Let's talk about the A-pillar blind spot
Member
Joined: Jul 2015
Posts: 219
From: Kapaa, HI
And the pillars are large not just because of airbags but also because of crash standards including rollover safety ratings. Structure has just gotten way beefier all around the passenger cage.
New Member
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 18
From: Toronto, ON
I find reading the comments very interesting. I agree the driver's side A piller is a bit wide and does make it harder to see. Especially coming from the GE. Although I havn't had a scenario with a car just yet but I did have a close call with a pedestrian. When making left hand turns at a small intersection, I make sure to note any pedestrians on the way up to the intersection and keep an eye around that pillar. And I most certainly agree that the left triangle window is just far too blocked to be of any use.
But seeing the comments for the mirror and lane watch in these forums I find very curious. We are all very different for sure, but both my wife and I love having both of them. The lane watch creates a view of the right side of the car with the same head/eye travel as the driver's side mirror so you can use it to have a quick glance of what's beside you without taking your general view away from what's in front of you. And the extended mirror, while taking a couple days to adjust, we find extremely useful. By the time a car has passed the edge of the mirror, the nose is already in our left peripheral.
It's certainly interesting to see how we all react to the different features of the car :P
But seeing the comments for the mirror and lane watch in these forums I find very curious. We are all very different for sure, but both my wife and I love having both of them. The lane watch creates a view of the right side of the car with the same head/eye travel as the driver's side mirror so you can use it to have a quick glance of what's beside you without taking your general view away from what's in front of you. And the extended mirror, while taking a couple days to adjust, we find extremely useful. By the time a car has passed the edge of the mirror, the nose is already in our left peripheral.
It's certainly interesting to see how we all react to the different features of the car :P
Member
Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 236
From: NC
This is the problem I have, only on left turns of a certain degree and especially if it's one that's cresting a hill at the same time. It's one of those weird combinations where you can't see oncoming traffic through most of the turn, so I end up poking my head to the right to see around the pillar. I've had a couple close calls from dopes going over the center line that I couldn't see. Of course there is one on my commute every day.
Member
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 1,545
From: SoCal, CA
If you want a roof that can support five times the weight of the car you're going to get big pillars all around! It's just the "A" pillar that one notices.
It's really noticeable if, like me, you have cars from the '60s and '70s. No blind spot on those, but then again if you roll it the roof will crush easily!
It's really noticeable if, like me, you have cars from the '60s and '70s. No blind spot on those, but then again if you roll it the roof will crush easily!
Member
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 51
From: NC
Every car has an A-pillar blind spot. Some are more intrusive than others, certainly. Going from my Volvo 245 (thin, steep) to my Mercedes SUV (thick, steep) to the Fit (thick, shallow) is always an adjustment. Yes, I do more "roostering" in the Fit, but that's more due to the sail window than the thickness and angle of the A-pillar.
Member
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 227
From: Los Angeles
The short hood and long slanted windshield exacerbate the a pillar issue. Because the dash is so long and the windshield is projected so far in front of you, the a pillars are much longer. I find the little sail windows help quite a bit, and the actual cross sectional shape of the a pillar isn't so bad. An example would be the first generation to, those pillars were so bad that I felt like I drove looking out the side window most of the time. The only time I've really noticed the pillars is when driving a winding road and the a pillar area lines up exactly where I'm trying to look ahead on the turn.
Thread Starter
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Member
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 543
From: metro chicago
A word about the short hood ... I've had my Fit for more than two months now and I'm still leaving a good 18 to 24 inches of air in front when I park. Also, I was at a car show a few weeks ago and happened to park in back of a big ol' 4WD pickup truck off roader and realized that if I ever rear-ended that guy I would be kissing his bumper way before my front end ever touched anything solid.
that plus they make the a-pillar more rigid as cars are trying to hold more weight during an event of a flip over. expensive cars can use titanium and other expensive alloys, but these cheaper cars, cost is an issue and so they need to use more reinforcements of inexpensive material resulting in bigarse a-pillars.
on my GE, i had an entire garbage truck hide behind the a-pillar one time when the guy approached me in an odd angle.
the new GK i got for the wife, same deal. a-pillar is big.
the new GK i got for the wife, same deal. a-pillar is big.
Member
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 938
From: Toronto, ON, Canada
Recently I saw a news article about some European 18 wheelers where vehicles behind the truck could see right through the truck, to traffic in front of the truck. This was done using a forward camera attached to a very large LCD display on the rear door of the truck.
