New Cars, Poor Visibility

[Threehz]

Why do new vehicles have such shitty visibility out of all directions?

[Holland]

Because new cars suck.

[bmwstephen]

to ever increasingly comply regulations

[Wschnitz]

I feel ya. Only good ones I've sat in are new tiguans and minis.

[nando]

Why do new vehicles have such shitty visibility out of all directions?

better impact protection

our drivers education is such that accident avoidance and car control do not exist. assume you will get creamed by a blonde chick texting while speeding in a 2.5 ton SUV.

instead of paying attention and avoiding.. or not doing stupid shit like texting, shaving, or brushing your hair while driving.

[mrcheezle19]

I think it's a mix of few things. Mainly the increased safety standards which seems so have thickened all the main pillars of the car for one. The style or design language cars have taken on. Case and point the Camaro, that's the big one I can think of, it has a high waist line and very small glass all around. Might as well give you a camera to see behind you and forget trying to see out the with rear view mirror altogether.

[mrcheezle19]

Also teenage girls.

[nando]

I think it's a mix of few things. Mainly the increased safety standards which seems so have thickened all the main pillars of the car for one. The style or design language cars have taken on. Case and point the Camaro, that's the big one I can think of, it has a high waist line and very small glass all around. Might as well give you a camera to see behind you and forget trying to see out the with rear view mirror altogether.

part of the same trend towards the high sides/small windows is the lack of any trim or contrast. things have been moving towards body colored everything, and it's gone to the point where cars just look bland. the sides are just one bubbly curved sheet of metal with nothing in the middle to catch the eye, the bumpers are just one injected molded peice of plastic, all the same color.

[Simon S]

ha - yeah, the Camaro is the first car I thought of when I saw the thread title..

when I let others drive my e30 - they almost always comment on how remarkable the visibility is..

[spike68]

Not gonna lie, the only car that was newer than mine that had shittier visibility was my brothers z3 coupe.
Nissan Armada and 08 335i have awesome visibility...

[nrubenstein]

Two things:

1). Rollover protection. Strengthening the pillars makes them a lot beefier.
2). Pedestrian safety. Euro NCAP requires a large amount of air space over the engine - 6" IIRC. As a result, you have to run the hood a lot higher than you otherwise would. This leads, of course, to a loss of glass. Some have coped with it better than others, but that is why cars suddenly got really high sided and flabby looking a few years ago.

[Stanley Rockafella]

2). Pedestrian safety. Euro NCAP requires a large amount of air space over the engine - 6" IIRC. As a result, you have to run the hood a lot higher than you otherwise would. This leads, of course, to a loss of glass. Some have coped with it better than others, but that is why cars suddenly got really high sided and flabby looking a few years ago.

I did not know this. makes sense esp. on later Ford Focus and Fiestas

[Holland]

The front end on new cars are required to be a certain height for pedestrian safety. So that's why all new cars have a really tall nose and "beefy" looking front end to compensate.

[Threehz]

All makes sense, my guess was for safety, but of course I feel as if I can never see shit and never know if I'm going to hit something.

I've just been driving a lot of newer cars lately and and the pillars are just so fat. Whenever I have to back out in one I feel certain that I'm going to hit someone or something because visibility is nil.

[stamar]

side airbags.