What’s the straight dope on mounting rearview mirrors on a car’s fendor as seems to be the practice in Japan? Are there any advantages / disadvantages vs door-mounted mirrors? If it’s a good idea why didn’t it catch on anywhere else?
Pros:
You don’t have to take your eyes off of straight ahead to look in the mirror.
Cons:
If non-electric adjustment is a cast iron bitch.
Field of view is small
objects in the mirror are tiny.
- probably some others I can’t think of right now.
I think it’s another one of those quirks of Japanese vehicle regulation, along with rear wipers.
One advantage I could see is that they probably give a wider field of view alongside the car, if so desired, and may eliminate the need for shoulder checks.
Probably wasn’t good for aerodynamics, though. It seems that most modern Japanese vehicles no longer use them, but cop cars and taxis, for whom preserving the smooth Pinafarina lines isn’t as important, still retain them. Maybe someone in Japan can clarify.
I remember in Europe seeing them available as aftermarket bolt-on or magnetic accessories. I recall seeing them on cars on the open road towing long trailers or caravans.
I’ve had them on a couple of different cars in the past. They’re difficult to use at night or in bad weather, the A-pillar can obstruct the driver’s view of the one on the the left, and they vibrate excessively. I would not choose them again.
I lived there from 1982 to 1984. Took a bit of getting used to but main reason was less eye motion to monitor traffic on each side.
I was in the Hiroshima area. There was a great deal of urban renewal in the mid 40s. Rebuilt main highways were many lanes wide with expansive spaces, quite different from other cities. However the bridges were still the same width as the old days - routinely 2 lanes each direction. Hiroshima has a lot of rivers (5) and is basically a large river delta development. Traffic would accelerate madly from a traffic light to get to the bridge ahead of competition in adjacent lanes. You would be squeezing five lanes to two. The 6 inch rule came into effect. If your front bumper was six inches in front of the adjacent car; simply flick on the turn signal and he/she had to back off. The fender mirrors enabled this - mine were wide angle. It was very well ordered and not the demolition derby you might expect. I had a Honda Civic with a potent 1500cc motor, not the standard 1300cc. After a couple months of sweaty palmed driving, it became second nature and I fit in better with the local traffic. We used a lot of public transportation but the occasional longer drive (over two hours was long) usually gave me a headache and my eyes would be sore from constant muscle movement and concentration.
There were a number of other adjustment for an American driving in Japan. Most obvious is they drive on the left side of the road. Thankfully the brake, clutch and gas pedals remained the same. I pickup up the left handed shifting easily - I’m a partial southpaw. The turn signal stalk and wiper stalk were reversed. Yo could easily tell a recent gaijin arrival by their tendency to make turns with the windshield wipers on even on perfectly sunny days. It was standard to wait at particular traffic lights for five cars (taxis) to go by before starting on the green due to the size of some intersections. Also, you had to be ready to go when the car 6, 8, 10 lengths ahead of you moved. There were no gaps allowed; you would be hounded by horns and repeatedly cut off for lagging. Forget the two second gap, NASCAR drafting practices had nothing on Japanese drivers.
Excuse the rambling, got a bunch of stories from my travels there.
Nothing real to add, but this struck me as being morbidly funny. *Oh! So that’s what they call in now. *
Urban renewal through atomic weaponry.
<Crawls back in dark hole, resumes lurking>
Do any of the Japanese car manufacturers make cars with wing mirrors any more? I took a look at the Japanese web sites for Toyota and Nissan and didn’t see any.
My Dad’s old 1970 Mini had 'em 
The answer I got from a newspaper Q&A was that they didn’t really take away from the blind spot you cover with an over the shoulder look.