[zbgirl]

Yeah, I know. Long story short, I moved from the burbs to the country. There's little street lighting once you're off the "main roads". What I find odd in this vehicle is how the headlights don't 'seem to' provide much in the way of peripheral lighting, if I can call it that. I feel like making a turn around a corner, there is a big blind spot of no illumination. It makes me paranoid I'm going to hit something. Has anyone ever night dived before? Its like the sensation you get when you can't see because you headlamp only shows you so much.

I really don't recall my Golfie having this issue, having moved out to the country with it last year. I use my brights but I'm talking about the regular driving on dark roads. Is it just me?

 

[Vipre77]

I've noticed the same feeling. Like I need to be more cautious in this car than I did when making turns in the dark in previous rides. The light beams have very sharp cut-offs which seems to be a common trait with projector headlamps, even with halogens. I had a similar complaint with my Mazda 6, but at least on that car, I had the fog lamps which I found to help a bit with some of the close-range peripheral lighting. I suspect Mazda knows about it also, since the the top-of-line trim models come with adaptive LED lighting which physically turns the projectors when you turn the steering wheel to help throw light into the turn so you're a little less blind going in.

 

[greaseman85]

Do you have adaptive headlights? That could be it, since with adaptive headlights once you turn, the headlights turn in the same direction providing more light to the direction of your turn rather than ahead of you.

At any rate, I don't think the LED headlights are good enough, they definitely don't cover as much distance as my previous car with HID lights. The brightness is more than enough, but it just doesn't cover enough distance, forcing me to use high beams a lot when I almost never used them in my previous car.

 

[jetydosa]

What trim level do you have? I have the Grand Touring and holy crap - it has the brightest headlights of any car Ive owned in the past 30 years - EASILY. The adaptive part is really cool too, really lights up the corners when you turn.

Truthfully the headlights and how effective they are, are one of my favorite features of the car.

HID kits are pretty cheap these days if you wanted to retrofit them (assuming you don't have them already). Might be a solution for you.

 

[JPA]

The LO-beams are actually pretty good even compared to HIDs. Here is a graphic from my earlier post. It shows the light pattern according to 5 lux.
You should check your headlight aiming.
http://www.cx3forum.com/forum/44481-post14.html

 

[inflex]

Do you have the fog lights turned on? Fog lights operate on an independent switch ring on the light control. They offer quite a bit of additional side lighting a short distance from the car.

 

[VANDAL]

The LED headlights are good on this car, but for some reason I still think the OEM HIDs on my 05 RX8 is brighter in comparison.

 

[inflex]

I would say the CX3 lights do "seem" darker, but the lighted area is actually quite large and well-lit. This could possibly have to do with the color and brightness of the lights. Our eyes adjust to the well-lit area which makes everything else darker.

 

[cx3ace]

Does zbgirl have halogens or LED's?

 

[JPA]

The LED headlights are good on this car, but for some reason I still think the OEM HIDs on my 05 RX8 is brighter in comparison.

Here is graph for 2004 RX-8. It's from the same car magazine as the CX-3 graph I posted.

 

[Vipre77]

What trim level do you have? I have the Grand Touring and holy crap - it has the brightest headlights of any car Ive owned in the past 30 years - EASILY. The adaptive part is really cool too, really lights up the corners when you turn.

Truthfully the headlights and how effective they are, are one of my favorite features of the car.

HID kits are pretty cheap these days if you wanted to retrofit them (assuming you don't have them already). Might be a solution for you.

The adaptive LED lighting is only available on the top trim levels in some markets. In the US (and Canada?), that would be the Grand Touring model. Sport and Touring models have standard halogen projectors that do not turn with the steering wheel and they also do not have the fog lights either, which further hurts you in terms of peripheral lighting. I've seriously been considering having the fogs dealer installed in my Touring model. Mazda has an accessory kit for this purpose, but I'm not sure if it's in the US catalogs. Anyone know if I take a part number for an accessory for a UK or JDM part if the US dealers can order it? Ordering these online is always murder on the shipping costs.

 

[DJ9999]

Does zbgirl have halogens or LED's?

The OP has the Sport model so halogens.

 

[rockposer]

The LED headlights on my Sport Nav are excellent and one of the things I love about the CX-3 as I live in the country with no street lights.

 

[Cuzlarry]

Our gt has the adapted headlights, when used with our fog lights, it lights everything ..awesome lights..

 

[zbgirl]

I guess you can't have "everything" on a mid trim! (laughs)
Should I mention this to service when I next go in? It doesn't seem possible that the headlights would need adjusting on a new vehicle.

 

[1362]

I had the factory halogens in my CX-3 and I didn't even last a year with them. I really do not like the yellowish light the Halogen gives off, I installed an HID kit and I think it is truly one of the best upgrades you can do if you do not have the fancy LED Adaptive headlights. I now have the nice crisp white clean light.

 

[zbgirl]

Thanks for the idea. Did you buy 'dealer' or local or ebay?

 

[1362]

@zbgirl I bought them from a local dealer in Edmonton. A place called Uniway computers. They were $115.00 with the bulbs and ballasts, it was a plug and play set up, not even need to run a wire to the battery.

 

[Peter Bettis]

I don’t drive at night often, but last night I noticed that the control stalks on both sides have no illumination. Is that right? There are occasions when you need to see what you’re touching.

 

[santa]

I don’t drive at night often, but last night I noticed that the control stalks on both sides have no illumination. Is that right? There are occasions when you need to see what you’re touching.

Yep, that's right, the stalks have no illumination, so it takes a bit of getting used to.
It's one of the things where I'm thinking, it's weird that in 2015 (when I bought my CX-3) a car doesn't have it, yet my cheap Fiat Tipo from 1992 had it.....but there You go....then again, that also had iluminated window switches.