Stop Complaining about Rear Visibility

Correct. Instead, they become opaque when driving through the aftermarket window tint shops. Which now appears to be the norm.

 

Since you are going to use absence of evidence as evidence of absence, here is a list of the best of my recollection every car I have driven or sat in the drivers seat for the past few years.

Better visibility than the Prius (2007):
2001 Toyota Prius
2010 Toyota Prius (but only a small bit)
1996-2010 Subaru Legacy
2008 Honda Odyssey
2009 Chevy Cobalt
2006? Honda Civic
2005? Subaru Forrester
2010 Toyota Tacoma
2008? Cadillac ?
2010 Honda Fit
2005 Saturn Ion?

Worse visibility than the Prius (2007):
2010 Honda Insight.
1999? Chevy Cavalier?

 

You completely ignored the 'your neighbour cars' windows' factor you brought up.

Within your car, when looking back, your eyes may mostly adjust to the 18% light encompassing your entire vision. Any sun, skylight, or streetlights reflecting of the neighboring car's glass will be proportionately dimmed. Not a huge deal, until you look forward through less-tinted windshield and lose that side window dark adaptation.

But looking through the neighbor car's windows is a completely different story. Now you are looking through 3 layers of tint, not just one. That 18% light per tinted surface suddenly drops to less than 0.6% for the combination. External light reflected from the glass is still at 18%, swamping that faint 0.6% transmission. And that three-layer-window covers on a small portion of your field of vision, so the eyes do not adapt any further.

... 'your neighbour cars' windows' are effectively opaque.

In my household, this Prius follows four 1980s hatchbacks and a 1990s wagon, two of which are still in the household fleet. Prius has the worst C-pillar visibility of the bunch.

I know that 21st Century design has hurt C-pillar visibility, mostly for customer feelings. Just like in the 1990s, when everybody moved to SUVs for the perception, not reality, of increased safety. This is why I was happy that the Forester redesign a few years back retained the old visibility that others discarded. Unfortunately it was still a fuel sucking pig.

 

Good point. Before I bought my Prius I rented a Dodge Caliber. What a POS. Back visibility, poor handling and incredibly bad ergonomics.

 

If you're looking for great visibility, I would think you should look for an old AMC Pacer... never drove one myself, but they looked like a fish bowl on wheels... if you can see into one that well, you must be able to see out. Wiki even says they made an electric version.

 

Hi all, new (and very happy!) Prius owner here. I had to jump in on this thread because it spoke to one of my only complaints about my '04 Prius: the blind spots from the a-pillars.

My last car was a sturdy '02 Prizm which went 130k miles before getting totaled. The Prizm is for all intents and purposes a Corolla, and it had great visibility all around. After the accident my insurance provided me a rental, which was a Ford Focus (not sure what year). It was horrible! A tiny rear window that felt like the size of an Altoids tin, horrible visibility.

My Prius is a vast improvement over the Focus, but visibility still suffers in comparison with the Prizm. The rear isn't so bad. The front, however, has these enormous blind spots from the a-pillars that aren't a problem during normal street driving, but which make me extremely nervous when I'm making turns--they block my ability to see what's off to the side into which I'm turning, even if I look that direction before doing so. I'm afraid some pedestrian is going to step out at the wrong moment.

I'm sure I'll get used to it in time, but I've owned it for about a week and it's still a bit unnerving.

 

The AMC Pacer is definitely out of this race concerning the age of the vehicle, however I do have to agree with BAllanJ. I drove one years ago for a company setting up portable signs. There really was not any problems with visibility anywhere that I recalled.

Concerning the 09 Prius that my wife owns, I have noticed the front pillars do block your vision to the left from the drivers seat if you are looking towards the front left corner. The rear visibility is ok to me, but I have a backup cam too which helps, plus I have the mirrors swung out. If you are in doubt, double check before you back up. You never know when a pedestrian or a fast driver will enter your path of travel.

I will not say the Prius has the worst rear visiblity, as I have driven many vehicles in the past that were worse, and some were better. What it really boils down to is whether or not you feel safe in the vehicle. If you don't feel safe, then maybe you just don't have the vehicle for you.

 

Let me be the first on this thread to thank Toyota for where they put the rear spoiler on the Gen III Prius. As if some sort of poetic justice, the rear spoiler that plagues us all is in fact positioned to perfectly block the headlights of a monster Hummer H2! As I experienced yesterday on my commute home in congested traffic, with the H2 so frustrated with his 11.0 MPG vs. my >60 MPG that he rode behind me in daylight with his brights on. Thanks, Toyota!

 

My 1990 Mazda Miata and my 2005 Jetta TDI Wagon, to name two.

In full disclosure, I did remove the center headrest of the Jetta.

 

I have to say the my Prius has the worst rear visibility of any car I've owned, I love my Prius but I'm just being honest.

Previous cars include
BMW 530 M Sport
BMW 523i
Mini Cooper S
Mercedes C Class
Landrover Discovery
1971 VW Beetle
Ford KA
Numerous classic minis
Ford Escort Mk II RS 2000 Custom
etc etc etc

 

And it blocks most other car's headlights, too. Definitely a plus!

 

I personally like the fact that there is limited vis out the rear window for this very reason. They can ride my butt all they want and I pretty much don't even notice them that much.