Opel Astra's LED headlights proving to be popular among buyers

Introduced in 2015 and crowned European Car of the Year 2016, the Astra K has racked up more than 350,000 orders since its market launch, and many of these orders had the optional LED headlights box ticked. Germany is the model's most important market and last year 33 percent of customers decided to pay more and get the IntelliLux full-LED matrix headlights featuring 8 individual LED segments in each cluster.

The option proved to be even more popular in Austria where more than 40 percent of all buyers decided to go with the light-emitting diodes, while in Switzerland about 45 percent of all Astras sold in 2016 rolled off the production line with the clever headlights. But by far the most successful market for Opel's LED lights was Norway where a whopping 84 percent of the Astra Ks sold last year had the "lighting technology of the future."

Replacing the Opel Astra J's bi-xenon adaptive headlights, the new full-LED clusters can automatically modify the length and distribution of the light beam depending on the traffic situation. The high beam automatically kicks in once the Astra is driven outside of a city and it also switches off whenever the front-mounted camera detects light from incoming traffic. It does so by individually deactivating LEDs in order to lower the risk of dazzling the other road participants.

With the recently unveiled Insignia Grand Sport, Opel is introducing an evolution of its IntelliLux LED headlights, now with 16 segments in each cluster for a total of 32. The folks from Rüsselsheim are saying that by doubling the number of LEDs compared to the Astra, the light pattern will automatically be adjusted in a more precise manner and at the same time will also generate a brighter amount of light. When the full beam is on, the Insignia's headlights provide illumination for up to 400 meters ahead, while in curves the light intensity adapts based on the steering's angle to provide better visibility.

The Insignia Grand Sport will celebrate its world debut in March at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show.