Having held a full motorcycle and car licence for 20 years, and admit to having been a Vectra-repmobile-drive-like-a-looney lunatic in a previous life, dare I stick my head over the wall to ask what is the point of the rear view mirror??
1. On a motorcycle you are taught NOT to rely even on your wing mirrors: instead you are asked to turn and look with your own eyes before changing lane, etc.
2. In a car the rear view mirror serves no purpose other than provide the drive with security in knowing what's *behind* them, but not necessarily what is *overtaking* them.
3. Rear view mirrors are, in my view, redundant in a car with decent door mirrors.
4. The only use for the rear view mirror is letting you know that the white van/BMW/mercedes driver behind you is driving on full beam, is 2 ft from your rear bumper, and does not consider your overtaking the slow lorry at 90mph to be fast enough.
And yes I do not use my rear view mirror-it is angled to the ceiling- and I only use the door mirrors.
Thoughts???
|
I can only think of one thing at the moment, but personally I'm far more likely to notice an emergency vehicle's lights flashing from a long way back through the rear-view than the side mirrors.
HF
|
|
|
Why angle it to the ceiling ? If it was there, and available, and served its purpose only once in a year, you would be grateful.
Angled away there is no chance of it being useful.
Personally I use the door mirrors *and* the rv mirror. And your way I would know what was overtaking me, but not what was behind me ?
Where is the advantage in being without either ?
Stuff and nonsense IMO.
|
|
|
Depends on the car and driver a lot. In my old Tipo, I actually got a better view from the rear view mirror than the wing mirrors. I think this is because the driver's side one didn't have enough adjustment for someone who needed the seat right back.
Also, the rear view mirror gives you a better view to plan your driving - to see if a gap is coming up to move out in to, or if it's solid traffic and you need to either wait or try and make a space. (Of course you check to make sure no-one is beside you anyway!)
|
The issue is not mirror A v mirror B but reliance on mirrors alone.
Mirror-shoulder-signal-mirror-shoulder-manoeuvre.
Always turn your head and look over your shoulder (but recognise that some folks have limited movement in their necks!).
|
|
|
|
It's part of having a complete mental picture of what is happening around you. Just the briefest flick of the eyes and you have the picture in mind. Before you even do the full check you know what might be about to overtake/undertake you. Same function as the frequent quick scan of mirrors you do on a bike. Effortless with a bit of practice.
PB.
|
I use one of those big wide clip-over panoramic interior mirrors which catches much more than the stock item. IMO these are a lo-cost safety item well worth the money. My F-150 also has nice big fat exterior jobs which cover the rest, subject to that quaint little message on all US auto mirrors "Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear"
In this country you need eyes in the back of your head as well for kids playing underneath you at the back when you reverse, guys with pushcarts appearing from nowhere behind you, cigarette and newspaper vendors wandering along between the lanes on expressways in stalled traffic, and so on and so forth. So I am a confirmed mirror man. If Growlette is in the right hand seat I get a running commentary from here anyway ;-)
|
|
|
|
In addition to the obvious use, where would your fluffy dice/air freshener hang from???
|
|
|
Mark(RLBS)
Did I just get censored?
Could have sworn I posted something here a moment ago?
Personally, I prefered the pink fluffy mice?
|
No Dave, you were not "thoughtfully edited".
You probably hit the wrong button.
|
No Dave, you were not "thoughtfully edited". You probably hit the wrong button.
Right, I'll post it again then:
Taxi driver mate uses his rear view mirror to letch at the girlies, and their legs in the back of his taxi.
|
|
If there were no rear view mirrors how would all those girlies see to put their make-up on when they're driving ? ;-)
|
|
|
|
I believe that you may not have properly set your wing mirrors if you think that your rear view mirror is redundant. By the sounds of things you can see what is behind your car with either side mirror. Personally because I can see what is behind me thru my rear view mirror, I position my wing mirrors to see what is immediately beside me. I cannot see the back of the car thru my wing mirrors. (Sorry if not explained properly, too cold to think!)
Maybe I am doing it worng but I find that I have few blind spots.
But being a BMW driver I don't really use the rear view mirror but when I look back at the people flashing at me in anger, it is nice to have an auto-dim mirror :-)
|
OI! VOLVOMAN! JUST WATCH IT!!! ;) I'll have you know that feeling beautiful while driving, and thus wearing FULL make-up, makes one more confident, thus more confident on the road should Brad Pitt break down and need assistance and thus more confident to drive with perfection. Without that mini-boutique in the cockpit, you'd have a hellova lot of bad women drivers. So thank yourself lucky we look gorgeous and drive perfect!!!!!
