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The Test Vehicle
My 2019 VW Atlas feels cavernous and has a huge dashboard and windshield. It is however fitted with a VW Parts bin basic Jetta/Golf/Polo Special of a rear view mirror. Basically it’s tiny and was designed for use in a regular car vs. a full size SUV.
Plain and simple, this mirror is huge! It allows you to see the rear side windows.
How a Wide Angle Rear View Mirror Works?
This mirror attachment simply clips onto your existing mirror and provides an 18 inch long concave shatter proof glass that increases the angle of rear visibility.
Bigger is Better
While not always true, in this case, bigger is definitely better! The wide angle rear view mirror attachment has proven to provide some serious benefits:
1. Eliminating Blind Spots
As you can see, the wide angle provides some serious coverage. I really think it’s valuable in two specific situations.
(a) When you are backing out of a spot
Every time I back out of a spot, I inch my way out little by little in fear of someone walking or a car barreling down the parking lot. This inching game I play is because I can’t see the blind spots out the sides in the rear.
Even rear view camera’s have limitations. That side rear angle blind spot has spurred the implementation of sensor technology that just beeps, or lights up an indicator, when it senses someone in your blind spot. Higher end vehicles have solved the problem with multiple cameras in order to create a 360 degree field of view.
While this will not replace a full 360 degree camera system, this definitely inspires more confidence when backing out as I can now see out my side rear windows (the one’s in the trunk).
(b) When you are traveling on a road with multiple lanes:
My favorite part of traveling on a highway now is watching the car behind me pass on my left. I can now see them from when they initiate the merge in the rear view mirror, as they start to fully travel in the left lane and almost just before they pop up again in my side mirror. There is a small gap where they disappear, but my blind spot is significantly reduced.
2. Everyone Benefits from More Visibility?
(a) Parents & Friends
The mirror attachment is so huge, that you can clearly see in almost the whole of the rear cabin and most of the backseat. For those who have to monitor children while on their commute, this will let you more easily keep tabs on what’s going on behind you.
Imagine going on a road trip or just out to dinner with friends, conversations are now feel more up front and personal for the driver as the people in the back can see both your full face and you can pretty much see most of the entirety of them.
(b) Pedestrians & Everyone Else
People are safer when drivers have increased visibility. The same goes for quality lighting. Being able to see as a driver will hopefully increase pedestrian safety as a whole.
Before & After Installing this Cheap Rear View Mirror Attachment
Both photos below were taken with my iPhone 12 Plus on 2.5x zoom. I held the camera in relatively the same location. In the after photo, you can clearly see how huge this rear view mirror attachment really is.
As you can see, the original mirror only lets you see out the rear window.
How to Install a Wide Angle Rear View Mirror?
No tools necessary.
Installation of the Wide Angle rear view mirror is extremely simple and can even be done one handed (not recommended).
Simply pull back on the retractable arms and them place it around your mirror.
The Bad
1. Quality
The glass is visibly not as nice as the OEM VW glass. It’s also not tinted like the OEM glass, which I didn’t notice until actually comparing it to this clip on mirror attachment.
2. Funny Mirror
This may be just this particular mirror, but around the edges of the glass, there is some visible distortion. It is what it is, this is a cheap product, but it still offers some real functionality, so for now I’ll still use it.
3. It’s Huge
This is both a gift and a curse. Good for visibility, but bad, because I don’t have tints, so now it feels like everyone on the road can see like the whole me, not just my eyes in the rear view.
Forget about using your visors. It’s so big that it now gets in the way of your visors. For the SUV, I can still kind of use the visor, it just won’t go all the way to the windshield, but when I put this in my girlfriend’s 2020 VW Jetta, forget about it. In a smaller car it will absolutely prevent you from using your visors almost entirely.
4. It Shakes
It does NOT SHAKE during normal driving or otherwise normal operation. It will however, shake when playing your music loudly. I don’t have any special sound system, but when the bass hits, the mirror kind-of shakes the car had 12″ subwoofers. Not the worst thing in the world for me because I’m used to having Bass, honestly it brings me back and I’ll be adding Bass to my Atlas soon anyway so shaking mirrors is pretty much normal.
5. The Shape
I got this one because it resembled an OEM mirror with the rounded plastic trim shape. However, don’t be fooled, you can clearly see something is clipped onto your rear view mirror. If I were to do it again, I would have gotten a more sleek/square/ no plastic trim design to reduce some of the bulk. For example I found this one:
Buy the One I Tested
Buy the One I Would Buy if I Were to Do it Over
