Reviews

Review: 5-panel rearview mirror at night

5-panel rearview mirror at night

As you might have read I installed a 5-panel rearview mirror (or wink mirror) a while back. When looking for online reviews I read many complaints about getting blinded at night. Since I couldn’t find any videos of a 5-panel rearview mirror at night I decided to shoot a short one myself, so you can better decide if you find it blinding (and annoying) yourself. So let’s call this the review part II.

I must admit that my car has lightly tinted windows all around, and my rear window has a 35% tint. Not super dark, but it definitely takes an edge off. Therefor I don’t find the wink mirror blinding, but the tinted windows help me here. Also, if you in an area where everybody drives SUV’s and or cars with the beams set all the way up, I can see this mirror is not improving ride quality. As the mirror does show a lot of activity around the car it is more distracting than a OEM rearview mirror, especially at night. But since I’m not driving my Swift daily anymore, and not a lot in the dark, I don’t mind this.

The verdict

A wink mirror or 5-panel rearview mirror is awesome, but not for everyone. As it shows a lot of what’s going on around you, constantly. Drivers that are easily distracted or anxious should not install a 5-panel rearview mirror. If you can appreciate seeing what’s happening around, and are aware that wrongly adjusted headlights of cars behind you will become extra annoying, go for it.

The build quality of this particular mirror is nice, the case is plastic, but the mirrors are actual glass. I didn’t like the brackets supplied and wanted something a bit more tidy. So I bought new brackets for next to nothing at a local hardware store.

Something to consider is that this mod will give you some nice reactions from fellow passengers. Mine generally are something like; “Dude, what is this????!!!!”

Go checkout more carport and Swift related videos at the Swift Tribe youtube channel and don’t forget to like & subscribe!

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