rear view mirrors

Factual Questions
1

I have this friend who has a 1999 Toyota Tacoma and it has no rear view mirror. When I asked him why, he said it didn’t come with one because it is a new Japanese car and they don’t use rear view mirrors in Japan. Is he pulling my leg? Driving around illegally?

2

Please ID this friend. I have relatives in Rochester :eek: Seriously, I can’t imagine that this car is street legal in the US.

3

I drive a 1997 Nissan Maxima with a rearview mirror. I’ve never seen a car without one. I also have a friend who drive a 2000 Tacoma and it, too, has a rear-view mirror. Did this friend import it? If he did, then it’s possible, I guess. And he wasted a lot of money. But, I wouldn’ trust it. I’ve seen some companies on their entry-level cars go without a side mirror on the passenger side. But, to my understanding, at least in Texas, you have to have a rear and driver’s side mirror. That truck would be illegal here.

4

Rear view mirrors are present on cars in Japan. Whether they are used is up to the driver.

5

Maybe he’s just telling you what the dealer told him when he asked them why his car didn’t have one.

6

My car (a 1989 Dodge Colt that won’t start at the moment) came without a side mirror on the passenger side. I get a lot of questions about that from some people. It seems to really bother some of them. I try to explain to them that I don’t use my driver side mirror anyway, but that never seems to help.

7

Many things are legal elsewhere.

I once bought an Austin that had been shipped over by a student.
I was stopped by a cop on my way home with it.

I hadn’t noticed the turn signals were yellow, it had no side mirror, the bumpers were the wrong height, the plates were held on with edge brackets instead of bolted through the plate, and it had no passenger seat belt.

Fortunately, there were enough things that he didn’t feel like writing a long ticket, and couldn’t find all the paragraphs in his rule book, so he let me off with a verbal warning.

8

I’m not sure a rear-view mirror is required if the vehicle has a side-view mirror on both sides. Could be wrong, but a rear-view mirror would be useless in a van that had no rear window.