Their are many kinds of mirror and you should know what should you keep in your vehicle. It all depends upon your needs and requirement. I know to adjust the side mirrors but i have difficulties in adjusting the back mirror. I mean when we want our vehicle to be reversed, i have only one mirror in front of me but their won't be another one at back side of vehicle. So, what type of mirror should i replace in back side so that i can reverse my vehicle easily? You can provide with your phone number here so that i cancontact you easily for the tips.

For almost 20 years of driving i used the conventional way.A few months ago I stumbled upon this technique on a Car and Driver article,I gave it a try and it took me quite some time to get used to it but now I'm comfortably and really think it's better than the conventional way..as a cautious driver I still look over my shoulder when changing lines..let's all try to improve our driving habits. Thanx :D

The OP did a great job in describing the blind spot mirrors and how to set them up!

However, as a few posters made mention, it doesnt elimiate them all together or you notice the vehicle in your peripheral when he is ready to side swipe you. This is especially true when driving at night. You may not see the car at all unless you're watching and paying attention at ALL times when cars are passing you.

What I find works well (for me) is one of those small convex mirrors. I have the square ones that are tapered at the edges. They work very well and still allow me to park or turn corners without cutting the corner or side-swiping the curb. Nonetheless, I still do shoulder check a bit, just in case.

Wide-set mirrors work fine, but only in one context, and they DO NOT, despite oversimplified claims, eliminate the blind spot. Users need to be wary of the following.

* You're driving in lane one.  Another car is over in lane 3, about 45 degrees over your shoulder, and at the same moment, you both change lanes to lane 2.   Even with the mirror tilted way out, you'll see the other car late, when he's not far from sideswiping you.  (This is more true for a left lane change than a right, because a stock right side mirror is convex.)  So you do need the quick shoulder check when there are multiple lanes or even just when the lanes are wider than usual.   The blind spot can never be eliminated.  Claims that it can be are oversimplified.   If advocates of wide-set mirrors were to specify that it's only applicable to the next lane, then that would be more honest and realistic.

* If a truck or other large vehicle is driving close behind your car, it fills your rearview (center) mirror.  With the side mirror tilted really far out, you can't see straight back past the truck, so you won't see another vehicle in the next lane that's far back but closing at high speed.  (Advocates of wide-set mirrors may try to argue that they could still see past the truck by quickly leaning their head to the side.  On the left this means quickly leaning against the side window glass, but in fast-moving traffic this is more disorienting than a shoulder check, especially if you bang your head against the glass.)

* A similar problem occurs if the rear head restraints are large and bulky (or if your rear passengers' heads are large and bulky).  Your view behind of the next lane can be blocked and a wide-set side mirror can't help.

* Much the same problem occurs when you try to pull out of a parallel parking spot with a big vehicle parked behind.  Even scarier is when you're parked on the left side on a one-way street.

* Regardless of how the side mirrors are adjusted, when pulling out of a parallel parking spot, only a shoulder check will pick up a car exiting a driveway across the street behind you.  Again, claims that you can eliminate the blind spot are oversimplified.

this is all comon cense. what were mirrors invented for? to allow you to see a different perspective with less time, less turning of the neck, and to help keep you properly orinentated while driving. what kind of idiots would be arguing about how mirrors are set up. i dont care how they are sad to be set up or how you are so post to set them up because ILL TELL YOU HOW THEY SHOULD BE SET UP WHITH COMON CENSE, RESONING , AND KNOWLEGE. 1. you have 3 mirriors you dumn fucks, that means they were designed so you could see THREE different perspectives other then looking out the glass. 2. i dont know about you but i see it as more of an inconvinenss to turn my head all the way to see in my BLINE spot then to look out the corner of my eye and say o gosh theirs a car there. 3. side mirror doesnt mean SIDE of car mirror. 4. eather way you sett up your miror you can not see a car dirrectly side by side of you. 5. omg figgure it out your self you dumn idiots. for you morons that dont get this i hope you pull a musle in your neck or die in a car accident.

When you are driving directily behind someone and you see the driver's face in their side view mirror, you are looking at an idiot. That idiot is using the first setup - the WRONG setup where you can see behind you. I've been using the CORRECT setup long before Al Gore invented the internet without any incidents. They are called SIDEview mirrors for a reason.

