LED lighting is the ‘in thing’ for car designers at the moment. They’re almost compulsory now on high-end luxury cars but are also starting to work their way down the food-chain to the cheaper end of the market. Now Volkswagen, in what they claim is a ‘first’ in the compact segment, have developed new LED rear lights for the sportiest models of the Golf VI range.
LED lights now fitted to Golf GTI, GTD and R
The new LED tail lights will be offered as standard on the 270HP Golf R and as an option for €350 (roughly £310) on the 210HP Golf GTI and the 170HP diesel Golf GTD. It’s a distinctive design and will help these sporty models stand out in a queue of traffic. Each smoked light unit consists of two curved right angles, with each angle being made up of a strip of eleven LEDs.
The big advantage of LED lights is that they last considerably longer than normal bulbs and light up much faster. The reaction to brake activation is claimed to be 0.2 second faster than that of conventional lights and this translates to a reduction of 5.6 metres braking distance when travelling at 62mph.
The Golf’s new LED tail lights can also be ordered with bi-xenon headlights. These include a dynamic cornering feature that changes the direction of the light with the steering angle. These are standard on the Golf R and optional on all other Golf models, with prices starting at a hefty €1,295 (£1150).
Volkswagen might claim to be the first to offer this, but perhaps they haven’t seen the optional LED tail lights on the Ford Focus RS.
