Car Wing Mirrors

[Bazile]

Why do manufacturers put wing mirrors on vehicles , which gives the illusion that a vehicle behind , is is farther away than it it is actually ?

[albaqwerty]

now that is a darned good question.
Maybe the size of the wing mirror doesn't allow for 'true' image of the vehicle behind?

[EDDIE51]

It's to give a wider field of view.

[gingejbee]

I don't think manufacturers do put wing mirrors on cars nowadays.....

[ummmm]

HaHa...picky!

[gingejbee]

Yes, ummmm....that's me!

[Bazile]

gingejbee

There is the - door - get your coat

[Tilly2]

Have you had a prang, Bazile?

[Bazile]

No Tilly

[alavahalf]

Think about it ... if 'wing mirrors' enlarged the rear vision, you wouldn't see anything when you tried to reverse, other than your own enlarged face .. and if you needed to see anything else your mirrors would be the size of dustbin lids !

[Baldric]

Have not seen a New Motor with Wing Mirrors for ages. Lots of New Motors with Door Mirrors though, the ones I have looked at have been just fine, no false images.

[Togo]

Looking into a flat mirror does not increase the perceived distance to the viewed object. What a car mirror does is decrease the size of the viewed object in relation to the size of the mirror. So the car behind looks small and therefor further away in relation to your normal vision perspective. If you used a postage stamp mirror the car behind would look minute, ie. miles away. Whereas a 6ft square mirror would make it seem as if it was up your jacksie.

[Hopkirk]

A flat mirror would leave blind spots that are dangerously large. By using a convex mirror you see more, though it all looks a bit smaller.