I use my rearview mirror a lot, particularly as Im on the motorway every day. I agree that it helps plan your driving and work out when and when not to pull out. Its the door mirrors that I don't use that much. I tend to use my rear-view mirror and look over my shoulder a lot. Its essential for pulling out into the second/third lane, I think but there are blind spots.
I have also noticed just how important they are recently as the standard one I had in my car just broke so I've had to get one of those temporary stick on ones which is about the size of a postage stamp :( Im gonna have to get that sorted.
Steve: hahahahahahhahaah!
Patricia
x
|
Oops sorry, it was LHM I was laughing at. Not Steve's post.
Sorry
Patricia
x
|
|
|
|
|
Why do we still refer to exterior mirrors as "wing mirrors"? They've been attached to the doors for at least 20 years now?
|
|
|
|
Of all the things they could teach during driving lessons (i.e. motorway driving, that outside lane is NOT for you unless you're overtaking!), the good ol' check in your rear view mirror before you brake sharply is a classic. I couldn't even get my instructor or tester to give me a valid reason for doing it.
So, loadsa people step out onto the pedestrian crossing in front me - But oh no, what's this I see? BMW 2" from bumper!! So I, er, what? Give up on the stopping idea?
:)
Dan J
|
|
You need to check your lippy before you kiss your a*** goodbye under these circumstances.
|
You need to check your lippy before you kiss your a*** goodbye under these circumstances.>>
WHAT, and get lipstick on me bum?
|
>> You need to check your lippy before you kiss your a*** goodbye under these circumstances.>> WHAT, and get lipstick on me bum?
At least the missus doesn't check there!
|
|
Lorries don't have rear view mirrors, some buses/coaches don't, and neither do a lot of vans with blanked out windows on the rear doors. All a rear view does is make a nice shovel to scoop your brain out with when you crash, as inevitably you will do cos you rely on a rear view mirror :-)
|
|
|
"At least the missus doesn't check there!"
How do you know?
She might do it with a "rear view mirror" ! (Which brings us neatly back on topic to the thread title)
|
|
|
|
|
>>the good ol' check in your rear view mirror before you brake sharply is a classic. I couldn't even get my instructor or tester to give me a valid reason for doing it.<<
A few years ago the guy in front of me in the outside lane of the M1 smoked to a complete stop for no reason. Obviously I stopped very quickly, but because I knew there was a car behind I was able to ease off for the last few yards to give him as much room as possible. Then I saw in the mirror he was going to hit hard anyway I was able to 'assume the position'. My 10 month old car was a write-off but I was fine. Had I not left the extra 10 yards or so it could have been much worse.
On another similar occasion braking much less sharply I could see the guy behind plainly hadn't noticed so I left as much room as possible again. I was on the phone (this is before it was a bad thing) and I remember giving a running commentary. "Hang, on, someone's going to hit me. He's not seen me... Still talking to his mate... OK, he's seen me.
Just the look on his face as he smoked to a stop a few feet behind my car was worth years of using the mirror.
PB.
|
I presume that the instigator of this thread was firmly "tongue in cheek" at the time.
At least I VERY much hope so.
|
|
|
When I was taught the craft of driving it was impressed upon me that I should be fully aware of the movement and position of vehicles to the rear as well as to the front. To do so one has to develop observations like a rotating elevator belt. Far distance, foreground, rear, back to far distance. Incorporating the internal rear view mirror is much easier with a quick flick of the eyeball than using an external mirror when one has to break right or left to include the rear view.
As a white van driver I found in much harder to obtain rear views
from the externals and in fact on some vans there is a definate blind spot requiring a motor cycle life saver before pulling out to overtake.
DVD
|
|
A large white van with solid rear doors has a complete blind spot directly behind, as my daughter found out when she pulled up to reverse into a driveway and found that a car had pulled up tight behind in the second that it took her to engage reverse gear.
|
Hello,
I believe that observation is everything. Rear view mirrors whilst not technically necessary, certainly increase the opportunity for observation. To my mind, if you have one, you ought to use it - a quick glance is all it takes.
I find the rear view very useful on 2 or 3 lanes when planning an overtaking maneuver - there's always someone burning up the outside lane like they're on the autobahn...
Kind regards,
Cyrill666
tongue_in_cheek = ON
Then there's the necessary standard set of inter-vehicle hand-signals with the car behind when things go pear shaped, after all it would be rude not to reply... wouldn't it? ;-)
tongue_in_cheek = OFF
|
|
|
|
|
|
