I've noticed that a lot of new cars seem to have very slopey windscreens. I believe it's for pedestrian safety. Whenever I get in these cars it feels really horrible though, and visibility seems to be really bad. Judging the end of the bonnet seems to be guess work (for me at least) and the pillars can hide a lot! I can also feel travel sick in some cars, and I believe it might be because of the widscreen (but I'm guessing)?
Is it just me, are they OK, or do other people hate them?
Has anybody actually worried about pedestrian safety either? I certainly never worry about it, I'm more worried about my safety. When I'm walking I always look before crossing the road, and when I'm driving I wouldn't run somebody over unless they suddenly steped in front of me. However, when I'm walking the number of vehicles that go up on the pavement is shocking, but when I'm driving I stay on the roads anyway.
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Is it just me are they OK or do other people hate them?
I don't care for them myself.
Has anybody actually worried about pedestrian safety either?
I tend to be concerned to avoid accidents, rather than about minimising the injuries caused. As a pedestrian, I tend to take the view that I should do what I can to avoid being hit. As a driver, I take the view that I should avoid hitting people and objects. I'm not particularly concerned about whether the vehicle I drive offers me particularly good crash protection, nor am I concerned about whether it offers good crash protection to people I hit.
As you may have guessed, I'm one of those people who think that we as a society are too namby-pamby and safety conscious.
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Not being hit and not hitting anyone else sounds like the best kind of safety-consciousness to me, Tyro.
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Maybe drivers should be NCAP rated.
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The sloping windscreens also helps aerodynamics and fuel consumption is reduced as a result.
I find that in some cars it feels like a lot of space is wasted as a result of a long sloping windscreen, and people carriers tend to be the worst offenders at making the driver feel like the front of the vehicle is somewhere out there and the view is often hindered as a result making for blind spots which are particularly noticable at roundabouts. In reality I adjust to any given vehicle but still find some vehicles are easier to drive than others.
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Bring back Edwardian horeseless carriages with vertical windscreens.
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The new Fiesta takes things to another extreme.
Given hotter weather, should they not be reducing the amount of solar heating by keeping windows more verticle, and thus aircon requirements to a minimum? That and the need for tinted glass/dark glasses because it like being outside puts me right off. That Astra sweeping glass roof was the pits as far as I'm concerned!
I suppose it may reduce drag and reduce fuel usage though.
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Another disadvantage of sloping windscreens, apart from excessive glare and overheating of the car's interior, is that they are very difficult to clean (the interior surface, that is). It is virtually impossible to clean right down to the base of the windscreen where it meets the dashboard/fascia.
Dirty windscreens, inside and out, as you might know, are particular béte noir of mine.
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That Astra sweeping glass roof was the pits as far as I'm concerned! I suppose it may reduce drag and reduce fuel usage though.
The new Corsa, also and those off putting dreadful reflections in the overly sloping windscreen.
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Mostly they are for reducing drag - but I'll be delighted if somone can give exact figures i.e. how much drag coeff. do they reduce.
I don't like them - though it gives a sense of more room inside.
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The new Fiesta takes things to another extreme.
Actually that's the car I feel travel sick in. A truely awful car IMHO. However the current Focus seems to be a lot worse! I noticed one that looked bad in one of HJ's recent road tests, I think it was the Hyundai IIRC.
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A pain in the pink fluffy dice when your windo steams up in th emorning and before the air-con gets into gear. On the VW beetle, you can\'t even reach the windscreen when you hang over the steering wheel - and MPVs are just as bad.
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A pain in the pink fluffy dice when your windo steams up in th emorning
Ah yeah, I forgot to ask about that. It must be a nightmare to clean or wipe when it steams up. I would expect a lot of dust to build up on the dash as well. I haven\'t got aircon on my car, but fortunately I have a sensible screen :).
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Aesthetically, very slopy windscreens look good from the inside and outside and there is only one problem I've found in some cars. That is under certain lighting conditions you get a reflection of the top of the facia across the lower half of the screen, so you see the road ahead through a sort of semi-transparent crinkly texture. The Peugeot 206 is bad in this respect. I'd say it's more a problem of the facia design than the windscreen.
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Yes totally agree with you about the light getting reflected off the top of the facia. It's a real pain in some motors when the sunlight is at a certain angle, means having too wear sunglasses a lot more to combat the problem. I wonder why car manufacturers have cottoned on to using light absorbing facia material to combat the problem !
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when i started looking around for a new car i discovered this new trend in windscreens and to be honest this coupled with the extra wide dash as some others have said makes reaching the bottom of the screen almost impossible let alone managing to stick your sat nav in an accessible position, i started to think that the new wider dashboards are being fitted to double up as picnic tables for those rainy days LOL.
i understand that the manufacturers have also cut right back on the overall glass area on most cars (excluding those with glass roofs etc.) again reducing all round visibillity i'll be intrested to see what sort of problems this creates once the new round of brand new cars hit the roads
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Cleaning the inside of my C-Max windscreen is a pain due to the slope. Very difficult to reach the bottom part. The wide dash does attract lots of dust, and the huge A-Pillars are terrible blind spots. I also don't like that you can't see the front of the car at all, it's like it's not even there! Makes parking a bit tricky because it's difficult to judge exactly where the front is located.
On the plus side it's got a small triangular window on the side which you can't see out of but is ideal for mounting my sat-nav. It's also got a lidded compartment on top of the dash which is very handy for holding maps.
Edited by Ravenger on 07/03/2008 at 08:04
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It is odd that we now have huge front windscreens, and the yet safety kit is reducing the size of all the side windows daily. The opposite to ideal.
I liked the Volvo 960, with its upright screen, and low sills to all the sides, as well as rear, windows. So much nicer the the V70s which followed.
Doh!
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