I would still defo get the extreme, evenif they do seem to have a shorter life than others, I was shocked how well the £1 bulb did compared with my expectations, but to be fair that one was on the nearside so maybe would have seemed better anyway with closer objects to light, than the offside one(extreme) having to light the hole road on the offside as well.
Some prefer the nightbreakers from osram, but you won't go wrong with either, I just love the light colour of the extreme on dip, so so much easier on the eyes on extended night driving.
Car dependant doing the permanent dip mod works extremely well, and doesn't seem to affect the life of the bulb.
I took HID off the astra to refit the extreme, vastly better in the astra, as lights not that good to start with, had crap beam on hid, ace on extreme.
tabetha