Correct mirror adjustment is not made like this: You place a person several feet behind your car's corner. You make sure you see him in the very corner of the rear-view mirror, and the inside corner of the respective side mirror. In most American cars, this will result in an adjustment like described above: The sides of the car are not seen until the head is leaned towards the mirrors against the glass/center of the car and sometimes even a tiny bit wider. In many European cars, you see the edge of the car in the driver's side mirror without leaning all the way against the glass (but the far-end mirror remains the same) and in older cars, the edge of the car is still seen in the mirror. With most modern cars this mirror adjustment eliminates blind spots, period! This is because this adjustment allows you to open the mirrors as wide as possible without losing the overlap between them completely, this results in slight overlap between all three fields of vision we have: The rear-view mirror, the side view mirrors and the peripheral vision when glancing at the side-view mirrors. This makes the blind spots too little for even a small scooter to sit completely inside them, although the edges of the car are not seen! Some people prefer to set their mirrors tighter because it gives them a point of reference (the side of the car), but this is usually not required except for parking. In that case, we can lean our head, readjust the mirrors or mount convex mirrors to show the edges of the car. Anyhow, clearly we are not going to adjust our mirrors for parking and than drive this way for miles. Driving forward includes greater speeds, hazards, traffic and situations that require a broad visual field, not to mention we drive forward for significantly greater periods of time and distance, rather than backwards. Another claim is that the side mirrors need to overlap the rear-view mirror, out of an assumption that the rear-view window can be partially blocked by the heads of the passengers or that drivers do not watch their rear-view mirror as often. This is true, but only to a certain extent. As I have said, a good mirror setup does have some overlap, enough to make sure a car behind is in a safe following distance, even if our rear-view mirror is somewhat obstructed. One third claim, is that the tail displayed in the mirror is a point of reference for the adjustment, should the mirror be knocked out of adjustment. However, this is also true with this alignment. After adjusting your mirrors, you check to see when the car's edge becomes visible, like when you lean your head against the glass and/or center of the car. If from these positions you do not see the edge of your car and/or see too much of it, your mirror is out of adjustment. Another manner of testing is to see how a car or preferably a bike runs past you in traffic: You will first see it coming up in the rear-view mirror, as it almost disappears at the corner of that mirror, he will also appear in the inside corner of the side view mirror, and before he disappears in the corner of that mirror, he is seen in the corner of the eye when you look towards the mirror. With mirrors set this way at a modern car, you should only, at most, perform a shoulder check by peeking slightly to the side, for which the glance to the side view mirror is usually adequate. Looking behind you is useless and takes your concentration off of the traffic in front.

I don't understand what the posters mean when they say they have to point all their mirrors behind them so they can see how fast cars are approaching, but I think this works great. You can watch the car approaching using your rear view mirror, by the time the car starts to disappear from that mirror you can pick them up in your side mirror, by the time the car starts to disappear from that mirror you can see the car using peripheral vison. The "Car Talk" guys from NPR also endorse this method.

Dont do it got into a Car accident with this setup HORRIBLE ADVICE

Set your mirrors how he shows in the first section (what he says is the wrong way). When you use your side mirrors, lean forward an inch or two and you get the full blind spot (I was taught this in driving school). With the mirrors set the way he describes, you can't extend the range because you can't push your head further back (through the head rest). Plus, he's ignoring the obvious situation where you have passengers in the back blocking the area he paints in pink - meaning that if you adjust the mirrors like he says, you will have a blind spot when passengers are in the car.

I used to use this exact setup up until when I nearly had an accident when the car behind me (visible only on the front mirror using this setup) decided to switch the lanes at the same time with me. I didn't see him because I was looking at my left mirror, which doesn't show what's in the front view. In this setup, side mirrors surely will provide you a wider view of the behind, much more wider than you will ever need (You will never need to see 3 lanes right/left-behind you for wide roads, or residential area and/or non-road parts in narrower roads) The best setup seems to be that there should be overlapping parts with the front mirror. The left part of the front mirror should overlap with the right part of the left mirror, and the right part of the front mirror should overlap with the left part of the right mirror. That way you can see your left, without losing track of the important part of your behind for the move you are about to take.

Thanks a lot, I got my driver's license two weeks to the day and I went driving on the highway for the first time today. Someone I could not see clearly who was on a high speed nearly hit me while I tried to enter the highway from an exit ramp but God helped me to turn away sharply so I came home and decided to surf the net to see how to adjust my mirror correctly. This is really helpful, thank you!

My dad taught me to adjust my mirrors the correct way when I first learned to drive. It's common sense that you don't need to see the side of your car.

