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The Zen of Adjusting Your Side Mirrors

How to adjust your side view mirrors to eliminate blind spots.
Added Feb 11, 07 by steve_
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To paraphrase CarSpace member Lateralg, your car’s rear quarter panels aren’t  a threat. Why should you be looking at them in your side view mirrors then? If you are like most drivers, you are still aligning your side mirrors the “old” way.

A better way to adjust your side mirrors is to move the glass outwards so your field of view is of other cars and blind spots are eliminated.

To adjust your side mirrors the Zen way, first put your head against the driver’s side window. Adjust the mirror so the rear quarter panel just barely disappears from your field of view. Then move your head towards the center of the car – your console or gear selector is a good reference point to hover over if you have one.

Repeat the adjustment for the right side mirror so that your right rear quarter panel just disappears from your field of view.

This new arrangement will take a short while to get used to. If it absolutely drives you crazy, then move the mirrors in just a touch so that you can just barely see your rear quarter panels when you look at your mirrors. 

But a  true Zen mirror master will no longer have any blind spots, will have more awareness of cars on either side of the vehicle and will thus see deeply . And maybe that’ll help keep others from dinging your rear quarter panels  (not that you’ll ever look at them again anyway).

A properly adjusted mirror may help you avoid hitting the side of your garage too.

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Recent Comments (5 total):

steve_ - Nov 12, 2008 8:30 am
lol, you know that blinding trick too Tek? Check this out: http://blogs.edmunds.com/strategies/2008/11/side-view-mirror-with-a-spotter-is-finalist-for-pace-award.html
tek1010 - Oct 26, 2008 8:17 am
Have you ever used your electric mirrors to reflect light back at the guy behind you because he is driving with his brights on?
rearwheeldrive - Oct 20, 2008 3:33 pm
With electric, I move them around while in traffic to get the headlights in my mirror when the car is entering the spot behind my bumper, either to my left or right mirror.One headight and no grill means I can still cut them off without a crash if one is inevitable.
kork13 - Jul 25, 2007 2:46 am
I agree, I sort of figured this trick out by experience... I was doing a long road trip driving with a friend in his lowered corvette (2" clearance), and if he was in the right spot, looking in my mirrors, and even swinging my head around, he was completely invisible to me. By moving my mirrors out, I was able to find him, and I've driven like this since. Took me about 100 miles to get used to the new mirror configuration.
lazygoodan - Feb 14, 2007 5:15 am
I've been using this method about 12 years. It really does reduce the number of times you have to check over your shoulder.


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