Expert tip: 'Over-adjust' rental car mirrors to reduce blind spots

Been landed with a massive, unwieldy rental car as an "upgrade"? Driving on the other side of the road after a long flight? Or does your hire car just have an enormous blind spot?

There's a nifty trick to take care of those tricky blind spot problems, involving setting your mirrors ever so slightly differently to normal, but it hugely improves your visibility, and reduces the likelihood of you dinging the rental car -- or worse.

The trick is to set your side mirrors quite wide, so you can't see the side of your own car doors.

Car and Driver magazine has an excellent diagram showing how this works. Just click on the image to zoom if you can't read the text on your screen.

So you'll still see everything further behind you in the rear view mirror, but setting a wider field of vision reduces your blind spot significantly.

It's a useful trick everywhere, especially in a rental car that you're not used to, on an unfamiliar mega-highway, or driving on the other side of the road.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.