I find the M3’s rear visibility poor

[flashflooder]

worse than my Acura TSX, for sure. But something you won't notice after a while.

 

[Msjulie]

The hatchbacks do have great visibility.

Agreed, used to have a Golf in the family, the A3 Audi e-tron is closest relative

If the Model 3's screen would show cars coming up behind more consistently that would be useful, sometimes they are there and sometimes they have vanished

Also, since it should know, I'd really like if it fast approaching cars (either side or behind) showed up in red or something to catch your attention better

The high butt and shape of the Tesla does restrict rear vision for me as well

 

[dave999z]

I had the same issue for a while but I figured out a reasonable compromise for myself, YMMV.

In previous cars, I would "center" the rear-view mirror around the rear window and it would provide a good view of the street.

With the Model 3, there is no "top" to the window so I initially lined up the bottom of the view with the top of the seats. The problem was the view was angled too high and I had no context of the road. All I saw was the roofs of the the cars behind me.

I ended up adjusting the mirror so that the top of the view lines up with the beginning of the tint, which is equivalent to the top of the window all other cars. This does mean that a large portion of the bottom of the view is the top of the rear seats, but at least I can see the road and all the cars behind me at a normal angle.

And believe me, with guilt-free EV acceleration, 99.9% of cars on the road are either behind me or in the process of being passed.

This. Great tip. Perhaps obvious, but after decades of driving I can still overlook the obvious. Still poor rear visibility from this car, but this tip is the way to get the steepest angle and maximize your view of what’s close behind your bumper. It’s indeed odd to aim the mirror so you see so much of the back seats. But works better than including the useless high view out the tinted domed roof.

 

[Zidarich]

I think it was Consumer Reports who said only the Corvette tested worse than the Model 3 for rear visibility.

Worse at night with the autodimming mirrors, and you have no idea if a car is behind you or not.

 

[Zidarich]

I had the same issue for a while but I figured out a reasonable compromise for myself, YMMV.

In previous cars, I would "center" the rear-view mirror around the rear window and it would provide a good view of the street.

With the Model 3, there is no "top" to the window so I initially lined up the bottom of the view with the top of the seats. The problem was the view was angled too high and I had no context of the road. All I saw was the roofs of the the cars behind me.

I ended up adjusting the mirror so that the top of the view lines up with the beginning of the tint, which is equivalent to the top of the window all other cars. This does mean that a large portion of the bottom of the view is the top of the rear seats, but at least I can see the road and all the cars behind me at a normal angle.

And believe me, with guilt-free EV acceleration, 99.9% of cars on the road are either behind me or in the process of being passed.

This is incredibly helpful, especially at night.

 

[Daniel in SD]

This is incredibly helpful, especially at night.

There's some sort of basic geometry I'm missing here. How does changing the angle of the mirror to see the headrests allow you to see more out of the rear window?

 

[HeatproofGenie]

I actually stumbled upon the same technique of adjusting the rear view to include lots of the rear seat backs and deck this morning as well. It does make a marked improvement.

I think that part of the reason is that the rear view mirror itself has a bevel in the glass and focuses the view some to align at that angle better.

Also I do agree that the M3 rear visibility is poor. Backing up into garages particularly it's poor. Just hard to see on the rear sides.

 

[StellarRat]

The rear view mirror is not that important. What's important is having side mirrors that are properly adjusted aka view lane next to you in the blindspots of your car. 99% of drivers don't have a clue about how to set their side mirrors correctly from what I've seen. Of course, with the M3 the electronics pretty much take of all that for you.

 

[dusdev]

OLED rear view mirror like the Bolt would have been neat

 

[StellarRat]

OLED rear view mirror like the Bolt would have been neat

Yes

 

[remlemasi]

There's some sort of basic geometry I'm missing here. How does changing the angle of the mirror to see the headrests allow you to see more out of the rear window?

You don’t see “more” per se. Instead, it allows you to be more aware of the vehicles behind you in the context of the road rather than roofs floating in a bunch of sky.

 

[THX723]

I'm with @Daniel in SD and also fail to understand how a single-point angle adjustment would appreciably improve the rear view that is otherwise obstructed by the high shelf/back. Only the angle of incidence is altered, not the vantage point. Ways to improve rearward visibility in this case are: 1) raise the mirror height, or 2) raise the seat height.

#1 is most affective, but does not look possible given the single pivot design of the OEM mirror stem; most other vehicles today have a 2-pivot stem that allows minor height and lateral shift adjustment.

#2 I have tried with a slight improvement, but I just can't get over the excessively high seating position; I like to be hunkered down.

I may crack open the mirror base assembly and see what modification might be possible to raise the mirror.

 

[x t2m x]

I had the same issue for a while but I figured out a reasonable compromise for myself, YMMV.

In previous cars, I would "center" the rear-view mirror around the rear window and it would provide a good view of the street.

