have a small dent next to my wheel well, too expensive to get fixed by a dealer, what can you guys recommend?? and i want to change my headlights to xenons, how would i go about doing that, before i knew anything about cars i thought i could just go out and buy new bulbs but some of my friends tell me otherwise

 

- Get a used wheel
- Get a HID kit if you want HID's. You can't just put on HID's bulbs and expect them to work.

Cheapo blue tinted bulbs (they sell them at autozone, strauss, etc) don't produce much usable light so they'll be even worse than stock non-hids.

 

I think he meant the dent was on the bodywork adjacent to the wheel well, not on the wheel itself. :-)

If you check your local listings you'll probably find a few paintless dent removal specialists who can take out small ding marks without any paint work required. As long as the dent isn't overly sharp, like a deep crease, and the paint itself isn't cracked at all, you'll never even notice where it was once they're done.

Probably charge $100 or so for the first one and usually a bit less for each additional that you get worked on at the same time (if you happen to have multiple ding marks).

 

I had fakey HID bulbs in my Contour many years ago, I thought they worked pretty good. They're not as good as HID's, but they're like $80 a bulb instead of whatever the kit costs which I have to assume is more than that.

 

i have the SilverStar H7 headlights and they are pretty good. much better than stock, mine didnt come with HIDs either

 

I paid $29/pair for some Eurolites ultrawhites... check the audio/performance shops. You can get PIAAs (highest end non-HID you can buy) for about $129/pair -- I thought that was too much. Silverstars are good.

 

I'm totally guessing on the price it was like 10 years ago. They might have been PIAA's, no idea. How much does an HID kit go for anyway? I'm thinking when the 8 becomes my second car in a few years I might get an Edge, but they don't have HIDs and I've come to like them on my 8.