elephant ears, poor vision in a mkII SG

stilson

stilson

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Dec 27, 2011
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Sunny Balga WA
When I'm at the lights turning right I cant see the traffic island as its hidden behind the side mirror. Anyone else find this? Its driving me crazy.
 
I don't like the forward angle of the base of seat when adjusted up. Is that what you have done?
 
^ ^ I change the rake, height & F/R position of the seat for town/country driving.

And steering wheel position.i

Always have ...

From my Batphone
 
Mental vision of you straining to peer over the "elephant ears" mirrors lol :raspberry::rotfl:

If you really dont like them we could always swap Forries :poke:
 
The SGII has the best visibility of any car I've driven. Corrolas have the thickest A pillar in the world and it's impossible to see anything in that general direction. New Outbacks have the A-pillar too far back. And Pajero's and Landcruiser both have massive truck mirrors.
Maybe I've never driven a car with good visibility and don't know what I'm missing out on.

If you're really desperate move them to the front fender, it will look great :lol:
images
 
It's one of the first impressions I got when driving my 07 Forester - what good all round vision it has except for that forward vision blind spot looking down towards the edge of say a roundabout. Those big mirrors are to blame and there's not much you can do about it. At least the mirrors give extra good rear vision.

Still, it's nothing compared to the woeful, even dangerous, rear 3/4 vision that the new Corolla has that we rented in NZ recently. High back seats, small high rear window and huge rear C pillars that appear to have a small window in them but in reality allow next to no useful vision at all. And in the SG Forester you can at least see the corners of the vehicle. A new Hyundai i30 is another one like the new Corolla. They make my new VW Golf feel like you're sitting in a glasshouse. No wonder rear cameras and parking sensors are becoming popular, but there's nothing like good glass area coverage to help for that quick glance when lane changing and for parking.
 
The 2003 Pajero I had, I called the side mirrors elephant ears. They were huge!! Good rear visibility using the mirrors though.
 
I think the Hilux is the winner of poor rear visibility. From the drivers seat you physically can't see the back of the tray. If you lift yourself up so your heads against the roof you can't see the tray through that undersized rear window and you can't see anything past the rear wheel arches. Car companies should focus on visibility more.
As for fixing stilsons problem, if you don't want to move your mirrors to the fenders try the bullbar, or maybe move them higher up the A pillar like a bus, that'll be a real head turner.
 
Seriously, ST, I find the front and rear head rests more of a problem than any loss of visibility from the external mirrors on the SG. I know they have to be that size to properly protect against whiplash injury (reactive headrests are a great idea ... :biggrin:), but they do obstruct one's rear vision when reversing. I have got used to it, but am always aware of this as a problem.

Our SH is a different story altogether. Not only are the mirrors (and head rests ... ) ridiculously large, both D/S and P/S mirrors are convex. Fantastic rear vision, with zero blind spots; but lousy ability to judge the distance of cars behind me.

Our SG has a plano mirror on the D/S, and slightly convex on the P/S; less than the D/S mirror on the SH though.

I always have the mirrors on both cars adjusted so that I can see part of the rear of my car, so that I can better judge the distance to those behind me.

As I mentioned before, I have very different driving positions for city and country. I find that this helps with e.g. traffic islands etc.
 
99% of the time I have the rear seats folded down - rear head rest problem solvered.

You can get your convex mirrors replaced with plano ones from glass shops if you don't like them/one of them.
 
Good idea thanks, Red.

Mate with a Suzuki Grand Vitara has the same problem as the SH, only worse.

From my Batphone
 
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Perhaps consider swapping your mirrors for the smaller early sg mirrors? They might suit your needs better.
 
^Correct me if I'm wrong, but by doing that, wouldn't you loose the side indicator ?

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
^ you can also lose the mirror-mounted indicators by "upgrading" to an SH XS ... :(.

From my Batphone
 
... or you could do a gumtree search for smaller mirrors from some other car make which have mirror indicators.
 
If you swap your mirrors for non indicator ones, you will have to add side indicators to the front 1/4 panel, not too hard to do but it means cutting holes in the guard.

This may sound funny but have you tried sitting on a cushion so you can see over the mirrors?

PS: I always have my mirrors adjusted out so it removes the blind spot. IMO this guidline of adjusting them so you can see your door handles is silly, it just makes the blind spot a heap bigger!
 
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