Customer Reviews

GE 9006NHS/BP2 Nighthawk SPORT Headlight Bulbs (Low-Beam), Pack of 2

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was torn between the Nighthawk bulbs and the Sylvania 9006SU SilverStar Ultra, Twin Pack. After reading some negative reviews about the lifespan of SilverStars, I opted to go with these.

Initially, I was worried about how blue these would look, versus the regular Nighthawk bulbs, but I was happy to find that there's really not much of a blue tint in the light at all.

The light is very bright and very white. I wouldn't put them against an HID system, but you can absolutely see a difference. Driving at night took a little getting used to, as the beam pattern doesn't seem to bleed the same way my stock headlights did.

Another concern I had was that oncoming traffic would be blinded by the extra light output. However, this hasn't been a problem. And, again, from a distance these lights look pure white, rather than blue.

December 2009 Update: Well, after just under a year and two months, a bulb died on me. Just outside of the 1-year warranty, no less. Since I'm just outside of the warranty, I decided to order the SilverStar Ultras.

In the meantime, I had saved the OEM bulbs when I put the Nighthawks on, and am pretty surprised to see the side-by-side difference. The throw and clarity on the Nighthawks really is excellent. It's a shame they don't seem to last very long.

February 2011 Update: Not so much an update as a tip: apparently, the SilverStar Ultras last just as long, and cost more. So, I'm going back to these bulbs.

When looking for replacement head light bulbs I wanted something that was bright and covered a wide area to both sides since I drive through some country where wildlife tends to run across the road at night. My main thing was increased visibility from the generic bulbs I had used before, BUT I did not want to blind other people on the road. One of my pet peeves when driving at night are people with blinding headlights; evidently they think it's stylish.

All in all, I found exactly what I was looking for with these bulbs. I was not looking for blue tinted lights, but true to what I had read in other reviews it comes off as a white light, which is what I was looking for. I have been driving with them for approx. one month now and love how they have improved visibility while driving at night.

I definitely recommend these to anyone looking for effective, but not blinding, white lights. I also suggest buying them off Amazon.com - they had a GREAT deal going at the time I bought them.

I've been using the lights now for a couple weeks. I bought them to replace the OEM bulbs on my '05 Dodge Pickup. I was hoping for the 30% increase in distance they advertise, but that didn't happen. They are no brighter than the stock bulbs and only a little different in color temperature. If your looking for more of the "bluish" xenon look, these bulbs aren't for you. Even though the bulbs are blue coated, they don't reproduce that when lit. I'm satisfied ONLY because I wanted to replace the OEM's since they were a few years old and because I caught the "two for one" deal Amazon had on them.

I had purchased the Silverstar's earlier this year and they did not even give a year. So, I went searching for something better and came across the GE Nighthawk Sports. There is absolutely no comparison!! The GE are much brighter, clearer, and from what I have read they last a lot longer. I love the cleaner color of the GE's. I still have Silverstars as my brights, but I don't have to use them. Also, the Silverstar's are more yellow than white. It's kind of looking through an old glass bottle. My advice: do not waste your money on Sylvania! That is another thing. GE's are much cheaper!

Hey all, bought these lights and was extremely happy with how bright they were. I own a 2006 Subaru outback, which has a tendency to eat light bulbs, however these had an extraordinarily short life in my car. They lasted for a month and a half in my car and both died within 24 hours of eachother.... Yes, this is bad, figuring they had a bad batch I wrote to the company to tell them of my displeasure. They said they may have had a bad batch and they sent me 3 replacement bulbs for free! I didn't even have to show them proof of purchase..... I got the bulbs and.... they sent me the high beams, which were not the ones that blew. I called them back and within a week I had 3 more replacements which were the right ones. I was extremely happy with how they handled my complaint and it is nice to see a company stand behind their products like they did. I will be buying more GE products in the future.

