not to mention, most people get discounts for Ram’s anyways. I got $12.5k and $11k off my Ram’s, they both had LED’s. So why bother factoring in the extra cost when you just knock it off when you get discounted ridiculous amounts anyways. LED’s pay for themselves imo. I can understand how “you” don’t feel the need for them and that $600-2000 isn’t worth it (which those are made up numbers anyways, most led lights on cars are through trims or packages that bundle them in and therefore can’t really assess their true cost separately), but I’m saying for the average consumer, LED’s are a must in today’s age.

As far as affordability, most people can’t afford any car or truck nowadays regardless. Why do you think the average financing term is over 5 years in today’s market for Americans?

 

[jdmartin]

As far as affordability, most people can’t afford any car or truck nowadays regardless. Why do you think the average financing term is over 5 years in today’s market for Americans?

Exactly, and now what we're talking about is making it even *less* affordable by adding more "standard" options. Like I said, if we were talking about a $25 upgrade, it's fine by me, but the prices I saw in this thread were $600-$2000 for LED headlights. How much should they cost to make them standard? OEM quality standard, not Ebay standard?

 

[Finn5033]

Count me as one of the consumers that wasn’t interested in the LED headlights. I didn’t think the extra money was worth it. I bought a set of OEM LEDs from a member here to put on my big horn just cause I wanted the halos for running lights and I like the look better. Then I saw how incredibly awesome the light output was compared to the halogens and now I’ll never be without LED headlights again.

 

[Royalist_Ram]

Exactly, and now what we're talking about is making it even *less* affordable by adding more "standard" options. Like I said, if we were talking about a $25 upgrade, it's fine by me, but the prices I saw in this thread were $600-$2000 for LED headlights. How much should they cost to make them standard? OEM quality standard, not Ebay standard?

It would be included in the cost of the vehicle at that point. Like I said, if $25k cars have them standard, it’s obviously not that much.