Best Headlights 3rd Gen (morimoto/alpharexx, neither??)

Once again I return for answers to my many questions from the tacoma world forums..... in short I wanna get new headlights, been in love with the alpharexx looks, design and color, however have heard the rumors on here and the alibaba markup seems to be less of a rumor and more of a genius business strategy. However, seems Morimoto is a legitimate testament against the alpha rex, however not as much as what I wanted in a sense of looks like the alpharexx, or even a brand alpha owl which has a really nice headlight style imo. However there's even less info on those then any others so i'm assuming they're not that great or known as a brand in comparison. To sum it up, i'm between a lot of options, I have an SR5, so halogen housing, replaced w LED Sylvania H11s which are LED bulbs. Look like lame stock, but with more brightness and distance to em, however still feels lackluster and am now stuck in this weird limbo of do I upgrade?? if so which brand?? which is reliable long term (is most important) I COULD CARE LESS HOW MUCH BRIGHTER OR COOL THEY LOOK IF THEY DIE IN A YEAR. pointless to me, I bought a tacoma because I like reliability not cheap crappy bullshit, anyone who can help give long term reviews of either brand, and which is better or overall reliable. Thanks, def don't wanna go dropping 2K for front and rear lights if it's not gonna be worth it.

 

OEM LED

 

Your Sylvania LED H11's are actually worse than your old stock halogen bulbs, overnighting the foreground, tricking your untrained eyes into thinking they're brighter and actually giving you less distance rather than the advertised more distance due to your eyes adjusting to the overfit foreground. Alpharex are crap and will make you more dangerous at night rather than safer. The only two legitimate and legal choices are OEM Led's from Toyota or the brand new Morimotos. The new Morimoto might actually surpass the OEM Led's but at least we know a real optical engineer designed them to be safe, effective and to meet all published standards for headlight performance. It's not about how they look or even how long they last, it's about where they put the light and in what amounts and the two I mentioned are the only two options that you should consider. Neither are inexpensive but both may save your life when you're driving at night. From personal use and being a certified headlight nerd from the mid 1970's, the Toyota OEM Led's are, by far, the best lights I have ever used and were the least expensive $1500 upgrade I could ever make.

 

OEM LED!

 

As mentioned OEM...

 

I disagree with those who are screaming OEM. Nothing wrong with OEM, other than the insanely high price. I have a 2019, and I ordered from Ebay, several years ago, and with tax, my cost was just over $400. You can look at them in my profile pic. They also came with sequential turn signals, which I really didn't care about, but have to admit that after installing them, I really like them, especially with my side mirror LED turn signal light upgrade. I hear people here in this group, saying things like "you get what you paid for", etc, and I can agree with that, in that indeed, I got what I paid for, which was, a really great set of headlights! They look totally awesome too, as I had really wanted blackout lights with clear lenses, because of various state laws regarding blackout lenses. In any case, it has been several years now since I installed them myself, which that in and of itself, was a chore! But I have to tell you that the satisfaction I got from doing it myself, and just seeing the difference in the "look" of the front of the vehicle, after installing these, made it all worth while!

 

OEM LED until crashnburns review of the new morimotos comes out.

I disagree that you got a great set of lights. I thought gas station flashlights were great until I got a real light.

 

You don't have to take my word for it. Look up Yoshi1 here. He's the optical engineer who designed the current Morimoto lights and he has explained over and over in multiple threads exactly why the cheap Chinese crap really IS cheap Chinese crap, even down to posting photometry images with the actual measurements that are used to determine compliance or non compliance. One of the biggest issues is that most people do not know how to objectively look at their headlight beams and almost universally are fooled into believing that the over lit foreground illumination of the cheap lights and the LED drop in bulbs actually provide better performance down the road, which they don't. The problem is that once you think you've got a good headlight, you probably won't ever get a chance to really try out a really great light properly aimed under really dark conditions. If all you do is drive in the city this doesn't matter as much other than blinding oncoming drivers with glare producing crap, but if you get out on a long dark stretch of two lane, you will see the difference. And then there's the deal where, if you do get in an accident and your insurance company finds you're using those non legal, non compliant lights, they might decide to not cover you.

