I just noticed this last night. I was driving to a friends house. I went along a 2 lane woodsy road and noticed that while your low beams are on, the right beam is slightly higher and illuminates the woods farther in. I suppose this is to show anyone walking or any animals on the side of the road. I even drove on the other side of the road and the left side doesn't do this.
When I first saw this I thought my lights weren't in alignment. But, I've never been in an accident or anything.
High beams are normal.

 

You sir are correct

 

just thought it was cool....saved me from hitting a deer

 

Wow, thats pretty cool. Glad it saved you.

 

If you look at the "hotspot", You'll find that the beam cutsoff down to the left side. This is a Horizontal cut-off designed to improve night vision, but keep the hotspot, the most glaring part, out of oncomming eyes. Really neat and they do work. I've been in many cars and the Maxima has got the best low-beam range I've seen. The down side, high-beams don't put out much light on the ground and have a strange pattern and also when you are passing someone in the left lane, they are going to recieve some blinding glare since all the light is thrown to the right.

 

What we have is the standard rest of the world lights from 30 - 40 years ago. The 9003 bulb is really an H4. This wonderful pattern was illegal in the US until recently. In the early 70's I was buying "offroad only" Cibie, Carrello, Marchal or Hella H4 headlights for my BMW and RX2 so I could see at night. Enjoy it!!

Dave

 

<img src="http://www.cyberhosts.net/~gotrice/personal/miata/lights/piaa02.jpg">

This picture shows the angular cutoff found in the Euro-spec lights. The US-spec lights are usually just a blob:
<img src="http://www.cyberhosts.net/~gotrice/personal/miata/lights/eurolights02.jpg">