I just had one of the 9003 Silverstar Ultras in my VW Jetta go  today. It lasted about 2 years, which is apparently quite good for this line of bulbs. I replaced both with Sylvania 9003 Basics. Despite being the cheapest version of the 9003 lamp, they are by far the longest lasting with a decent 1110 hour rated service life, and they are still adequately bright. They cost $25.00 vs. about $60.00 for the Silverstar Ultras with a horrible 145 hour rated service life.

Is it worth it to pay nearly three times as much for headlight bulbs that are much brighter and whiter, but have a much shorter service life? I think not.

The Sylvania zXe’s I used in my new Subaru Legacy were not that impressive either. They dimmed out and became covered with soot after just six months. Again, very expensive lamps with short service lives. Those were within a few months of burning out before I put the much better Philips Xtremevisions in.

The standard life of auto headlights is around 250hours and (in case of H7, but others are similar) gives about 1350lm. This is, what the basic, cheap lamps meet with the basic light specs.
In the last two decades advancements allowed to either boost the light output to themaximum legal limit of 1650lm and keep the 250h life, or prolong the lamp life to about 1000 hour and maintain the light output at the 1350lm as a long life models. Most main brands offered both versions at about the same price, usually 2..3x the basic models.
Or this was the situation few years back. It is interresting, the marketing seems to change and see the long life versions as a standard.
Personally I preffer the long life too.
Plus dont forget to replace these bulbs in pairs, usually the other bulb is going to fail very soon too and in the meantimeyou will have assymetric output...

I am running the Silverstars in my 96 Lumina and they provide great output, but yup life is short vs regular.  But that is what you get for a hotter burning lamp. 

$60 for a halogen? F ck that, my $1 chinese halogens work fine.

$60 for a halogen? F ck that, my $1 chinese halogens work fine.

The dollar Chinese halogens are working fine for me too.