 

If you want good performance, or any performance for that matter, stay away from $400 eBay lights. OEM LED is the way to go. I scored a pair locally for $500 last year and they have been awesome.

 

Not picking on you by any means, but nearly everyone who inquires about "best" headlights just wants the look of a said brand, not the performance of the low beams. If reliability is what you're after, your OEM lights are it (not with LED bulbs in halogen housings). If you want a measurable increase in performance AND reliability, OEM LED's is the pick. If you just wanna change things bc you like the look, just accept it has nothing to do with performance and pick whichever one you like best and call it a day. We're all okay with being honest, and many of us pick mods for no other reason than looks, and thats okay.

 

I believe that OEM will be mentioned as the best, especially when it comes to quality

 

This doesn't make any sense at all.

 

I've been able to compare my OEM LEDs to wife's previous car, a 2015 Mercedes ML350 with the active xenon lights and I wasn't able to establish which ones performed better. Compared to her current GX550 the Lexus likely has better specs but from the driver seat of a non-technical end user the Tacoma's doesn't pale in comparison.

 

Gas station flashlights are cheap but perform poorly. I thought they were awesome until I got my first high performance light.
You bought gas station headlights. They seem awesome until you objectively compare them to anything quantifiably better

 

Read and learn: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

 

Why don't you think they are any good? Just because they were reasonably priced? Believe me, I have been using them for years now, even while driving across the country mostly at night, and I say they are fantastic! But really, I was completely satisfied with my stock halogens too, with the exception of the dang chrome! That was my reason for switching, not anything to do with anything else. I wanted blackout headlights with clear lenses, and that was all that mattered to me. I got that, and they are good ones. I will post a picture of the before and after, of installing my cool headlights. The before is on the left and the after is on the right.
Now, you got my curiosity up, as to whether or not they are still available, and well, they are an even better bargain now! I see they are now less than $300! Here is the link to what I bought back in 2021: https://www.ebay.com/itm/133378578896

 

I don’t think they are good because they are brand-less, warranty-less and similar generic housings test poorly in the performance category.
If performance is the desired metric, H9s in the oems you replaced almost certainly would have been better, but you were after aesthetic. Totally fine! I’m glad you like them!
OP is asking for long term reliability first, aesthetics second and presumably performance third, so I guess I should just shut my mouth since you will surely say that yours are reliable in addition to being cheap and great.
Honestly it was just your “screaming” comment and then the assertion that generic housings are great that rustled my feathers.
You do get what you pay for, but if you aren’t looking for performance and are fine with good enough, then you don’t need to pay for it.

 

In reply to this, the new Morimoto as in the XB Evo? the brand new ones with the $1500 price tag? if so i've been looking into them for the same reason, such as what everyone is saying with performance and them holding up. I don't wanna buy $1500 Alpha rex headlights especially if it's going to perform worse, and screw me in quality. Thank you for the response that was most suited to my original question, with that i'd want to ask if you have any experience or info on the new morimotos as i'm leaning heavily towards them, and mostly about their performance, and longevity then, thanks!

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/new-16-23-morimoto-xb-evo-headlights-are-here.848777/
https://hotshotoffroad.com/collecti...eadlights-16-23-tacoma?variant=46359933190363

I did the swap to oem pro led's with ss3 max fogs. Super clean and bright. Very impressed with that combo.

 

Again thank you for paying attention to my needs, however performance over looks all day, longevity and performance are key for me, what's the purpose of spending 1.5K on headlights for them to only act on the equivalent scale of a small flashlight, yk? If you think morimotos are a good fit there please feel free to add any experience or anecdotes on them!