With the Model 3, there is no "top" to the window so I initially lined up the bottom of the view with the top of the seats. The problem was the view was angled too high and I had no context of the road. All I saw was the roofs of the the cars behind me.

I ended up adjusting the mirror so that the top of the view lines up with the beginning of the tint, which is equivalent to the top of the window all other cars. This does mean that a large portion of the bottom of the view is the top of the rear seats, but at least I can see the road and all the cars behind me at a normal angle.

And believe me, with guilt-free EV acceleration, 99.9% of cars on the road are either behind me or in the process of being passed.

Same here re. RR mirror.

 

[TW14 9LF]

OLED rear view mirror like the Bolt would have been neat

This doesn't work for us old folks that need reading glasses .Completely useless unless I have my glasses on, and then I can't see clearly in the distance.

Keith

 

[roadster2020]

very limited vertically

similar to the model S and X. style and aerodynamics over function

 

[Reid]

There's some sort of basic geometry I'm missing here. How does changing the angle of the mirror to see the headrests allow you to see more out of the rear window?

I'm with @Daniel in SD and also fail to understand how a single-point angle adjustment would appreciably improve the rear view that is otherwise obstructed by the high shelf/back. Only the angle of incidence is altered, not the vantage point. Ways to improve rearward visibility in this case are: 1) raise the mirror height, or 2) raise the seat height.

So, actually, you're technically seeing a rearward view from a higher vantage point. When you tilt the mirror down more, you're looking in the "higher" section of the mirror (closer to the top of the physical mirror), and therefore get a slightly better view of the cars behind you. Not much, but it helps a bit.

What's important is having side mirrors that are properly adjusted aka view lane next to you in the blindspots of your car.

Except, as mentioned roughly 1000 times, the driver's side mirror doesn't adjust far enough out for many of us. And the high deck and rear headrests also conspire to make the rear 3/4 view a bit rough too. After all, the more you adjust your side mirrors "out", the more you rely on a good wide-angle view from your rearview mirror.

Actually, just the other day I almost changed lanes into someone again. They weren't visible in my left side mirror, and when I did my shoulder check, the entire vehicle was obscured by the B pillar. As I turned my head back forward again and flipped on the signal, I just caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye, took another look, and saw the car emerging from being hidden in the B-pillar area.

Note that there's a really interesting principle going on here with how human vision works; I was just reading an article about how our eyes don't 'see' things that are near a frame/border. So a vehicle doesn't actually have to be 100% physically obscured from sight by an obstacle; it can be merely MOSTLY hidden and effectively invisible to our brains. I think it was moving my head back towards the 'looking straight ahead' position that caused my eyes to skip across the vehicle and see it enough to do a double-take.

A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to surviving on the roads | Portsmouth CTC

 

[StellarRat]

Actually, just the other day I almost changed lanes into someone again. They weren't visible in my left side mirror, and when I did my shoulder check, the entire vehicle was obscured by the B pillar. As I turned my head back forward again and flipped on the signal, I just caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye, took another look, and saw the car emerging from being hidden in the B-pillar area.

I haven't had this problem maybe because I'm not so tall. Do you check your scanner array before switching lanes as well?

One thing I hated about the Leaf was the huge fat pillar on the driver side windshield. I almost took out a pedestrian one time when I was making a left turn because I looked away right when the light changed when I looked back he started crossing the road and was totally obscured by the pillar. The farther toward me he moved across the road the more he was in my pillar as I was turning. Thank God I saw him at the last second. Scared the poo out of both of us. At least the Tesla doesn't have that problem and would probably scream at me if it did detect that.

 

[UnknownSoldier]

If you think rear visibility is bad from a 3, never drive an S.

 

[dbalaguru]

I find the view out the rear view mirror to be very limited vertically. I’m coming from a VW GTI, which had far better rear visibility. Before that it was a Honda Civic, which was also better than the M3 in this respect. I love much about my M3, but not the rear view mirror visibility. It seems like the top of the back seats and/or the ledge behind it is too high. (Feels very American!) In addition, the angle of the rear roof glass is taking some getting used to. In my GTI I could see the headlights of a car approx. one length behind me. In the M3 it feels like a car tailing me needs to be back like 25 feet in order for me to see the headlights. Obviously not something they can change. So I’m just disappointed and whining I guess.

In contrast, the low dash in front provides spectacular forward visibility.

I’m 100% agree. I raised the seat which helped somewhat. But, it is still not as good as other cars that I have had. Perhaps, got to get used to it to get some depth/distance person the car behind you!

 

[thewishmaster]

If you think rear visibility is bad from a 3, never drive an S.

I actually found the S to have better visibility out the rear window, but I much prefer the overall visibility out of the 3.

+1 to the suggestion to adjust the rearview mirror down - it feels a lot more natural now.