scottatl

The back window and floating top look like they may be a challenge for the shorter driver. My wive love her current 16 year old Maxima, but now that 15 years have passed since we drove our son home from the hospital in it, we are passing the keys to him. My wife is 5'3" and the first thing that eliminates cars from her list is bad side and rear visibility.

Fakie J Farkerton

iTrader: (51)

Backup camera FTW.

scottatl

those do not replace good visibility.... when going down the highway the backup cams don't help your visibility

lightonthehill

Visibility to the front of any car is, of course, important. That is the direction in which we are moving, and where we will be within seconds. I do like that one of the adjustments on the driver seat of my 7th gen is seat height. I can sit low and cool, or sit high and 'commandeering.'

One useful thing I do is adjust both outside mirrors to look directly at the blind spots to the sides of the car. I use only the inside mirror to see directly behind (unless backing up, in which case I use the camera).

For better or worse, most cars do not have really good side and rear visibility these days. That is probably partly because many drivers, especially old ones (and folks are living longer these days), have lost the physical ability to swivel their heads around to see the blind spots, and even moreso because the traffic we have today makes it dangerous to take our eyes off the cars in front of us for even one full second.

The solution is, of course, modern technology. Cars increasingly have warning indicators to tell us a vehicle is in our blind spot, warning indicators to tell us we are weaving from our lane, warning indicators to tell us we are closing too fast on the vehicle ahead of us, warning indicators to tell us if something is coming from the side when we are backing out of our driveway or out of a parking space, etc, etc.

And many of those warning systems have the ability to actually brake the car if the driver does not react to the warning. I am excited about the overhead view Nissan has put in the Platinum. It will be great to see everything around the car as if suspended in space above the car.

The things we considered important in the past will gradually become irrelevant, as the conversion to driverless cars begins. Twenty years ago, most folks would have felt it might be fifty to a hundred years before we would have driverless cars. Now they are actually on the road being tested by several different companies.

Driverless cars may seem to some of us as desirable as a castration. But there will come a time when most cars on the road are driverless, and those still doing the driving will be doing it purely for nostalgic reasons.

The number of fatalities will definitely drop with driverless cars, because most accidents are the result of driver inattention or driver fatigue or inebriation or drug use or inexperience. Driverless cars bypass those dangers. The future will be interesting.

gizzsdad

Actually, my understanding of the engineering explanation for this phenomenon
are increasing regulations and consumer expectation for side impact collisions. In other words, the doors have to be stronger to minimize collision encroachment into the passenger cabin (glass doesn't help much).

When you all get your first test drive in the 8th gen., notice how much wider the door sills are. I'm sure this serves two purposes - side impacts, as well as overall chassis stiffness.

Just look at pics of the 2016 Camaro, 300C and others to see how much higher beltlines are getting. My 7th gen. is already high enough that I can only use the door as an elbow rest for a short time because the height.

lightonthehill

While sitting in the 8th gen Maxima a few weeks ago, I did notice the door sills were higher than the 7th gen, even when I raised the driver's seat. And, as you said, the doors on the 8th gen are thicker than the doors on the 7th gen. The 8th gen doors also have a comforting 'thunk' sound when closed. No hint of anything flimsy or tinny.

Not only are safety standards getting stronger for side impact, but also for front corner offset. And the fronts of cars now have to be less intrusive to pedestrians we may mow down along our journey. These standards are beginning to have a noticable effect on styling.

lightonthehill

Since the subject here is visibility in the 8th gen Maxima, there is another angle.

http://thecitizen.com/news-crime-lig...-north-fayette

As we bring our new 8th gen Maximas home, we will be modding fairly quickly. Visibility will be greatly improved by going easy on the tint. Especially if you are going to be living/driving in my neighborhood, as Rick Ross was doing when the linked incident occured. He is a new neighbor near me, but is evidently not aware of the rigidity of law enforcement in our county. He was booked into our large new jail facility, and kept there until he could contact his lawyer.

He recently bought Evander Holifield's estate near my place (Evander's place will never be confused with mine):

'. . . the property is situated on 104.7 acres and includes an expansive home of 48,327 sq. ft. that features 12 bedrooms, 13 full baths, 8 half baths, 5 family rooms, a formal dining room that seats more than 100, a library and office, a 4,500 sq. ft. guest house, a 7-stall barn, an indoor bowling alley, handball court, lap pool, movie theater, boxing gym, recording studio and one of the largest private pools in the United States.'

Put another way, in this county, driving a new Bentley and owning a $30 million dollar home and having a five dollar bill will get you a cup of coffee at the local Starbucks. Nothing more. Unless you are stopped for tinting too darkly and are found to have less than an ounce of weed, in which case all bets are off.

Please consider tinting gently, ladies and gentlemen. We don't want to lose any of our loyal posters.

NissanFreak2000

The most important thing is usually making sure you set your mirrors correctly and shouldn't have too much of a problem.