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Review on Car Mate PL111A Mirror Auxiliary by Thimothy Purnell

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Okay, but it could be a lot better.

I recently purchased an F-350 Crewcab. The standard mirror that came with the kit is so small it's a joke. I was looking for a larger mirror and came across this one. Ouch! Before I bought this one I bought one off the shelf at PepBoys and it was complete rubbish. The mirror surface was painted (no glass) and wasn't even smooth. He was blue too. It looked like looking through an aquarium. Car Mate PL111A is much better. The mirrors are made of real glass and offer a good clear picture. The build quality also seems to be good. I would give it five stars except for three reasons.1. The center mirror doesn't cover my entire rear window in a crew pickup. It may just be me and how my eyes work, but I like to see the full outline of my rear window. This gives me visual cues that I can use to estimate the distance and position of the vehicle behind me. As big as this mirror is, I still can't see both side edges of the cab's rear window at the same time. Considering my truck is a double cab and the rear window is a lot farther out than a single cab pickup, you would assume that this wouldn't be very good on a single cab pickup. The side mirrors are good, but they can't be moved all the way forward to be flush with the center mirror. So you can't use them to extend the reach of the center mirror to cover the entire rear window. They are for monitoring the rear seat passenger windows and are suitable for that (I think).3. There are thick plastic frames around the mirrors. This is normal except at the point where the center and side mirrors converge. It's twice as thick where the mirrors meet, and it's confusing when you look in a mirror because of the way my brain works. This large gap between different mirrors creates a visual separation of the images. As a result, you need to focus on each mirror independently to understand what is happening. Result. I have another auxiliary mirror in my car that is very slightly warped and covers the entire rear window and some side windows of my 2005 Impala. I installed it in my truck and I really like it. Unfortunately I bought it on sale at Wal-Mart a while back and it's not branded anywhere so I can't buy a second one like this. I'm leaving this PL111A for now, but I'm looking for the best accessory mirror for my truck.

Pros
  • Durable Test Results
Cons
  • Minor Repairability