Setting your rearview mirrors

I’ve always set my rearview mirror the way my parents taught me. Set it up so the road is in the middle vertical plane, and so that you can see the back corner of your car. Easy, simple… and wrong.

Here’s the text of an article I ran across while reading over at Insight Central, an online hangout for Insight owners. The reason I was so interested is that the Insight, in the “Daddy’s view” from the rearview mirror, has very limited rear viewing area. The rearview mirror is kind of small, and the view out the back has two large vertical braces and a nearly-horizontal window to look through, plus one large horizontal brace bisecting the view through the mirror pretty badly. But I found once I followed the tips below, I could see just fine behind me — I even find that I don’t need to check blind spots by turning my head!

***TEXT*** Setting Your Car Mirrors Tom and Ray Magliozzi

We’ve discovered that it’s possible to set your three mirrors (rearview and both side views) so that they eliminate almost any possible blind spots.

For years, we’d been setting our side-view mirrors so they gave us a view of the back corner of our cars. This is the way it’s been passed down from grandfather to father to us. But we finally discovered something very interesting. The back corner of the car never moves. It always stays in the same exact place. So there’s really no reason to keep an eye on it. And by moving the side mirrors farther out, you can line up all three of your mirrors so they have minimal overlap — and you can see everything behind you and beside you.

Step 1: Start by setting your rear-view mirror as you normally would.

Then, lean your head all the way to the left so it touches the driver’s window. From that position, set your left side-view mirror so you can see the back corner of your car. Now lean the same distance the other way, and set your right side-view mirror the same way.

Now, here’s what happens. When a car comes up behind you, you should first see it in your rear-view mirror. But as it passes you (let’s say on your left), you’ll see it move to the left side of your rear-view mirror. And as its left headlight disappears from your rear-view mirror, it should instantly show up in your left side-view mirror. There should be no delay. It should slip from one to the other, so you can always see it.

Step 2 – Left-Side Mirror Alignment: Set your left-side mirror so that as soon as the passing car’s left, front headlight disappears from your rear-view mirror, it appears in your left-side mirror.

You might need to make some slight adjustments to your side-view mirrors to make everything line up perfectly. And pulling up next to a line of parked cars (to simulate another lane of traffic next to you) is a good way to do that.

Step 3 – Right-Side Mirror Alignment: Then do the same thing on the right.

Step 4: End result? No huge blind spots.

Driving with the mirrors this way takes some getting used to. You have to learn to rely on your rear-view mirror first. And you’ll have to get used to what your side-view mirrors are now looking at. But, the good news is that your blind spot should now be gone! ***

If you need some diagrams, here’s a web link: http://cartalk.cars.com/Columns/Archive/2002/November/07.html

(Matt’s note: I modified this a bit. When setting my mirrors now, I just cock my head over as far as is comfortable if I were driving driving, and set the outside mirror so I can just see the rear corner when I do that. Then I do the same for the other mirror. This amounts to the same effect, without having to visit a local parking lot to line up your rearview every time someone else drives your car.)