"Poverty Beams" are the glare producing headlights that lower class and/or undereducated persons have created by putting cheap HID retrofit plug and play capsules into older, conventional halogen headlight housings, in a vain, failed attempt make their old, valueless car appear more modern and upscale. The telltale glare of Poverty Beams is like a bat-signal of poorness that alerts anyone within visible range that the owner of said $80 ebay modification doesn't have two nickels to rub together. The bright glare of poverty beams is a failed attempt by the lower class to mimick the bright, white light emitted by projector HID headlights that modern, luxurious cars come from the factory with. The problem that said lower class persons don't understand is that a projector lens is needed in front of the extremely bright light emitted by an HID arc to focus it. Poverty beams result in a tell-tale glare to oncoming drivers because an HID arc scattered by a conventional halogen reflector results in a bright but unfocused beam, and poor quality pattern. Most often seen on $1500 junker police auction crown vics, chevy impalas, old expeditions, and lots of old junk imports like Honda civics. A real projector HID retrofit can be performed to most older cars to update their headlight performance to be on par with modern cars that come standard with projector HID's, but none of the cars you will see Poverty Beams on are ever worth such cost.
Look at the Poverty Beams coming down the road on that vomit comet crown vic. Damn, you know that guy works at Burger King.
by NUTBAGZILLA September 17, 2013