Selecting And Installing Awesome Auto Accessories

Posted on: 16 October 2017

If your eyes aren't quite what they used to be in your golden years, you may find driving even your own familiar car a worrying or even terrifying experience. But you don't have let issues involving low vision or glare sensitivity drive you right off the road. Here are three smart things seniors can do to brighten their driving experience:

1. Switch to HID Headlights

Providers of automotive lighting services not only offer brighter halogen headlights than they did back when you got your driver's license, but they also offer an entirely new technology: HID (High-Intensity Discharge) headlights. You can find HID auto headlights for sale as aftermarket accessories, or you may receive stock HID headlights on your next car. These lamps, which used to come only on high-end cars but have since reached the mainstream market, use xenon gas instead of a filament, producing light up to 400 times brighter than older generations of headlights. If it's too dark outside for your aging eyes, these lights will solve that problem.

2. Modify Your Cabin Lighting

If your cabin lights fail on you at a crucial moment, your aging musculoskeletal system may not appreciate the bending, twisting, reaching up and fumbling around required to change them. Instead, have your mechanic swap out the old-style incandescent bulbs in your cabin lights with state-of-the-art LED lights ordered from an automotive lighting company. Incandescents can be slow to warm up, are prone to burning out, and may even fail under vibration. LEDs, on the other hand, are practically vibration-proof, reach full illumination much faster, and can easily outlast the car itself.

3. Wear Glare-Cutting Glasses

Cataracts are a common problem in aging eyes, as the proteins within the lens become increasingly opaque. This development can a number of annoying side effects, including increased glare sensitivity that can make street signs and oncoming headlights a nightmare to encounter on the road. Luckily, your optometrist can provide the solution to this issue. Glasses with anti-reflective coatings can cut the amount of road glare dramatically. If your sunglasses aren't sufficiently helpful, switch to sunglasses with polarized lenses, which are specially designed to filter out the glare that bounces up off the road (or your own hood).

Age can make many aspects of your daily life more challenging, but don't let fixable lighting issues stop you from driving. A few smart adjustments that help you make the best possible use of available lighting can help you keep seeing clearly behind the wheel.