At night I have noticed that when an SUV is behind me their lights are blinding and they don’t seem to aware or care. Why is it that if an 18 wheeler is behind me its lights do not blind me in any way? I have a Chevy Cavaliar and I know that it is not the highest car in the world, but the SUV’s really create a great deal of blinding light to cars of my height.
Have you thought about getting some window tint for the back window? It really solves the problem great. Just make sure the tint you put on the car is legal in your area if you decide to get it.
I used to drive a car and was also bothered by blinding lights behind me. Now that I drive a truck I try not to blind people in front of me but there isn’t a whlole lot I can do. I try to offset a bit from the car in front of me if I can but the lanes are only so wide and it doesn’t help a whole lot. Most of the time I’m stuck with feeling like I’m pissing off the people in front of me.
An 18 wheeler is probably wide enough that the lights don’t go directly into your mirrors. Try flipping the little tab on your rear view mirror when you are being light probed,that’s what I used to do.
Or you could buy a truck.
:ducks and runs:
You can also get a rearview mirror that will dampen the lights of the cars behind you. I had a Caddy with this feature, and bought an aftermarket version for my latest POC.
They’re not cheap, but try this out:
I second Scarlet’s suggestion. I just bought a new car that came with an auto-dimming rearview mirror and it is slick. For the first time I can drive at night without being blinded from behind.
If you’re considering a tint for the rear window, be aware of my experience. I had windows tinted with tinting film, and one day in rush hour traffic, I heard a KA-BLAM!! Well, if you’re in rush hour traffic and hear something like rifle fire, the first thing you do is check your six.
I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that my backglass had shattered. Simultaneously, I realized that I could smell that good old electrical fire smell.
It had been a cold, rainy day, and I’d turned on the rear window defrost. My mechanic told me that the film on windows with the embedded heating circuits is almost always a bad idea. I believe, and I could be wrong, that the problem arises from the film altering the heat distribution/dissipation properties of the backglass.
Something to be aware of.
Cecil on How do “night” rear view mirrors work?
That was written 12 years ago, and auto-dimming mirrors still remain a cool but non-standard option!
Semi’s might not bother you as much since their lights are usually mounted higher up than on SUVs and trucks so the light is shining down more than forward. Many (most?) SUVs and trucks have their lights mounted on the same plane as most car’s rear window and the lights tend to shine forward more than on other vehicle’s. Some people have misaligned lights, some vehicles are just poorly designed, but I usually have more trouble with truck drivers driving just a few feet behind me so their lights are shining straight into my car. If the truck driver keeps an appropriate distance between vehicles than I usually am not blinded. I have noticed that some trucks with the moulded / shaped headlights are better than the usual old-fashioned flat headlights.
My SUV isn’t usually bothered by other SUV headlights, but if they do shine in, my rear-view mirror will dim automatically, until the offending headlights are gone, then come back up to normal. It isn’t always dim at night, just when it gets “flashed.”
It’s a really cool feature, but usually only found on very expensive cars. I don’t know about after-market availability.