Car headlights (halogen) are a bit deceiving, they don't look very bright but give out a lot of light.
I don't have a HID light (yet) to compare with the lights on my truck, but I have compared my SR90, and the headlights on high beam show the road and the verge up better at distance with a lot more detail.
The SR90 did show up some white or light coloured objects better though.
I would imagine a good quality high output HID like Polarion would easily beat any road legal car headlights.