Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
The TYC lights I bought from Rock Auto for my Dakota were
exactly identical to the OE lights. The only difference was not having the Pentastar logo...otherwise, 100% identical. Even the lettering molded into the lens was the same!
They were about one quarter the price of OEM. ($140 for both versus $255 EACH.)
I bet they weren't. Visually, they may look the same, but optically, they're likely different. And there's a reason for that. You paid one quarter of the price of OEM. R&D and material quality costs money.
They may look the same to the naked eye, and they may even appear to cast a similar beam pattern. Photometrically, they're very unlikely to be truly equivalent, and time will tell on how the material quality lasts over time.
This isn't to rain on your parade or anything, but aftermarket lamps are almost always inferior to OEM quality in at least one way...whether the naked eye can perceive the difference or not.