Hi, I'm just about to order an Octavia liftback. In New Zealand the car comes with one wing mirror that has a concave portion (dotted line that covers the blindspot area) and one mirror that is normal with no blindspot/concave portion. Is this also true in the UK/europe?

I know in the USA that VWs and Honda Accords didn't have this type of mirror available but the partially concave mirror glass could be ordered from europe and I'd like to have it on both sides.

Thanks.

My 2008 L&K only has this on the drivers mirror.

The door mirrors are rubbish they make things look further away than they are, why don't they fit the same glass as the interior one then you would have a much better view

The door mirrors are rubbish they make things look further away than they are, why don't they fit the same glass as the interior one then you would have a much better view

Because the flat glass leaves you with a bigger blind spot....

my 2010 vrs has the aspherical glass only on the drivers side (rhs/off-side whatever you want to call it!) the other is flat.

According to the production codes this is what my car came with:

5RV = Right exterior mirror: aspherical

5SJ = Left exterior mirror: convex

The driver's side aspherical mirror is very good: flat glass for the inner 75-80% so you can judge distance, convex glass for the outer portion to eliminate blindspots. The change between the two marked with a dotted line so you know which bit to trust for distance judging. (Copied from SAAB who were the first to do this in the early 1980s).

I've not noticed if the left mirror really is very convex.

In the US they have the message etched in to the mirror "Warning objects in the mirror are closer than they appear". I've always thought it would be simple to just have a note on the front of the manual, "Stupid people shouldn't drive cars", but then they don't RTFM either...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objects_in_mirror_are_closer_than_they_appear

Mercedes used to have different size mirrors left to right, now that was over-rational.

Edited 24 June, 201015 yr by David P

Because the flat glass leaves you with a bigger blind spot....

I have always found it the opposite, I hate the convex glass and the 2 part one on the drivers door, plain glass every time, the plain glass gives a near perfect view