Originally Posted by meep
hat-tip towards avoiding Long Life bulbs if staying with stock bulbs. While they do last longer, it's a thicker, under-driven filament which slightly compromises focus and color temp a bit. I recall an interesting article on this that the difference in going to a standard bulb can make a perceivable difference.
I agree, and every car manufacturer is notorious in specifying long life type bulbs as stock equipment. Can you imagine how much your "reliability" ratings would tank if the average consumer bought a car and had to replace the headlight bulbs only 12 months into ownership? Can you imagine all the complaints to Consumer Reports, JD Power, BBB, etc.? Americans aren't built to maintain their cars--they expect the car to just work.
To avoid that, Toyota, etc. use long life bulbs, which frankly suck for driving at night. The solution is high performance bulbs, which yes, you'll replace more often. But I think bulb replacement is better than, say, bumper replacement because you hit a deer, or knee and hip replacement because you mowed down a pedestrian.