How to Adjust Car Mirrors

Adjusting Your Wing Mirrors

1. 
   Make sure you are sitting in the driver's seat. Mirrors reflect light. This means that what you see will be different depending on what perspective you are looking from. Once you're sitting in the driver's seat, you'll be almost set to start adjusting your mirrors.^[1]
2. 
   Move your seat so you are at a comfortable height and depth. This will also have an impact on what you see when you look into your mirrors. Position your seat so you feel like your feet are gently resting on the pedals and that you can comfortably see over the front of the car.^[2]

   1. Check that you can comfortably reach the gear stick and steering wheel.
   2. Use a cushion to increase your height if you are particularly short and cannot see over the front of the car.
3. 
   Use buttons to move electronically adjusted mirrors. As technologies have progressed, the physical method by which you change the angle of your mirrors has changed dramatically. In modern cars, many systems have been switched to electronic movement.

   1. The buttons for this will normally be located just to the right of the steering wheel and will have four arrows on them indicating the direction of movement for the mirror.
   2. There will also usually be a left/right control switch to choose which mirror to move.
   3. If you can't seem to find the controls, head online and check as some can be hidden away in unusual places.^[3]
4. 
   Use your hand to adjust manual mirrors. Most older cars will still have their mirrors adjusted by hand. The way this works is usually quite simple, you will simply push the mirror into whatever position you like.^[4]
5. 
   Adjust the left-right plane of the mirrors. If done correctly, you will only just be able to see the edge of the back of your car. If you can see a lot of your car, the mirror is too far in and if you can see none of your car, the mirror is too far out. Both of these situations will increase your blindspot.^[5]

   1. You will have a blindspot regardless of how well adjusted your mirrors are, but the aim is to minimize this blindspot.
6. 
   Adjust the up-down plane of your mirrors. If done correctly, the horizon will be in the middle of the mirror and the road will look flat, rather than angled, going backward. Most people forget that you can also move the wing mirrors up and down. This has a fairly large impact on what you see when you look into your mirrors.^[6]

   1. This is one setting that will vary greatly with the driver's height so when driving a car for the first time, always check this.