Rear Smoked Lights

Anyone have these Smoked Rear Lights from Cartrimhome.com?

https://cartrimhome.com/Tail-Lights-Led-For-Toyota-4RUNNER

 

Maybe it's just me, but I struggle with the whole concept of smoked tail lights. Sure, they look cool, but why would anybody want to reduce the brightness / warning power of their tail lights? So folks could more easily not see you and run into you? No thank you. I have enough problems with folks on Instagram or texting and not looking where they're going on a clear day.

 

If they're built that way, they should be bright enough to compensate for the smoked lens. I do agree that it's dumb to smoke out clear taillights, though.

 

I can take the stock ones off your hands?

 

You have far more faith in aftermarket engineering (and Chinese contract manufacturing) than I do.

 

X2 and looks like crap on 99% of cars.

 

I can’t speak for the tails from cth but have had good luck with the smoked sequential turns on the mirrors on wife’s ‘21 nightshade. I wanted to get rid of the chrome tails but wanted a smoked factory look/replica that’s led plus upgraded the bulbs. I added these.

 

Those are nice looking lights and I mean that, but I could never bring myself to put out $500 for tail lights that are less effective than my OEM.

 

I did the same:

 

I appreciate the compliment. Nor would I pay $500 but I would ( and did ) pay $200 new in box from my friend THAT DID pay for them and before he installed them, sold the 4R. No brained for me. Still have the oem if they take a dump after the warranty….

 

I've never understood Toyota's fascination with chrome. It went out of style 20+ years ago, but they still load it up onto every model they can. The bug eye taillights are bad enough, but the chrome makes them so much worse. $400 is nothing compared to tires, wheels, stereo, racks, etc.

 

No, I don't.

IDK if I'd say 99%.. Maybe 80%.

We put some on a Scion TC and I think they looked decent. Side by side with the OEM taillight:

 

Those look awesome on that TC

 

Agreed! The tails make ALL the difference in the world. Wife gets asked all the time about the tails and the power folding mirrors I added to it. The ONLY thing that bothers me is the chrome inner door pull handles and the Toyota chrome steering wheel emblem. I would love to change the emblem but all the gloss black on the inside of the nightshade has a metallic/sparkle in it. Trying to figure it out haha

 

I'm thinking the same thing. Pretty dumb mod in my books.

I have got rear ended before and I know insurance at fault party tried everything they could to get out of it. Lucky my insurance played well and I enjoyed a nice rental BMW X5 about a month for my Rav4.. LoL. If I had these darker tail lights I'm pretty sure the insurance at fault party blame on those and put the blame on me.

 

one thing with all of these install videos of aftermarket tail lights only show how they perform and look at night. OF COURSE THEYRE GOING TO BE BRIGHT. pics/videos at night will also make the light seem brighter than they actually are.

the difference maker is are they bright enough to be visible when the sun is beaming right onto the lights. the only one i would feel comfortable during the daytime is morimoto. others not so much.

 

Nah. It's a Scion anyway.

 

You’re just not old enough to understand it - many years ago they partnered with GM who are notorious over-users of chrome… at least they were in the days they hooked up with GM (big mistake on Toyotas part)…

 

Not sure what you mean.

You know that Scion is Toyota, right?

 

Yes, the failed attempt at them drumming up sales from a younger audience with boring cars.

 

I'll say that the TC certainly wasn't great as a "hot hatch." I did end up liking it overall, but not for the reasons I expected. It turned out to be pretty good for road trips. Plus, I still think they're good looking cars.

It seems like Toyota just kind of half-assed the hot hatch concept. Too bad they don't still make a Corolla FX16.

 

I want a GR Yaris. Those are pretty sweet.

 

Nice looking lights. I should note that there is a significant difference between darkening the inner chrome parts and darkening the actual outer lens. One will not significantly degrade performance and the other one will.

 

Yeah, I totally understand. I was just giving the op another option to tame the chrome on the tails without going completely smoked. I did a light smoke on my ‘21 tundra tails and 3rd ( minus reverse so I can have more light output ) because there is soooo much red on the tundra tails. Plus they are massive. It’s a must that you can’t use halogen lights which I had upgraded. Visually for appearance on the tundra for me, I’m very pleased. What happens after that, we shall see lol.

 

That misaligned muffler would drive me nuts!

 

It bugs me when I look at it, but you can't see it while you're driving.

It was a temporary solution. We has a Tsudo cat-back on it, which sounded nice for a few months. Then the insulation must have blown out and it had a nasty drone. I cut the muffler off and put on a Magnaflow that I had lying around. It looks ghetto, but quieted it down a bunch.

 

There's also big difference between a product engineered with smoked lenses and a consumer tinting lenses that were intended to be clear. Tinting clear lenses will certainly degrade performance. The other will depend on how well it's designed.

 

that's what i told myself about the hideous chrome fender vents on my QX70. i still eventually replaced them with body matching painted ones.