Just purchased 2011 Clubman S. We live in rural VA, no street lights. The defined edge (dark/light) of the Mini lights are fine on a straight, flat road, but here we have an abundance of curves with quick up and downs. And, oh yes an abundance of deer. The irritation is on the quick rises—there's no way to see a deer in the road without slowing to an unsafe speed. Without blasting fellow drivers by having my high beams on all the time are there additional "night lights" that will boost my night vision…softly?

 

I don't know if adaptive headlights can be retrofitted, but I must say they are very useful on the curves. The Driving lights you mention do improve a bit your vision, but as I have seen most people go with aftermarket versions for improved visibility.

Cheers.

 

Wagsixty, Yes, in my opinion, the mini does lack in the lighting department! For a "quick" fix try turning on the front fog lamps if your car is so equipped. I suppose the final solution is to get driving lights. That's what I'm going to do. By the way, the front fog lamps only go on when the headlamps are on dim.

 

That's what the high beams are for....visibility.

You can use the foglights, if installed, and they will do a good job of lighting up the sides of the road but they won't increase the lighting distance.

 

just Installed my OEM black rally lights... damn that was not easy.

 

Try some driving lights, they may help some, other than that you just have to adjust your speed so that you aren't outdriving your lights.

 

I think the lights on my MINI are very good, although the fogs suck IMHO. I've added Hella 500 series driving lights that work off of the highbeam switch. Now I have plenty of light. I can not see around corners or over hills any better than before. I try not to overdrive my lights.

One thing that helped me & might benefit you is a trip to the eye doc for a check. Helped me a lot.

 

Do you have the Zenons or just halogens?

The Zenons made a world of difference for me, my first set was on an Audi we bought, every car I've owned since has them too!

If you have Zenons, you may need to have them moved up a bit - I did that on my '03 and it helped a lot without blinding oncoming drivers.

Don't turn your fog lights on unless it's foggy, rainy or snowy - that's what they're for, and they won't help with the condition you described - plus there's nothing dorkier than someone running around on a crystal clear night with their fog lights blazing away. I don't know how that trend got started, but it's ridiculous....

I can say that the newer Zenons are a lot better than the earlier versions, and if you don't have them they can be retrofitted.

A good set of driving lights will help what you described, but you'll be blinding oncoming drivers even worse with those if you're not quick on the button.

Try having the dealer set them up a little higher....