LTZ is the only model that come with factory HID's. Even with those. I am not impressed with them. BUT, I think it is because of the color temp. more then any thing. They come in at 4300k. I would have liked 5000k. So, I cannot imagine how much more worse it is with out them. I have read many people complain about them. Apparently they come from the factory made for HID's and that is the problem. People have also added aftermarket HID's as well. If you are willing to pay that much for a 2LT. I say might as well go for the 2LTZ for not that much more.

 

I'd be buying lightly used... there seems to be a ton of them around 2014 and 2015.. my other choice was a V6 Camry XLE used 2013ish... still doing digging. I want bright headlights with a lot of spill though.. it's a requirement. The old 2000 Grand Am I drive now has plenty of spill... sometimes they should stick to the basics...

 

I would stay away then from the Impala if its that important. You would want nothing less then HID's and if you want them at the factory level. Only the LTZ model offers them unfortunately. Maybe I am being to harsh at the same time. You can wait for others to chime in as well. Because I personally have not seen the Impala lighting with out factory HID's. I just remember reading a lot of complaints about them though when not coming with the HID's. That expensive of a car used or not. Especially being as modern as it is. Why manufactures still use candle stick lighting with new cars is beyond me. At this time HID or LED lighting should be standard for front headlamps.

 

I have a 2LT and the forward light is fine for me. It's the side lighting that needs improved.

 

I'm don't think that I'd avoid the car just because of the stock headlights. As mentioned, you can easily upgrade them to make them perform better if it's a problem. If you like everything else about the car, don't let the headlights hold you back. No car is going to be 100% perfect - you will always dislike some things about any car.

On the other hand, I would be much more concerned about the vibration issues that many report - that would drive me crazy and really piss me off on such an expensive (for a Chevy) new car.

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I noticed mine "cut off" sharply directly ahead. Its something I first notice driving in Europe in an Audi and BMW. the card had zero spill past xxxx feet unless on bright.
It was weird back then as I had never seen it before. This car definitely does it too. may take some getting used to. I am not a fan because I drive rural roads in the dark going to work--lots of critters.

 

It does seem to be an effect of the switch from reflector type housings which my old grand am has, to projector style, whether other vehicle makes have this problem I don't know.

The below website suggests that sidespill is "wasted light" and thus was touting the virtues of projector style. I had to chuckle at that one. It does look like projectors can be done with plenty of sidespill though. This is all news to me as I haven't really paid attention to the headlights of other vehicles I've been in and haven't upgraded my car in more then a decade.

http://www.xenonsupply.com/blog/projector-headlights-vs-reflector-headlights/

 

it does seem to be an effect of the switch from reflector type housings which my old grand am has, to projector style, whether other vehicle makes have this problem i don't know.

The below website suggests that sidespill is "wasted light" and thus was touting the virtues of projector style. I had to chuckle at that one. It does look like projectors can be done with plenty of sidespill though. This is all news to me as i haven't really paid attention to the headlights of other vehicles i've been in and haven't upgraded my car in more then a decade.

Projector Headlights vs. Reflector Headlights / XenonSupply HID Xenon Blog

tax wasted light!!!! For the children!!!!!

 

The headlights are very poor on these cars. There is no change in the amount of light on the road ahead when you switch from low beams to high. You only get more vertical projection of light. Not a big deal I suppose for those who live in the city, and never drive in really dark conditions. I drive winding, mountain roads and rural roads where you never know what may be on the road, or about to be on the road. They are my only real complaint with the Impala so far. They are pathetic. That being said, if the headlight quality is a deciding factor when buying a car, the Impala is not the car for you.
And, the step up from the 2LT to the LTZ isn't exactly a small one, and it is a HUGE price increase if it is only to get what I would hope is a better, more functional headlight. In today's world, headlight quality shouldn't be an issue anymore. Kinda sad really.

 

The son and I found that out that when we sat in the driveway and no radio volume that the brights on my 1LT make a sound when you go to brights and back. The boy watched as I flashed them, he said it looked like there is a flap or shutter above the center line that opens when changing to HI beam.

So this would explain only vertical change in the beam only.

Pat

 

I have a 2LT and the lights are fine for me. If it's pitch black out with no moon they aren't great. Compared to other cars the lights aren't that strong. The High Beams help but I can drive with them on and the car coming the other direction won't flash his beams at me. That tell you something right there. The sad thing is I had one recently replaced and the Body Shop charge $695 for it. The HIDS are 1k. Not sure why the Insurance company allows the body shop to charge full retail price when I can get the same light on GMPARTSDIRECT.com for $400. Total rip for these lights even at that price. But I'm content seeing that LED and HID conversions cost way too much

 

I have a 2014 1LT and I hate the lights. My 2007 Honda Accord headlights were much better. It's actually quite sad.

