Can someone tell me if the euro version headlights afford more or brighter driving light than the US version of headlights on a 123 body?

tnx,
jeric

Most definetely they are better. Instead of taking the costly approach to upgrading to a completely new headlight assembly, you could just replace the 7" round light with H4 models. I beleive Hella and Cibie make them. Either one is an improvement over the standard US headlights.

But the 1-piece rectangular European headlights look beautiful. I got myself a pair.

I had the Hella Vision Plus's on my 1977 300D and I felt that the lighting pattern was far, far superior to the stock sealed beams. You should read Dan Stern's page on Euro lights. He's not crazy about the Vision Plus's, but if you use low beams mostly, for about $40 each, they are cheap. These lamps have the bad trait that the high beams and the low beams don't aim up to the same point.

I have the Cibie E-codes on my W126, and I love them too.

__________________
Bob Roe
Lehigh Valley PA USA
1973 Olds 88, 1972 MB 280SE, 1978 Datsun 280Z, 1971 Ford T-Bird, 1972 Olds 88, 1983 Nissan Sentra, 1985 Sentra, 1973 230.6, 1990 Acura Integra, 1991 Volvo 940GLE wagon, 1983 300SD, 1984 300SD, 1995 Subaru Legacy L wagon, 2002 Mountaineer, 1991 300TE wagon, 2008 Murano, 2007 R320CDI 4Matic 52K, some Hyundai, 2008 BMW 535xi wagon, all gone... currently
2007 Honda Odyssey Touring, 2014 E350 4matic

The euro's are definitely worth it - best money I've ever spent on my car, IMO. The one-piece glass european lights make my '85 300D look like a whole new car, and the lighting performance is much better than what I was getting from the original sealed beams.

As speedy300Dturbo said, The Hella/Cibie/IPF H4 7" sealed-beam replacements are a cheaper alternatives to the real european mercedes-benz headlight assemblies. You will get a good e-code beam pattern and good lighting performance, but your car's outside appearance will remain unchanged.

Dan's Stern's page is available at:
http://lighting.mbz.org/