Instructions made by person who seem never drove anything bigger than passenger car to persons who only drive passenger cars huh?

Go and drive truck that does not have rear view mirror inside and all you have is side mirrors. After while I bet you have yours like rest of us, the way that on inner egde of mirror you barely see the tail of the vehicle ( a bit turned more outwards than on your first photo).

I have a awesome HP calculator that usually tells me if its ok to switch lanes or not, but sometimes it tells me do it when there is a guy with apehangers (Andy from Westvaco) in the other lane. Does anyone know of a calculator that will propertly align my view?

Wow this is great. I recently got a car and I had trouble using the freaking side mirrors so I just turned my head all the time. This makes driving on the highway a lot easier.

It sounds good at first; getting rid of ALL blind spots and no need to turn your head. But sometimes you need to see a duplicate image to get a better perspective of distance. If you're driving down a motorway and want to change lanes, it's very hard to judge the distance of the vehicle using only your mirrors.

I just learnt to drive 2 months ago, at the late age of 41! I bought a new car last month and the odometer on my car still shows less than 1000km. That's actually how much I have driven on my own all my life!

I nearly ran into another car on the expressway yesterday, while I was changing lanes at the speed of 100km/h. I just didn't see that car at all, despite the fact that I had installed a 300cm rear-view mirror just last week. I have been desperately looking for a 'bigger' mirror on the net when I chanced upon this article.

Thanks a lot, bro! I live in a 3rd world country where driving instructions are quite backward and hundreds of people die on the roads every week, especially during festive seasons. Although I took all the required driving instructions and tests and read all the required driving manuals, motor guides, maps, etc; I have never came across such simple, yet highly effective guide on adjusting your mirrors correctly before.

James Wong,
Malaysia

I have been using this mirror adjustment for a couple of years and teaching it & I'll never go back to the old ineffective way of adjusting mirrors. Generally speaking, most drivers are pretty ho-hum when it comes to driving skills & don't like to change their old bad habits. Most drivers who have taken some performance driving courses or accident avoidance courses are taught this method of adjusting mirros. If it doesn't work for you, then you are probably just not used to it, but for MOST vehicles, there is a way to eliminate all or most of this "blind spot". If your rear view mirror is obscured by something in your vehicle, then you could still use this adjustment, but you would need to move your head to see directly behind you, like a truck driver who can not see directly behind might. Obiously there are people who don't like it, but those might be the same people who adjust their driving position so that their arms are outstretched to reach the steering wheel, there is a "proper" driving position taught as well, although many less enlightened driving instructors still teach the old 10 & 2 hand position on the wheel, where it should be 9 & 3. This goes right along with high aim vision, & if you don't know what that is, it is another skillyou can learn to give you an extra second or so to react to a situation. People don't just make this stuff up on a whim, it is taken from much research & it is only a deviation from what is taught in low end driving schools which still teach outdated driving style and bad habits. Keep an open mind & try it for a while, you will get used to it, and if it is just too odd for you, try moving the mirrors out just a bit more than normal for a while, get used to that, then move them out a bit more when you build some trust in what you can see.

I tried this out for a few months but i went back to the traditional way of adjusting my mirrors. I agree that this is a good way to adjust your mirrors but you can only take advantage of it in specific road conditions. I drive in areas where there are a lot of single or two lane roads, which means the car in the other lane is going the opposite direction and you do not need a mirror to see him, I do not normally pass a multi-lane road to use the benefits of this type of adjustment. Another thing, I make a lot of short drives and parallel park and/or park in reverse several times a day, I found out that with my mirrors adjusted this way, you can't use your mirrors to park effectively. Some people might say that you spend more time driving forward than reverse, but in my case the time i spend driving forward would not need this type of mirror adjustment.

This is a good ideea, but you can't say it's the best way of adjusting your mirrors, because for example i live in europ in a small country, and we don't have highways so "dumb" chill a littel bit because i don't know if you still know but you aren't the only country on earh...so getting back to the mirrors, in my country i do side parking and back parking about 10-15 times a day, so using this adjustment woun't help me. I don't say that this one isn't good but it just woun't work everywhere...so you all have to chill and think a littel bit and think about accepting that both of the techniques are good...

I believe you are correct. This is a good way to adjust your mirrors. But, maybe this will work only in the US or any other country where drivers drive "correctly". In a country like Greece this won't work because you have silly motorbike drivers speeding in between two cars/lanes so the "wrong" way makes it easier to avoid accidents. Still, good thinking.