As far as people flashing their lights at you most won't in town due to others being around you and them not wanting to flash them.
Out on open roads you have to get flashed once in a while at least due to the light scattering everywhere. ( known fact, not just hearsay or a few old peole saying it ) Its not just a few of us on here stating it either, you can go on any automotive forum out there and read the same complaints, and yes you can read the same things you are saying, ( I have them down low, no one flashes me, mines different etc ) but it just doesn't fly.
I am on about 10-12 different forums on the average daily, from Harley to Jeeps. No where have I found that these are actually acceptable and work well, no where.
IF, it was a real alternative to a better light, lasting longer etc I would of done it a long time ago. But I researched them, read for hours about the pros and cons and there are way more cons than I want to deal with.
Then also the whole issue with blinding someone and they wreck...if you are found to have HIDs in a non HID housing you and the place that sold the kit to you would be fined .
Also, If you open up your headlamps and install optics and components (drill, cut, glue, screw, etc.) that weren't originally there, then (attempt to) reseal the headlamp, you're not compliant according to the law. Even if the optics you install produce compliant beam patterns, by opening up your headlamp you've undone all the work to make the assembly vibrationproof, resistant to water and dirt entry, etc. And internal bezels and lenses often exert influence over the total light distribution via internal reflections, so if anything inside the headlamp changes, so does that, and you can easily get a noncompliance. Of course if you send your homemade headlamps for compliance testing and they pass, then you're legal.
This comes from NHTSA
