A non-functioning mirror

General Discussion
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1

I live in Namibia (SW Africa) where the cars are right hand drive. Many of us in the American community (mostly diplomats so I can’t say more) import used cars from Japan so there are a large number of Toyota RAV4s. They all have a little mirror on the passenger side of the car (left) near the front of the car on the front hood quarter panel–on the top of the panel. The mirror is not adjustable and what you can see in the mirror is the left side turn signal that is just in front of the passenger door and the curb. NOT ONE of us know what this mirror is for…any ideas? I have heard it is there to make it easier to see bicyclists, but you can’t see along the side of the car, just the curb (or here the strip on the side of the road). And there is a side mirror in the right spot that is adjustable to see cars and bicyclists in the blind spot.

I’d love to call to talk about this, but the time change…:slight_smile:

2

I’ve never heard of a dedicated mirror like this, but it seems like it would be useful for seeing the curb when parallel parking, especially if the regular left side mirror doesn’t automatically drop when the car is put in reverse gear.

Wouldn’t that look kind of ugly, by the way?

3

It’s call a front parking fender mirror (which is what toyota calls it) also known as a wing mirror, fender mirror it’s to help the driver see areas behind and to the sides of the vehicle, outside of the driver’s peripheral vision