I say spend little bit more and do it right. These are audi ballasts and projectors with 4100k lightbulbs(HIDplanet) retrofitted into gutted knockoff projector headlights. The bulbs are rated at 3000 hours.
Notice the nice spread? thats how the projectors should work, when you can see beams of scattered light, you could be blinding on coming traffic and also your not getting the best out of the stuff you just bought.
I bought my kit in October of last year for ~$390 shipped. That was for 2 ballast with covers, 2 projectors, and the 4100k lightbulbs. Now i had to make my own wiring harness for them. Luckly HIDplanet has a geek savy forum with plenty of how-to's. My harness cost me less then $20 at radioshack and i had to buy all the electrical stuff, you may have it already.
Now before, I already had these headlights as i was trying to get better output. I found out these lights suck to no end. No biggy as I got them for ~$120. I decided that I was a step ahead of everyone in that i had a great base to start on my retrofit. I chopped these up and fitted the new good projectors into them. I used high temp gasket sealer of all things, holding up great so far.
Anybody dare to show the lightbeam reflected onto a wall/garage door so we can all see the cut off line for the beam?
I am debating on if I should get HID's or not, but there is a few things I am worried about.
1 - I am not ready to lose my highbeams, people here have a tendency to stay in the fast lane.
2 - the cut off line is what bugs me the worst, I don't want a ****ty cut off line and distract other drivers.