HAs Mercedes lost the Plot?

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The Initial Reason for LEDs:

According to Ford, which was an early adopter of LEDs for the brake light assembly on the Lincoln Mark VIII (1993-1998), the practical advantage of LEDs for the purpose is that they light up a very tiny fraction of a second sooner than incandescent lamps, thus giving a slight improvement in warning time to drivers behind an LED-equipped car.

It's hundredths of a second, and not many hundredths of a second, but as we all know, every little bit of warning helps.
 
They also installed the LED third brake light beginning in 1995 on the Ford Explorer too citing the same reasons as you did. Not only does the third light come on faster, it's also brighter than the previous bulb was.
 
Sandy, Indeed the LED brake lights are VERY abrupt. I find them to be very attention getting. I replaced the stock brake lights in my motorcycle with LED's years ago for this reason.

The other reason LED's are attractive for brake lights is that they shouldn't fail (assuming proper design) within the life span of the car. I don't think there is much liability for the manufacturer in this regard but its a good idea.

Liability I'm sure is the reason that many cities here in MN retrofitted the red stop lamp in traffic lights with LED's while leaving the yellow and green lamps as incandescent lamps. Now of course they are all LED's for energy and maintenance cost savings.
 
Agree on the advantages of the LED's for rear lighting...!

But where's the personality of the patterns you get w/ the multi-bulb tail light assemblies you get when one of two bulbs are burned out?

And the vertical & horizontal assembles you have (that I have my hands imitate behind me, everytimeI "stop"...! Dating back to my 'tweens when I first noticed that thing on cars & was so fascinated by & am to this day!--and you'd think by my 40's I would have stopped doing such a thing! LOL)...

-- Dave
 
The ballasts on small HID lamps used for cars and portable lights are digital--the losses in these are negeligble.For large HID lamps for genenral lighting Venture,Philips,GE are big players in these-they too,are going to digital ballasts and ceramic MH bulbs.The lumens per watt of these are improving along with LED-LED streetlights do have poor CRI but better than high pressure sodium-they are much like mercury lights in appearance.If they can go to a warmer color like Metal Halide-then we can improve them.And the control gear for LEDS-like ballasts for HID --do have losses.So between the two light sources it will be a neck-to- neck race.And in these large light sources--other players is entering the race-the induction lamp and the plasma lamp.Both of these have ballasts that convert the powerline voltage to RF that operates the bulb.Induction bulbs are sort of like flourescents-a phosphor coated tube(inside just like a flourescent bulb)that is excited by 200Khz RF energy.There are no electrodes in the bulb-so it is long lived.secondary coils are at each end of the bulb inducing the RF into the gas in the bulb-causing it to ionize and glow.The plasma bulb is similar-no electrodes and more like a HID metal halide bulb.It is a compact light source-the induction light is a linear light source like a flourescent light bulb.You see induction lights for some parking lots like LED.Plasma lamps are used as plant grow lights.Same with induction.Both are VERY expensive!These would be interesting additions to my light collection when they become cheaper.I think it is possible the LEDS will be the future winner in the light races.Just a matter of time-and you can get LED grow lamps-again very expensive.
 
I bought a used 1990 (W124) 300E after years of avoidance. In the 70s, I had a German boss who pointed out a 74(new then) 450SE and the price tag put the idea out of my mind. I love the car, but it requires $ if you can't work on the car yourself. I managed to put very little mileage on it (4K) a year and I'm impressed with the quality of materials-said to be the last of the best built, before Mercedes decided to compete with the Japanese cars. It's rides and handles like nothing I've ever owned before. Our 2003 Toyota Avalon XLS has done well in the engine/trans dept, but the interior quality and finish is junk compared to the 300E.

The new LED lights are great; just not a fan of most designs(how they're integrated in design ). There's a lot of light already shining in our eyes..I take issue with the brightest in headlights and tailights...and my eyes aren't young.

great thread

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LED's are, by nature, directional with makes them well-suited for focused beam type applications, such as flashlights or car headlights. This also adds to their application efficiency, resulting in more effective lumens per watt than comparable incandescent or HID headlights. A substantial portion of the HID lumens in a headlight are lost going backwards and having to be reflected and refocused forwards.

For this reason also LED's are not as well suited for 360 degree lighting tasks, such as table lamps. Newer LED bulbs address this issue with different arrangements and enclosures, but they can't get away from the lumen loss.
 
PS-I very much look forward to the day when those ugly low CRI yellow/orange street lights are replace by LED's with better color balance and rendition. There's a yellow/orange streetlight right in front of my house and it turns the great colors of my lawn and roses into an orange scale atrocity. And it renders accent lighting pointless. When the street light has burnt out I've actually delayed calling it in so I can enjoy some natural nighttime lighting.
 
The LEDs seen today are designed for applications such as flashlights and car headlights-they do have a transperent dome over the LED chip to focus the light from the LED chip.And the reflector in the fixture focuses the beam more.For the HIDS a reflector has to be designed just for them.That is why the HID car "retrofit" kits don't always work properly-the fixture has to be designed for them to begin with.Many "flashoholics" buy the car HID kits to "retrofit" Halogen portable lights to HID-this works well in those portable lights-more light for less wattage-and the lights internal battery will run the HID bulb for up to 3 times longer than the orig halogen bulb.-and less heat.In some of those portable lights that have two halogen bulbs-the car headlight kit is ideal--just put the pair in the portable light-then you have a real "barnburner" as the flashoholics call it.Often there is room inside the portable light case to hold the ballasts.
 
I think we are difting a bit here...

The original thread was concerning the way of the designs and quality of Mercedes Benz, and the subsequent over usage of LED lighting.

But anyway on with my rant, Mercedes has always been in my mind and my opinion a rather stately car, with usualy enough power to blow any contender at the red light(in south africa we call it a robot, digressing again)out of the water, but you would not know it just by looking at it, it did not have that overly aggresive styling, but a more reserved styling as if you were on your way to Sunday morning church service, dressed in your Sunday best!!

Nowadays it looks more like the drag racing kitted out dropped low cars! Talk about a Streetcar named Desire!!! My bad.

Anyways hope we can stay focused on the direction of the thread.

Thanks anyway for the input regarding LED's will keep in mind.

Also regarding the ugliest car, I agree with one poster upthread about the new Lexus, going at it with the Predator look, it is just plain fugly!!

Well I better get on with my day job now.

Cheers everybody.
 
Sudsmaster:-The light you have in front of your house must be a High Pressure Sodium light.These do have low CRI Color rendering index-their main advantage is high efficiency,and long bulb life-just be patient-Beleive the whole state of California is phasing out the high pressure sodium lights in favor of the LEDS.Just be glad the light in front of your house isn't Low Pressure sodium-those put out a purely yellow light.They were popular in other countries-they were breifly introduced in the US by Philips and GE in the 70's becuase of their higher efficieny than HPS-but put out a monochromatic yellow color-didn't catch on.They have a worse color rendering ability than HPS bulbs.Have a low pressure sodium in my light collection.
Sorry from the drift about Mercedes cars.Known people that have them-but never driven one or ridden in one.So no opinion on Mercedes cars from me.There is a Mercedes car dealer out here in Kinston,NC-not far from that is a BMW dealership.Those are about 20mi from me.
 

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