A couple weeks ago I received my Version 3 HID kit from Alex @ Alpine! I was excited to install it, but then Irene hit my area so I had to wait a little while to install it. I have had the kit on for about a week and a half now, but prior to this I was running Alex's V2 kit. Here are my impressions..
Install:
Relatively easy. Not as easy as a plug and play bulb, and honestly the hardest part (as always, for me) is getting the freaking headlight caps back into place correctly. I must have done this over 50 times in my time of BMW ownership, yet I still can't easily get these headlight caps back into place without killing myself. But that is something you need to deal with even with regular bulb replacements.
The "extra" steps needed to install this kit aren't hard at all. Disconnect the battery.. loosen a terminal behind the windshield fluid tube, connect a couple extra wires.. and that's about it. I have pre-drilled headlight caps so everything else is just a matter of connecting wires and finding places to put and tie down the wires to make it look clean. Very easy to do. Even easier than V2 because this kit doesn't require a hookup to the negative terminal or a separate grounding wire.
Look:
As always, these look great! Below, I have pictures of the lights in DIRECT sunlight on a cloudless day. You can still see the rings clearly, which can't be said of many competitors. These lights are really the brightest out there. However, at night (and dawn/dusk) the brightness isn't overwhelming. I don't know why some people insist this, but you definitely don't blind other people with these lights. I've never been pulled over for them (with my V2's either).
The rings themselves seem to look slightly better than with the V2 kit as well. The light appears a little more distributed through to the outer ring, even in pictures. However, pictures tend to exaggerate how much light is going to the inner ring, so the difference isn't as ridiculous as some pictures tend to show. They look just plain great!
Reliability:
Here's where I offer a word of caution. With the V2 kit, I had to get a couple of ballasts replaced because the lights would just NOT consistently turn on. By this I mean that at the worst, I'd have to restart my car 3-4 times to get both bulbs to be on. However, Alex would always be there to supply me with a replacement ballast for free.
With the V3 kit, I've had my passenger side light not turn on ONCE so far when unlocking the car with my lights set to illuminate on unlock. They've both always turned on when starting up the engine so far. Since this has only happened once, I chalk this up to a fluke. I'm hoping I'm right. I CAN say, though, that the ballasts in this kit look much more heavy-duty than the ones from the V2 kit and all of the wiring (and the ballasts themselves) look to be of a higher quality. Alex claims that the bad ballast problems have been solved by the higher quality components, and I think he's right. I haven't had any problems so far, other than that one instance.
Overall:
I forget how much I paid for the V2 kit, but I know I paid (and I know that the V3 kits are priced) a little lower than the expensive LED kits out there. Not the weisslicht, which is priced cheap, but a couple of the higher end kits. This HID kit will be pure white (or blue, or yellow, or purple if you want), bright as ever in direct sunlight, and not too bright at night.
The only issues you'd have are if you don't like the idea of external wiring going into your headlights (though the rubber grommets seal up the headlights nicely and don't let any moisture in), and the possibility of some reliability issues.. but I honestly think the infamous ballast problems are solved, and even if you do encounter an issue, Alex will always hook you up with a replacement without question.