Blind spots should really be a thing of the past. Could not a camera on the outside coupled with a small but narrow video display on the a-pillar solve this problem? That a-pillar is not going away any time soon.
Blind spots should really be a thing of the past. Could not a camera on the outside coupled with a small but narrow video display on the a-pillar solve this problem? That a-pillar is not going away any time soon.
Member
Joined: Jul 2015
Posts: 219
From: Kapaa, HI
No, but the way they put in the sail window and split the pillar in two to do it was a design choice from the layout of windshield and door/door window. The A pillar in a Civic or HR-V meets the same functional requirements for the structure and air bag but they don't have the same issue.
Thread Starter
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Member
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 543
From: metro chicago
I always saw the sail window as more of a design affectation than a safety requirement, I guess, a modern twist on the vent window in cars of old. In fact the first time I saw the GD way back when I was surprised the sail window didn't swivel open, though I realized soon after how silly that was.
Member
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 2,421
From: Upstate New York
I always saw the sail window as more of a design affectation than a safety requirement, I guess, a modern twist on the vent window in cars of old. In fact the first time I saw the GD way back when I was surprised the sail window didn't swivel open, though I realized soon after how silly that was.
True. At least the sail window on the GE was big enough to be useful. On the GK, the sail window shrunk to the point of uselessness again, similar to the GD.
Thread Starter
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Member
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 543
From: metro chicago
Yeah, I never considered using the GK sail window for navigation, the line of sight or whatever is all wrong for me. I still like the look though, from a pure design aesthetic.
Member
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 49
From: Oregon
Haven't really noticed, but I've always been a "head bob is normal driving activity if you're actually paying attention" kind of person :x
Still beats the giant a pillar blind spot in my old civic where the whole section that is window in the fit was just a big plastic triangle...
Still beats the giant a pillar blind spot in my old civic where the whole section that is window in the fit was just a big plastic triangle...
Member
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 2,421
From: Upstate New York
Haven't really noticed, but I've always been a "head bob is normal driving activity if you're actually paying attention" kind of person :x
Still beats the giant a pillar blind spot in my old civic where the whole section that is window in the fit was just a big plastic triangle...
Still beats the giant a pillar blind spot in my old civic where the whole section that is window in the fit was just a big plastic triangle...
I guess that's why I didn't really notice how bad the blind spot was until this thread. It's just there, and I deal with it.
Member
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 466
From: Arizona
I've been burned twice so far, both times in the first week or so of ownership and both times coming off a stop. The first time I was in a subdivision coming to a four-way and a car came up on the right, moving relative to my motion and staying behind the A-pillar before stopping a few feet behind her line, outside my field of vision in the windshield. I saw her car only in my passenger window after I was well into my turn; if she had proceeded through the intersection I very well could have hit her left side. The second time was on my left side. I came up to a stop and did not see the pedestrian warning cone (an tall, narrowish cone in the centerline of the road at marked pedestrian crosswalks ... I've noticed them popping up in more places in the past year or so) in the crosswalk. I was cutting the turn a little close and the cone stayed in my blind spot through the turn ... I would have hit it at the left fender way back by the A-pillar if not for the warning cry of my wife in the passenger seat.
Since then, I've been careful to compensate for this, mostly by either bobbing my head around like a chicken or being careful to watch for traffic coming both ways well before I get up to the stop sign. The sail window isn't doing it for me, sorry. I've had two other incidents similar to my experience at the four-way with cars on my right but now I know what to look for.
So does this blind spot bother you? Do you even see it?
Since then, I've been careful to compensate for this, mostly by either bobbing my head around like a chicken or being careful to watch for traffic coming both ways well before I get up to the stop sign. The sail window isn't doing it for me, sorry. I've had two other incidents similar to my experience at the four-way with cars on my right but now I know what to look for.
So does this blind spot bother you? Do you even see it?
Blind spot? What blind spot? I have owned countless cars, and the Fit has some of the best visibility I have ever seen. No"blind spots" anywhere.
Member
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 178
From: Houston
In my experience at least, I haven't had any problems with the GK's blind spots being worse and/or more tricky than those of other cars. Don't all cars have blind spots? I actually feel the visibility of the GK is above average. I'm 5'6" just in case height has something to do with it.