In general the low price run of the mill yellow halogen bulbs provide perhaps the best night time visibility as the eye is more sensitive to yellow light than white. Critical road signs also tend to be yellow and red for they reflect yellow light better. In addition, according to the Federal Register ( Vol. 66, No. 189 / Friday, September 28, 2001 / Proposed Rules), yellow light is preferred over white because it has less backscatter in the rain/fog and results in less glare from wet roads.

The yellow lights will also last significantly longer because the filament temperature is much lower. According to the official GE website the Sport Nighthawk bulb is only rated for 450 hrs while the more yellow Nighthawk version is rated for 800 hrs.

However, a whiter halogen light bulb may better reveal the true color of an object and makes white (i.e. snow), blue and some green objects more visible than yellow light.

Given the sale price of these whiter Nighthawks is comparable to a basic yellow halogen light, I chose to try these bulbs which reveal true colors to see if it would be a better option for my driving environment. They have improved visibility at night and provided more natural color differentiation.

The biggest waste of money are the blue/white halogens which have a very short life, are really the least bright of all because the eye is less sensitive to these higher frequencies, and they don't show up road signs as well. These unjustifiably expensive HID wannabes can't compare with a real HID which is typically three times the intensity of the best halogen bulb. It isn't the HID's white light but the intensity which makes the difference. But as noted above cool looking intense white OEM HIDs can literally blind the HID vehicle owner due to backscatter in rain, fog and wet road conditions. That is why you'll note some dedicated fog lights are intentionally yellow. The spikey spectrum of an HID compared to a halogen bulb is also very hard on the eyes.

Nor is it a good idea to consider aftermarket HID bulb upgrades as they require a special reflector technology and thus are illegal to just put into an existing fixture designed for a halogen bulb. There is NO WAY a HID retrofit bulb can work correctly in an existing halogen bulb refector - see the Federal Register referenced above.

I wasn't ready to spend the money for HIDs, so decided to try GE Nighthawk Sport's for my Toyota Matrix 2005. I have always felt that the OEM bulbs were poor on low beam, and often drove with the fog lights on.

While I won't say they are just great, I would say they are a significant improvement over the OEM bulbs. Now, the fog lights only make a difference immediately in front of the car, like they should. Before, I could see the difference well into the pattern, and drove with them on much of the time. Now, I leave them off. So I think the Nighthawk Sports are better.

I'll see how long they last.

I had one bulb go bad in my 1999 Silverado so I got one of the GE Nighthawk two packs on the advice of a friend. Amazon had a great deal going with a rebate so I gave them a try. I can tell that the field of vision is wider with these new bulbs. The white/blue color is also nice. Now i just need to change my highbeams over to the same type of bulbs and i'll be set. You can certainly tell the difference between the Nighthawks and my current laser white bubls.

I wanted to switch new headlights because my old ones were kind of dull and not as bright so I decided to go with these GE Nighthawk lights because I've heard Sylvania lights are crappy. Installed this yesterday and man do these two little suckers bright up the whole place at night. At first I thought I had high beams on but these really are bright and have a bit of a blue touch to it. They aim a bit high so you might blind some drivers in front of you but besides that, these are perfect!

I wanted bulbs that were as white as possible without having a blue tinge, and it turned out these bulbs were exactly what I was looking for. I was afraid they might have a blue tint, but like other reviews stated, they don't. I installed the bulbs one-at-a-time at night so that I could see the difference compared my stock halogen bulbs. The difference was astounding. The Sport Nighthawks literally made my stock halogens look sickly yellow. And yet, like I said, these bulbs are not blue -- they're just a perfect, pure white.

I was hoping the light output might include some extra wash to the sides, because the headlights on my 96 Crown Vic tend to throw all the light straight ahead in a narrow beam and leave dangerous "dead spots" toward the sides. The Nighthawks didn't fill those dead spots, but that's no doubt due to the shape of my headlight bezels and has nothing to do with the bulbs.

Please note that I only installed these bulbs a short time ago, and have no idea how long they're going to last. I've had awful luck with Sylvania bulbs, which is why I went with GE this time around. But so far, so good. If you want pure white, bright headlights without that annoying blue tint, you will be very pleased with the GE Sport Nighthawks.