 

I have a 2015 2LT. The headlights were practically useless, to the point of my being a danger to myself and to other drivers when driving in the dark. Especially on 2-lane rural roads. A couple weeks ago it was VERY foggy when I headed to the office one morning - the fog showed that my left headlight was aimed up ~20 degrees above level, and it was pointing to the left about 30 degrees. And even with the fog's help, I couldn't see where the right headlight was aimed. Took it to the dealer for warranty service - they confirmed the problem and gave me a free rental car because in order to aim the lights, THEY HAD TO REMOVE THE FRONT BUMPER! Got the car back that evening, and my drive to the office the following morning was so gratifying - I could see the road ahead clearly, from the painted stripe on the right edge of the road to the stripe on the far edge of the road. And switching to high-beams really lit things up.

The only dig I have now continues to be the lack of "cornering" lighting - making a RH turn in the dark is still risky. I really miss the cornering lights of my old Crown Victoria... Wondering if installing the LED running light kit would help cornering visibility????

 

Did it come misaligned from the factory? Or did you buy it used and someone might have messed with the headlight themselves trying to adjust it?

 

Unfortunately, it appears that this is an industry wide problem. Everyone is too concerned with fashion over function.

Can't see at night? It's your headlights, not your eyes

 

BobX2, I saw a similar story. It may actually be the same.

A Dim View: Only 1 Car Out Of 31 Is Deemed To Have 'Good' Headlights : The Two-Way : NPR

 

Yep, pretty much the same article.
It's one thing for the low beams to provide poor lighting, but there is no excuse for the high beams not to light up the world. As I said previously, when out on the open road, I can see no difference between high/low beams with my Impala. Sad. I'm pretty sure that auto dimming headlights is not asking for too much, so oncoming headlights would automatically dim if the driver leaves them on high beam.

 

The stock HID's do light up the sky when flipping on the high beams. I love it and wish I could leave them on all the time like that.

 

Man oh Man you said it needs cornering lamps badly

 

I'm about to do a bi-xenon retrofit with my LT's headlights. I've retro'd every car I've had and cannot see with halogens. It should be illegal for cars to not come with bi-xenons nowadays but headlights are progressively getting overlooked resulting in worse and worse output. I will post pictures after I do the retrofit. If you haven't looked into doing a retro I would start your research.

 

Are you installing new headlight assemblies? The stock assembly works with single beam HID bulbs. Implementing a bi-xenon set up with the stock housing would be interesting but complex and it's unknown how the housing optics would work with off axis emission. Bi-xenon is normally meant to replace dual halogen bulb setups like the H4. The Impala housing uses a single beam halogen (9012) with a mechanical cut off shutter to switch between low and high beam. The optics are optimized for the HID bulb used in the LTZ models so installing a single beam HID kit in a lower trim level works well.

 

Okay, so when you do a bi-xenon retrofit the "bi" part of bi-xenon is a solenoid activated shield which is the same as the Bi-halogen configuration already in the factory headlight. So I would take the wiring going to the factory shield solenoid and wire it to the bi-xenon shield solenoid. It's pretty easy. This is completely heating up the headlight housing, opening the lens, taking the factory projector out and putting in a bi-xenon projector which I have modified for color, sharpness, and output. Specifically I am retrofitting a Lexus RX-350 projector into my housings. The results are day and night. I'm doing it next weekend so I will definitely post pictures of the after results.

 

Not really, bi-xenon has two elements per side. This can be done with two individual HID lamps with individual optics or in the case of the H4, one lamp with two chambers. Anything using a single lamp and a shutter isn't really "bi".

Non LTZ Impala's come with headlamp projector optics designed for HID output and a low output halogen bulb, not good. You can swap the halogen lamps for HID lamps in your choice of temperature and take full advantage of the optics for less than $100 and illumination will be improved. In any case the shutter will open when you turn on the high beams allowing full output and you'll never have side dispersion as good as a reflector style lamp. This isn't bi-xenon, but if you like that it sounds fancy you can call it that, we won't tell.

I'd replace the halogen lamps with HID and use the factory optics and see how you like it before swapping the optics. If you install the RX optics let us know how it goes!

 

Attached is what one projector will output but I have modified the projector to get a more defined blue/purple band above the cutoff line giving the headlights the purple look from down the road to on coming drivers.

 

The halogen bulbs in the non HID equipped Impalas are not really low output they are an HIR bulb which actually puts out more lumens than a regular halogen bulb of it's type. If you are comparing it to an HID then of course it's lower.

 

They do have nice output for a halogen. With a little tab trimming they are really nice in the reflector style housings in our 2011 Silverado!

 

Corner Lights are needed very hard to see where your turning in darkness.

 

I did the retrofit and I am absolutely satisfied with the result. Unlike the LTZ xenons I have a bright, wide, and even light output. I added some LEDs behind the shroud to give the demon eye look with the parking lights and added a switchback led bar. I will post more pictures later of output at night but I have a driving output shot and a couple of the parking lights. It really wasn't difficult to do. The only sucky part of the job was opening and sealing the headlight because they seem to use a different kind of rubber sealant than most and it just wouldn't heat up. The projectors just bolted in, thankfully.

 

What exactly did you do? What did you retrofit?

 

Pics attached.

 

Looks good, did you take any disassembly/assembly pics?

 

Unfortunately, I did not. It's quite straight forward, though. Probably one of the easiest retros I've done. Now I gotta figure out some fog lights.