[Bims328i]

I've been trying to decide for a while now. Aftermarket OEM style replacement headlamps or a genuine set. With the fact everything is godly expensive, I am looking into the aftermarket OEM style lamps. Perhaps even AM-OEM LCI style assemblies.

I'm curious if anyone on the forum has tried OEM style aftermarket assemblies. Specifically, I do not want to mess with the weird aftermarket lights but I am interested in having the halos. You can find some AM sets of LCI style for $270-350 and they look to have very similar design to OEM with the same backing access panels and what have you.

From what I can gather the flashy AM sets usually have some janky wiring setup that you have to cut into electrical sh*t and I don't want to do any of that. Looking for some good alternatives if anyone has recommendations.

[Captain Buumer]

Get OEM (Hella) headlights. They are built well if you want least amount of problems.
Then upgrade them as you wish, change projectors, add design halo rings, make some fancy design strips.

I've had bad experience with most aftermarket headlights/taillights. Mostly they leak water inside somewhere and just overall less superior quality.
OEM taillights last for 10+ years until winter destroyed them.
Aftermarket cheap taillights (plastic separated after just one winter).
So i had to buy the same thing twice. Do the same work twice.

At one point also bought some TYC cheap headlights and the adjuster screws were totally broken (plastic adjuster didn't catch to the long threaded thingy)
I was not able to adjust the headlights (had to creatively fix this fatal issue). Also the plastic tab broke immediately that hold the rear cover. I knew they are very weak but didn't expect them to be one time use only.
I broke some more stuff inside when tried to fit new projectors in. Total waste of money. Built with least amount of material possible so it barely holds itself together.
Another experience with TYC (other car brand) the taillights plastic tabs broke when pushing it back it's slot. They were supposed to guide the assembly tightly against the body but since they were almost 2x thinner they broke.
I also wanted to change out my FOG lights (because the plastic was damaged after many years). So the cheaper option was to get TYC fog lights. Which again arrived with damaged adjuster and i had to mend it which was super frustrating.

After this experience i was so annoyed and never buy anything other than Hella for headlights/Taillights/fog that have to be 100% reliable.