Am I the only one who can't see out of the rear end of my car?
No matter how I adjust the rear view mirror, about all I can see is the license plate or wheels of a car behind me at a distance of about 25-30 feet.
I do get a great shot of the top of the hatch and ceiling though.
At first I thought maybe the mirror was adjustable. Meaning, I thought perhaps the mirror would slide down a notch or two. Well it doesn't appear to do that, so now I'm wondering.... what gives.
Surely not all the 350's are like this. It would be retarded.
I'm only 5'10" so I'm not Shaq or anything.

If I didn't have that fancy Home Link auto mirror, it would be a simple matter of removing the mirror and gluing it back about an inch down.
But with the wiring, I don't know how that would work.

Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

The visibility out of these cars is not great to begin with, but when you can't even see if there is a cop 50 yards behind you, that kind of sucks.

Ideas?

 

My car came with side mirrors too. So I use all 3 of my mirrors to see behind me.

I know what you mean though the view out the back sucks, but at least we have a rear view mirror at all. I personally would not want the mirror moved any lower as it would affect my seeing out the front window which is far more important to me then the rear window.

 

I hear ya. I guess I've sort of adjusted myself to the lack of visibility. But, as you said, it was expected.

One thing I do love about the mirror (you mentioned it), with it's current position, I can see the silver of the strut bar (and the Z in the middle) at the top of the mirror. Just a fine detail I love about this car.

 

So, you are saying you have the same problem?

Anyone else?
Tell me not everone driving a 350 has to duck their head to see traffic behind them...

 

Funny how you mentioned the rear bar cover. That is actually another source of minor annoyance for me.
As if the fact that the view out the rear isn't horrible enough, the view I do get has a pretty bad glare from the reflection of the bar cover on the glass.

Don't get me wrong here, I love the car so far... it's just that I don't feel totally safe driving a car that I don't feel is very easy to see out of.
Plus, I just moved over from a 911 Targa. That thing was like driving a greenhouse!

 

i have this same prob . i Cant see Sh*t out of the rear view I thought it was be cause of my Size (im 6'3) but my rear view is just as bad if not worse than yours. i will be putting in a rear faceing cam as so as the P.C. for my car is finshed

 

If you tint the back window with at least 35%, the glare would be gone. One less hassle for ya.

 

Well, I'm retarded.
Me and a friend from work just went outside and looked at it again because I was whining like a little b!tch. He said, "you dumbass, look right here, you can pivot it at the base".

So, long story short, the mirror has a ball joint at the base where it mounts to the glass and you can lower the mirror there to get a much better view out the back.
So, now I'm pretty happy. Although the glare is still annoying, I can live with it for a while. I guess I can either "subdue" the aluminum with thomething or get the windows tinted.
Thanks for the tip!

 

well thats good, cause Im 5"10 and I have no problems... obvoiusly if a truck is right behind me like at a stop light I see his grill and lights. but thats obvious since thats the hight that my head is at.

but farther back I can see fine. side mirrors also are very good, and with the short car you can adjust them to see behind you if you have to. but it creates blind spots on the sides, so then you have to contort to look next to you.

 

I am 6'1 and have the same issue - I asked the guys at Nissan about an extension piece for the tube that site betweent he glass bracket and the actual mirror...

They looked at me like I had just grown a tentacle out of my head.


Mebbe an after market company will do us the favor later.

j

 

I've got this problem too. I'm 6'2" and sit very upright. Unless a vehicle is around 50-75 behind me I can't see anything. Constantly use the side mirrors but not my favorite view.

 

I do, but thats if I want see the driver of the car right behind me. I can see their hood but not their windshield if they are immediately behind me. And Im 5'6".

 

I am 6'2" and I had this problem when I first got the car, but, on another member's suggestion, I adjusted how I have the mirror aimed. I moved the mirror as far down as it will go (moving the bar) and then aim it so that in the top half of the mirror, I see the roof. I have the bottom of the mirror pretty much aligned with the bottom of the window.

When I got the car, I wanted the window to be in the middle of the mirror, and that just didn't give me much view behind me. Adjusting it like this let me look straight back. I was considering trying a longer bar, or sahging a bit of the back of the mirror, to allow me to lower the mirror more, but it already blocks too much of my view as it is, specially when I am running in tight roads up in the hills.

 

At 6'2" I can see directly behind the Z but zip to eithor side. Fortunately, the sideview mirrors give better coverage than I first thought. I certainly don't have the views out of the Z I do out of our Highlander but its okay....with one exception.

The exception is looking out the left rear; heck of a blind spot when wanting to move to the right. I just triple check before moving to the right lane.

 

i didn't know the mirror swiveled at the base as well as the mirror. that's cool, i'll check it out.

for mirror placement, I saw this posted on another site. to maximize your rear viewing angle, put the inside edge view of your side mirrors at the viewing edge of your rear view mirror. it works quite well. no one ever told me other wise, and consequently i always adjusted my mirrors incorrectly. i made a little diagram to illustrate.

koryo

 

You have no idea how much you just helped me.

I did what that diagram said and now everything is much better.
Please tell me it wasn't in the owners manual because that would mean that I managed to miss it.

Anyway, I now have my side mirrors set as you described and it works like a champ. I left just a bit of overlap on the left side, but now I can follow an approaching car in the right lane as it transitions from the rear view mirror to the side mirror and now no blind spot!

Awesome. It still took some getting used to simply because i had to move the mirrors "out" so much. I'm used to leaving just a glimpse of the rear quarters in the field of view for reference. Now the mirrors are way out there, but I have no more blind spot.

A car passing me on the left is either:

In my rear view mirror

In rear view/side view

In side view

Or right next to me.




I owe you one, Koryo...

 

nice to hear that it helped. i tried it, and ended up profusely thanking the guy that posted it. it's what i needed too. it's not in the manual or anywhere else that i have noticed. it might have been in drivers ed but that was a long time ago and i probably missed that question anyway.

it is strange at first. i mean, you have to physically turn your head and site different mirrors to look behind you. but the part i like most is what it does for night driving. the lights of a car that is directly behind you do not show up in your side mirrors. much less annoying. esp. if you have an auto dimming rear view mirror.

koryo

 

This is a guide someone posted long ago.. and since doing so I am really confident with my view.

Put your head against your driver window.. then adjust the left mirror so it jus sees the side of the car.

Then lean towards the middle of the car, and adjust the right hand mirror so it just sees the edge of the car.

Using this setup.. I can see the sides of the car great.. and I've learned if I can only see half their grille, that is the break point for passing/moving over. At that point is kinda cutting them off.. but I fit Seeing the entire front of the car in the mirror is a safer pass.

I can't see out the C pillar windows at all where I sit, but the mirrors and glances over left shoulder give me all the confidence I need.

 

I heard the guys on Cartalk tell about a simple method of adjusting mirrors to get a similar effect. Here is the link to their site with the article.

http://cartalk.cars.com/Columns/mirrors.html