Your standard bulbs are adequate because the halogens that came with the car were meant to be used with the stock housing.

Even the people who are buying the HID ballasts and bulbs aren't getting the same light output as an AUDI, for example, that came equipped with HID's because the Audi has the correct projector/housing. So if you think you are spending big bucks on a $75 or $175 HID, you are (compared to the cheap blue lights Plus, with the $75 HID's, you're blinding oncoming traffic. Everytime I see those lights, I know right away they're just the bulb/ballast and not being projected properly because the lights seem diffused; they don't have that precise, twinkling beam.

If you really want true HID's, as you'd see in a European car, it's going to cost at least 2g's, unfortunately