Good blind spot/rear view mirrors.

[Bitsilly]

You may have guessed that I generally worry about the rear view offered from a 1960 Mini.
I have already fitted bullet door mounted rear view mirrors which are convex and help but leave little room for additional stick on blind spot mirrors.
During a recent visit to Aldi, I bought their 'blind spot mirror' offering. It is a gooseneck suction cup mirror. Now unavailable from Aldi, but around in generic forms, e.g.:
https://www.termhold.top/index.php?main ... _id=384515
https://www.amazon.co.uk/hr-imotion-suc ... B001BXP7I0

These type of mirrors have a super-wide field of vision but also work really well from inside the car. They can just be stuck on the windscreen but to avoid the rather large sucker stuck to the glass I yet again used a magnet,trimmed down the base (having removed the sucker-just push out the pin) and stuck it to the exposed metal above and to the right of the windscreen. Reusing the spring allows a little mis-match of angles/planes, and I promise to find a tidier screw and washer soon!
Yes magnets again but once you use one of these type you will be able to avoid drilling in lots of situations!
I know lots of people will hate this but it works SOOOOOO well I had to post it! The view is excellent, almost panoramic, and of course, if it embarrasses you in company, just pop it off!
I cannot recommend these mirrors enough even if they don't look great. Especially recommended if you don't have any side mirrors.

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[Bitsilly]

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[Bitsilly]

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[surfblue63]

Not a fan of those.

Being an ex-motorcyclist, I use the life saver method of looking over my shoulder when changing lanes.

[Bitsilly]

I figured someone would say 'turn around' but I can't see any drawback in having one, I'd rather have it and not need it........
Two months ago I was going down the slip road to join the motorway in normal traffic, looking behind me, and an old lady decided to stop her car in front of me! Luckily I looked ahead too!
These ones are not your average stick-on-the-corner of your wing mirror. They can serve as a full blown wing or door mirror.
I know they look awful but they really are good! And I'm an ex-biker too!

[Pandora]

I'd say that a classic mini will have arguably the best / smallest blind spot of any car on the roads these days, simply because the pillars are so slim. Modern cars may be very safe in a crash, but the thickness of the pillars and all the trim and surface mounted glazing mean the B pillar is HUGE (as is the A pillar), and often looking over your shoulder shows very little line of sight to those on your offside, particularly bikers. But looking is the best option.

It certainly used to be the case that your ONLY recommended / required option was to physically check by turning your head to look. I would never trust a mirror, or even multiple mirrors, whatever their field of vision (and the wider they are is down to distortion)

I'm not a biker. Never have been, never will be. But I know some, and lots of cyclists and my firmly held view is that every one of them is worth me turning my head. I don't think 'I checked my mirror' would stand up to scrutiny in court as a defence, nor should it.

Safe to say I'm not a fan?

And if you want to worry about blindspots, try a Lotus Europa

Al

[Bitsilly]

I can't believe I'm arguing for this.

'A blind spot is the area of the road that can’t be seen by looking forward through your windscreen, or by using your rear-view and side-view mirrors. Blind spots can be large enough in size to easily block another car, motorbike, cyclist or pedestrian from your view.' AA quote.

A blind spot exists in the absence of pillars but can be made bigger by them. The more panoramic, the more distorted, but most folk would not argue that 'the truck looked distorted so could not have existed'.

Mirrors are not intended to replace one looking behind them during certain manoeuvres.

'I checked my mirror' is better than nothing but of course should be used in conjunction with using direct sight. You can fail your driving test by not using your mirrors and can wipe out cyclists and bikers by ignoring mirrors, if you somehow know how to spot every biker or whatever, exclusively by turning your head then please share how you have perfected your timing, otherwise, please be accepting of mirrors as there must be some value to them.

I am not a fan of ABS, why, because I never had to use them!!!! Doesn't wash.

I owned and drove an Ultima, no back window, worse than a Europa any day of the week, I fitted a rear view camera, and never ignored it just because I could look out the drivers window.

[Pandora]

I can't believe I'm arguing for this.

'A blind spot is the area of the road that can’t be seen by looking forward through your windscreen, or by using your rear-view and side-view mirrors. Blind spots can be large enough in size to easily block another car, motorbike, cyclist or pedestrian from your view.' AA quote.

if you somehow know how to spot every biker or whatever, exclusively by turning your head then please share how you have perfected your timing, otherwise, please be accepting of mirrors as there must be some value to them.

I'm not for a minute advocating using direct sight alone. Of course mirrors have a huge part to play.

But what I am saying is that no amount of mirrors would, could, or should ever replace the need to STILL check directly AS WELL.

I think many additional mirrors are sold on the basis of eliminating blind spots, and that is simply not true, but may reduce the tendency of drivers to check as frequently or as thoroughly.

Al

[Bitsilly]

Yep, sorry, I was stating the obvious not very fairly. My apologies.

A number of times I have bought, tried and ditched blind spot mirrors as rubbish.
These particular ones are very good, in a similar way to racing centre mounted ones. I couldn't believe how well they showed the normal field of vision one would get from door mirrors and some. As many mini owners choose not to have exterior mirrors, I thought these worth a mention.