Having just bought a 2012 Honda CR-V, I wanted to share a tidbit that I first discovered on the test drive… This vehicle now sports an “expanded-view” driver’s side mirror which is actually kind of annoying.
I don’t have a picture of it handy, but when you look at the mirror, you’ll notice a thin black line running vertically about 1.5 inches in from the outer edge. From the line in, it’s a normal side view mirror. But from that line to the outer edge, the mirror is slightly convex.
While this expands your field of view by 5.5 degrees, it also distorts your view making the mirror harder to use. The main problem is that, when I look at the mirror, my left eye tends to focus outside the line whereas my right eye focuses inside the line, resulting in an odd double-vision effect.
To combat this problem, I typically wind up narrowing my view to focus on the flat (inner) portion of the mirror. Of course, this results in a reduced field of view — though, admittedly, the convex portion of the mirror is still there in my peripheral vision, and could still alert me to potential trouble.
The car salesman said that Honda is aware that this change might be unpopular. He went on to say that, if they receive enough complaints, they may switch back to the old style and offer to swap out the mirror on vehicles that have already been sold. That said, I’m not holding my breath. Sounds like salesman-speak to me.
Overall, I have to admit that I really like the new CR-V, especially compared to the 2005 model that I used to own. It’s very polished and gets great mileage, too. The mirror is a minor issue that doesn’t really detract from the car overall. And who knows, I may grow to like it.
