Contemplating a newer car. One that always comes up is a VW Golf. I recall sitting in one that was inadvertently left unlocked when the VW dealership closed one night, and the LED interior lighting was such a depressingly cold, pallid glow I vowed I'd never get one. Does anyone know what year VW went to LED interior lighting? I can avoid Golfs starting with that year.
Is it the LED itself that you hate, or just the color? They make different color temperature LEDs, so you could always swap from the trendy "cool white" to the more traditional warm color.
What pointofdeparture said. I'm sure there's some 2700k or 3000k led bulbs that you can swap in if you don't like how 4000k to 5000k cool white look. (I don't like it either mind you.)
Are they actual socketed bulbs, though, that you can change, or are they hard-soldered onto an integrated board?
Not an issue in the Expedition or Mustang. You can change the colors as you please. Currently running a cool blue in the Expy and purple in the Mustang.
But seriously, look at the manual, you may be able to change it.
Clarty wrote: Contemplating a newer car. One that always comes up is a VW Golf. I recall sitting in one that was inadvertently left unlocked when the VW dealership closed one night, and the LED interior lighting was such a depressingly cold, pallid glow I vowed I'd never get one. Does anyone know what year VW went to LED interior lighting? I can avoid Golfs starting with that year.
depressingly cold - 100% Ive changed in my car as well, personally prefer the warm light
I like the cool white. The "warm" light looks dingy to me.
Like an old lamp in a dingy alley where I'm stepping over bums and such.
I like LED interior lighting, I switched my Corolla's dome light to an LED back when they were super-expensive and I plan to switch my Samurai's dome light as soon as I can find the right replacement "bulb."
In reply to stuart in MN: Every time I drive and it's dark outside, which in Minnesota, is October through April.
Clarty wrote: In reply to stuart in MN: Every time I drive and it's dark outside, which in Minnesota, is October through April.
I took interior lighting to mean the dome light...are you talking about the dash lights? I've never seen anyone driving around with the dome light on.
Yeah, are you talking about gauges or overhead lighting? Most gauges of all brands are board-soldered LEDs these days.
If I every buy a modern car, which will probably be never, the first thing I will need to do is see what it looks like in the dark. Blue LEDs and large screens blind me at night. I like a soft green light.
And by the way I love the 42K LEDS, they make everything look clear. I put one in my Focus and you can actually see things in the car with the dome light on.
I'm referring to the dome lights, which come on every time I open the doors. Of course they're not on long, but the garish light is as bad as CFLs, which I also can't stand. I know some people don't mind. I prefer warmer light of incandescent bulbs.
Incandescent bulbs are pretty much a thing of the past. Just find an led in the warm 2700-3000 color range and you won't know the difference
In reply to Grtechguy:
Exactly what we did throughout our house—installed 2700k LEDs. I'm no Luddite.
My question is whether the VW LEDs can be easily swapped for warmer LEDs or incandescents, or are they soldered or hard-wired?
Can you sneak into that same dealer and pop the dome light cover off to check?
If the lower-spec models have incandescents and the high-spec models have LEDs as one poster suggested, it may be as simple as swapping the dome light assembly/insert from the low-spec model, presuming they turn out not to be socketed.
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