Because of my elevated position in cars, rear view mirrors typically create huge blind spots for me. I used to duck or move to the side to see around the mirror, but I got tired of the inconvenience and it probably wasn’t safe either. I detached the mirror from its normal position and mounted it to the plastic counsel on the roof. Four drilled holes and four rivets did the trick.
I got a spare rear view mirror off ebay that can be suction cupped to the window for when others drive my car. In the second picture below, the spare mirror is located at approximately the original mirror position. If you look carefully, you can see a car that is about to pass through my blind spot.
OOHHHHH I love you! I have been wondering about positioning my mirror. I stumbled on this website from an edmunds article. Thanks. A fellow engineer. I shall be perusing.
Welcome fellow engineer, and thanks!
I really feel that a lot of people could benefit from this adaptation; all the time I see people driving and the mirror appears to be too low for them.
FYI I have almost hit cars and people because of the mirror blind spot. I never saw them until just in time, when they come out of the blind spot.
That's what scared me into doing this adaptation 😐
THANK YOU. I’ve worried about this for awhile, but a few weeks ago my rear view mirror blocked a police car sitting to my right at a four way stop. I braked before I hit him, and only narrowly escaped with a warning. My 2004 honda civic has no plastic to drill holes in on the roof, but this is a good starting place for me. Gotta find a solution.
Did you tell the cop it was because of visibility problems? I thought about telling the judge this for my red light ticket, but then though better of it!
I’m very pleased you like the adaptation. When you finish, please send the pics to info@tall.life or perhaps start a forum discussion. Thanks!
I am hardly what you would call “tall”, but I much prefer sitting as high up as possible and as a result have often found the interior rear view mirror is often placed at a very low spot, especially on modern vehicles
What you can do is simply buy a generic rear view mirror assembly from an autoparts store. Remove the factory rear view mirror and stick another one above it at a desired height. Actually the new mirror is quite likely to mount onto the same location, so it is just screw off and screw on.
Yeah I have a brand new second hand car and that mirror is too low and it creates a bad WIDE blind spot…. Always looking under and around it. Need to change it.
It was a fairly easiest fix on the Honda Element. Hopefully it won’t be too bad on your car. I’d be interested to see a pic if you do it.