The lenses on all of the front lamps are all starting to degrade.
If it's just minor haze, you can probably clean it up. Don't just polish it off and walk off, though, you have to reapply protective coating to the lens or it will toast to death. There are many products/kits on the market, most of them don't live up to the claims (or the necessities).
This is an unusually good, reliable kit.
If you can't successfully reverse the degradation/haze, then you'd want to install new headlamps. OE-brand parts! Doesn't matter if they come in a VW box or a Hella (in this case) box, but they are significantly enough better than all the off-brand/aftermarket units to be worth whatever cost difference.
Bear in mind that projectors themselves eventually lose their reflectors (small reflectors close to hot bulb = finite life). In the absence of a clue this might have happened, like an inexplicably dim beam pattern, you sort of have to "trust in God" about it unless you're prepared to strip down/disassemble the headlamp, which in most cases ruins it. Of course, if you wind up installing new headlamps, then you can take apart the old ones and do a post-mortem including close examination of the condition of the projector reflectors.
Vision still "appears" to be superior to my other vehicles, but I'm sure it could be better. What's the good word on lamps & bulb options for this car?
You probably should put new HID bulbs, unless this car has very low miles. HID bulbs deteriorate with operating hours, in such a way as to put extra load on the ballasts and less light on the road. Get Philips X-Treme Vision Generation-2 D1S bulbs, or the Osram Night Breaker competitor.
Right off the bat, I have a right front side marker and an inner rear tail lamp out to lunch. Those need immediate attention.
You could upgrade those, but only if you are prepared to spend money (single-source...one obscure company in Japan (maybe Korea? I'd have to dig through my files) makes a good, safe halogen high-output replacement for the W16W bulbs in your brake+tail lights. Other'n that, just use a reliable brand of W16W bulb. The American type 921 is close, but not the same. It will work, but not as well.
I can easily add rear fog lamp function to this car.
You'd need a new left inner taillight unit, equipped with a rear fog lamp, for starters...
It uses the HID lamps as DRLs. I can reprogram the DRL to the fog lamps, add low-speed cornering light function to the fogs as well, but I'm not sure if either of these are advisable.
Low-speed cornering is a nice add-on, though you already have a nice, wide beam from the HID lamps.
I'd probably just stick with the HIDs as DRLs. Fog lamps aren't officially recognized as a DRL option in the US. Some of them work OK for the purpose...some of them don't.
