Headlights feel dangerous

Thank you for clarifying. I was convinced the L shape was causing the dark shadowed areas. I’ve never seen headlights that create shadows before.

 

Wow some articles say the new PHEV Corolla can get up to 1300 miles per tank. That's some serious MPG.

 

See the headlight map on the IIHS Prius page I linked above. It is required for all cars for the driver side to illuminate far shorter than the passenger side, as @Trollbait stated. So, Gen 5 Prius is no different in what you called a shadow. Nevertheless, as you see in the map, the headlight performance of Gen 5 is quite poor, as you also said.

 

Hi MVA - might you be willing to post a link to the YouTube video you referenced?

 

On yours, you'll use a phillips head screwdriver. Just use a flashlight and look down all the holes under the hood at each corner. You;ll see white metal teeth that are turned with the screwdriver.

 

We got a new Corolla thread going in the news section.
New Corolla in 2026 with the revolutionary super-lean-burn engine, possibly 70+ mpg, PHEV version | PriusChat

 

Excuse me for asking, but what has tank size to do with MPG?

 

I looked on YouTube for videos on gen5 headlight adjustment, but could not find any. Could you post a link to the one you used? Thanks.

 

I share you complaints. I've retrofitted HID projectors in past cars and I've noticed some of the downsides of our LED projectors.

1. The physical cutoffs (where the end of the light meets the road) aren't smooth or straight. I think it's due to the shape of the actual LED module/board? It casts a silhouette that looks like it's being shined through tree branches. Worse than "squirrel finders" on old halogens.

2. The cutoff color right at the edge of the beam is not a pretty blue tone like HID Projectors. It's 3-day old bruised arm yellow. When you point it at the side of the car it distorts the color of whatever you're looking at. Try it and you will never unsee it.

3. Some of us can detect the pulsing of LED and it bothers our eyes. You noticed it when you drive your car at night when it rains and you can see it strobe. The light quality along with the harshness of the color bothers me.

 

I wish they had brought the G4 Prime's headlights over to the G5!

 

they shouldve just done a hyundai like they did with the ioniq and had halogens for the LE prius that you can after market upgrade, or built in LEDs for the higher end models like the xle and limited

 

My Gen 4 Prius Prime Limited not only has quad LED headlamps but also fog lights.

 

Here are the headlight maps for 5-lux minimum illuminance from IIHS. The short bars indicate the optimal distance for low (blue) and high (white) beams.

Gen 4 Prius:



Gen 4 Prius Prime:



Gen 5 Prius:



2025 Corolla:

 

Should have been a bit more specific. The article states that the new PHEV Corolla (Prime?) can get 1300 miles on one tank plus a single charge. That number seems to be a significant increase over what a Prius Prime can get with one charge and a tank of gas (more like 600 miles or so in my personal experience.)

So it would be logical to infer that the MPG on the Corolla (which has a 13.2 gallon tank vs.11.3 on my 2018 Prime) is significantly higher.

 

As if the range in miles isn’t mpg times the fuel-tank capacity in gallons, right?

 

Yeah it was more of an off the cuff statement as doing math near midnight isn't one of may favorite pastimes

 

I wasn’t referring to you.

 

That’s a great description. I described it as shadows but it does look like light is being shined through tree branches. What the heck were they thinking. Don’t they test these features before releasing them? They’ll probably fix it in 2026.

Here’s a poor quality pic. They are simply not that bright.

 

@daisy555

Before the Gen 5 Prius I had a 2015 Lexus CT with halogen projectors. THOSE lights were terrible in comparison to these. My retrofitted HID's + projectors on my other car blows the Prius away, but they run hot.

I think "Jewel Eye" design (eg. Gen 4 Prius Prime) solves one of the LED drawbacks. Instead of having a single LED, you have multiple.