Philips 9008XVS2 9008 / H13 X-tremeVision Upgrade Headlight Bulb (Pack of 2)

Have ordered these twice now. First time one was blown, seller immediately refunded me with no issues so I felt confident in reordering. My second set came in and they work perfectly!

These lights are tremendous. I wanted to get better headlights for my new car, the ones that come standard on the Passat are a little weak (actually really dull). At first I couldn't find these in stock anywhere onlne. So I settled for 'Philips H7 CrystalVision Ultra Headlight Bulb'. Which are excellent, much brighter bulb, and I was not disappointed with those.But after reading more reviews on X-Treme Vision H7 and how much this improved night vision, I really wanted these. Soon as they came in stock (month later) I bought these. I am not disappointed, these are really really good at giving better vision at night + they look good.I have never changed bulbs before, so I did a little research, and anyone in my shoes might want to read up on this first. You want to make sure you DO NOT touch the bulb. Cant not have any of the oil transfer from your fingers to the bulb. This will cause the bulb to burn out eventually. I used 'Microflex Safegrip PF Latex Gloves', worked great no spots as I worked on them. You can also use those gloves for other car stuff whatever you are doing. Very hard to tear, unless you snag on something very sharp. Which any glove will tear.For other Passat TDi owners, The Bulb for the headlight H7, matches the Hi-Beam (Brights). So if you want to change both, just order two of these. I only ordered one. I move the Crystal Vision I bought originally to the hi-beams. They look great, not that I will really use them, but in the case I do I know it will do the job.For any other concerns that I had, was blinding other drivers. I know everyone has seen it where some dude is coming up and his lights are EXTREMLEY bright.This will not blind other drives, if anyone is worried about it. I actually had my wife drive my car down the street while I was driving hers to see how they looked. They look like a bright white, but not blinding. So if you are not planning on using HIDs, you might want to invest in these.Also one last side note, these are the newer version of Philips H7 X-treme Power Headlight Bulb.Edit 5/12/2014Just an update, I been using these for a little over a year, and lights still look great. I have put about 14k in miles since I bought these. With roughly a 1/3 of it at night, and I am still happy with my purchase. I would still recommend these if you are looking for something that will give better vision and have nice elegant look.

One thing not mentioned in the description, the tip of the bulb on these, the x-treme vision, is mirrored, not the gray or blue non reflective type found in the standard or crystal vision bulbs, this allows more of the light to be projected back into the reflector of the headlight (instead of absorbed in the gray or blue tips), this is one of the ways they get more lumens out of this bulbI used the x-treme vision H11 bulb to replace the bulbs in 2 cars a few weeks ago (both had H11's).One car had a normal reflector headlight using the H11 style bulb, it was the OEM bulb, also made by Philips but a long life version. In comparison the brightness was much better and the bulb was more white than the stock bulb, both results expected. Also as Philips claimed the beam was wider and longer with this style of headlight.The other car had a projector style headlight and had an H11 Crystal vision bulb in it (about 4000K white). The x-treme vision bulb was brighter, but more yellow. You could see on the ground that it was brighter than before, and the beam pattern was a little wider, but in terms of distance, I would say it was about the same as this headlight has a sharp cutoff built into it (when shining on a wall you can see a line of bright to dark horizontally in front of you, this is to prevent blinding oncoming drivers).In the projector headlight application, you did not really get any increased distance, just a brighter, wider area which is also helpful to people, and that brighter light extended to that sharp cutoff. However, the light is less white than the crystal visions which give you a false sense of brightness due to the more pure white output (but these bulbs are still much more white than stock bulbs).Philips says that the distance will vary based on headlight design and I can see from my experience that it does work better in the open reflector design (vs the projector type headlight with the small glass lens inside), but in both cases provided better results.I would recommend them, just don't expect them to be pure white like the crystal visions are.Also note that per the Philips automotive website they say:a. these are about 1/2 the life of the OEM long life bulb and about the same life as the xtra vision and crystal vision Philips bulbs (makes sense, incandescent bulbs are a balance of light output and life)b. they are 3400K (for reference, a normal incandescent house lamp is 2700K and is yellowish and the xenon/hid bulbs in cars are around 4150-4500K), so they are not pure white and have a slight yellow color to them (but still more than a standard auto halogen bulb which is 3000k for long life to 3200k for standard)If you want long life, then these are not the bulb for your, but you are trading off viewing distance and brightness (and getting a more yellow light) to achieve that long life, so just buy the OEM long life bulb.If you want more light and safety then you know what to do.

For those who want increased conventional halogen headlight performance at a reasonable price point, the Philips X-treme Vision bulbs are a great choice. Most of the roads in my local area are unlit, and there is a lot of wildlife (mostly whitetail deer); these bulbs reach out a little further, very helpful to see the animals on moonless nights. We leave them on all the time (day and night), so on average we get just over two years out of them. Others reviewers note bulb lifetimes of easily over 3 years if you just use them at night. The added margin of nighttime safety is definitely worth the price of admission. Also, it's true white light, not that blue-tinted hue one gets out of the Sylvania Silverstar bulbs.Added INFO: since we stopped using them 100% of the time whenever switching on the engine, we're getting about 4 years of use out of them before one quits working (my local roads are really rough, and this decreases filament life). I wired the fog lights to come on with the parking lights, so I use those as a sort of "DIY DRL" instead of always leaving the headlights on 100% of the time.Interesting item: when I replaced a single bulb after it had stopped working (over 4 years in service), the other bulb that was still working was almost as bright as the new bulb on the other side of the car (yes, I then replaced it as well...I replace these in pairs). These Philips Xtreme Vision bulbs maintain good light output across their entire service life.