Opinions on facelift headlights wanted please....

[Nessy]

At the moment my pre-facelift A4 has the stock earlier-type Valeo headlights (with H4 bulb) and a later post-facelift bumper with factory fogs , all equipped with PIAA bulbs.
I have to say that the light output is pretty respectable with the PIAA bulbs but as I really prefer the look of the later headlights I've just bought a pair of the later 1 piece headlights (stock factory Valeo).......
This brings me to my dilemma, as the new headlights use 2 x H7 bulbs for the dipped /main beams I was going to get a set of PIAA bulbs for the main beam and an H7 HID conversion kit for the dipped......
Now, having done quite a bit of reading on the net I'm a bit worried about the reliability of the HID kits currently available.
It seems the actual Xenon bulbs last a lot longer than a conventional bulb but the ballasts only seem to have a working-life in terms of a certain number of fire-up cycles?
Think 1000 cycles was 1 number quoted, is this just a cynical ploy on the part of HID kit producers to get punters to pay extra for HID kits with 'premium' ballasts made by the likes of Hella and Philips (at a price of around $400) or will a £80-£100 Chinese-made kit be just as durable?
This brings me to the crux of the matter, what is the light output on these facelift lights like?
Would PIAA bulbs in these later lights (for both main and dipped) be a decent improvement or will the light output be worse than my present set-up?
I'd appreciate your experiences as don't want to buy a HID kit unneccessarily !

Thanks

Paul

 

[kris_tdi]

search around, i paid £150 for a set of hella HID's on ebay. they have been on the car for 4 years and still on bulb set no.1 funnily enough they are for a vauxhall omega but still use the same wiring etc.. so they were fine.

 

[JayB5UK]

I only have experience of the later ones, they're OK, but i'm not 100% sure what bulbs I have, possibly Silver Stars, but they may only be standard osrams. Anyway, I find in the winter drive home in the rain a bit of a struggle, as in I really have to have my fogs on too.
If you can afford, i'd go HID or xenon, i've never been too impressed with standard projectors, but I may try some Silver Stars or PIAA soon to see if it helps.
My 2p worth.