I have been a Mini owner since March of this year. I have driven about 3000 miles in this car and I have begun to notice that other drivers seem to have a problem spotting my car on the road. I have found myself having to hit the horn in order to gain other drivers attention more than I have ever had to before with any other car. The other day I was rear ended by a man while attempting to merge with traffic on a highway. He claims he didn't notice my car in front of him. This is probably due to him relying on peripheral vision instead of looking ahead. The damage was minor but it started me thinking that perhaps not being seen is more common than I would have expected. Has anyone else experienced this issue?

 

I have not...but it seems there are regional variations in the level of aggression, cluelessness and lunacy on area roads. I do think that driving a small car takes a unique level/type of defensive posturing...that's about all you can do. If one were accustomed to driving a larger/more visible vehicle, the learning sure could be pretty steep!

 

That has not been my experience. So far, I have not had any issues with other people not seeing me. The only thing might be the tailgating, but people do that anyway, no matter what you drive.

In your situation, the prob. might've been the older driver who hit you. If you were in his blind spot, he probably doesn't even bother to make sure he covers his blind spot before he switches lanes. Even if driving a huge SUV, he should've seen you.

I know the MINI is small...but it's not really that small to where people could claim they didn't see you. IMHO.

 

Yes! I've had mine 3 months I was rear ended at a stop light the women in the FJ behind said she thought the light had changed and drove right into the back of me.I've had more than 3 cars try to share a lane with me,lots of times people have turned onto the street I'm driving on forcing me out of my lane or making me hit the breaks real hard.I'ts real symilar to riding a motor cycle you have to pay attention to what everyones doing around you.I have now turned my lights on and never turn them off this seems to help a bit.Oh by the way the minor damage on my bumper cost $500.00 to fix ,if you have metalic paint no repair is minor.

 

I noticed that I get tailgated more in my Mini more so than any other of my cars.This is why I am installing a Brakelight Pulser on my Led Third brakelight. Gets their attention a few seconds early by flashing the light rapidly before locking in normally.

 

The Pulsar really works. I installed one last week and it has made a HUGE difference in how other drivers react when I hit the brakes. Well worth the money.

 

The driver of the car that hit me was 23yo. He was not changing lanes, we were both waiting to merge onto a highway from an on-ramp. I was not in a "blind spot" I was directly in front of him.

 

I've not noticed any difference. My other car is a GTi and its almost the same size as the Mini. I don't really think the Mini is that small.

 

Sounds like a great idea. What brand/model of flasher did you get? What store did you buy it from?

 

I have had an issue with being in a small car as well. I was stationary on the main street in my town when a teenage driver in an SUV decided to back up to let someone in front of her parallel park. She backed right into me, and since it was an SUV, she hit the hood around the scoop. Needed a new hood- $$$. Sucks for her.



Is the Pulsar thing legal in all 50 states?

 

Tailgaters are unnerving. I was heading home the other day, and it was rainng a bit (yes, I have placed my first order for lumber to build the new ark with; if you live in North Txas, you know what I mean). I noticed this 'soccer mom' crawling up Romi's tush in her van.

She was also talking on her cell phone and had a kid in the passenger seat obviously sceaming his head off. All you could see of him was his ears and his pie-hole.

Instead of sweating it, I just pulled into the first parking lot entrance and circled around to get back on the road. As I pulled back into the road, I spotted the 'soccer mom' running into the rear of the Mustang which had been in front of me.

She shoved the Mustang into the truck in front of him. Air bags going off all over the place. As I slowly creep by, she was out of the van cussing the Mustang driver for abruptly stopping in front of her. Uh,..he had stopped as the light was red which caused the Ford truck in front of him to stop.

But the facts were not slowing her down a bit. I decided to pull over into the parking lot and wait for the police to arrive, just in case they needed a witness and to make sure the Mustang driver was ok. 'Soccer mom' did not seem to care he was bleeding profusely from his nose.

Police arrive, I give him my account. That is when the policeman told me this was the fourth time this woman had been involved in a rear end collision. When I had told him my little foray, his comment was, "Good move". My underlying thought was, "Why the heck is this woman still allowed to drive at all!?!?"

Anyway, I always drive Romi like everyone is out to hit her, for whatever reason. Same driving attitude I developed when riding motorcycles for over 30 years without an accident. So it really comes naturally to me.

All you have to do is believe everyone on the road is out to kill you. It is your task to keep them from accomplishing it. Fun game in a wierd sort of way.

 

I got mine on EBAY. $19 and change plus less than $2 shipping. mounts behind the trim of the rear hatch

 

Try daytime running lights for a week or so. I did. Ended up leaving them programmed in. They do make a difference .. Fewer instances of people seemingly not being able to see my car. Furthermore, I think to some the car isn't intimidating, thus it's intimidatable. To me, turning on daytime running lights is sort of an equivelent to, when hiking in the woods and coming upon a bear, making yourself look as large as possible.

Also, for what it's worth, on my recent 800 mile round trip to Colorado I found that when people drove too close they'd back off and stay backed off if I turned on my rear fog lights (I'd turn them off again when tailgating was no longer an issue).

 

I have tried using my fog rear fog light, but in one case, it made the driver get closer so he could not see it. In other cases it has not yeilded anything.

I have had zero luck in getting any programmable options to actually set. Luckily, most of the defaults are fine by me.

 

I bought the six flash pulsar from GoMiniGo.com and it works great, but I haven't been able to get all of the cover panel completely snapped into place. I'm not sure whether I'm not strong enough, or not doing something right. Any suggestions? An email to GoMiniGo.com, asking for suggestions, went unanswered. They did answer my email before I made the purchase though.

 

The only difference between daytime running lights and turning on your headlights on the R56 is, with daytime running lights the interior instrument and mood lighting is not turned on. So .. If I wasn't able to figure out how to do the programming (or if my programming feature didn't work) I would just leave the headlights on. Heck, they turn off automatically when you leave your car anyhow.

 

It seems that if you read other forums you'll find the same issues. For example I drive a Z06 corvette. It seems like someone is always tailgating us!! Now in my Pathfinder Armada SUV, I don't notice it so much, but at times it still happens. When you are sitting so low to the ground, even the least amount of tailgating seems to be "TOO CLOSE" for comfort.

 

I don't have my car yet but I try to spot other minis and small cars in general to see what my perception is of those cars on the road. IMO, the car isn't that small in regards to someone not seeing you. If they hit you, they would have hit any car. That being said, I agree that you have to drive like everyone is trying to hit you like a game show and if you can hit a mini, you win the grand prize.

 

Are you having problems with the horizontal cover or the vertical cover . Where did you locate the device?. The horizontal cover will snap back on with a little bit of "thumb pressure and push" if the cable is not in the way ( make sure that the cable is not blocking the tab.) I am mounting mine in the right trim enclosure, plenty of room there as there is no cable loom like on the left side.

 

I think that part of the problem is that we Mini owners are very possesive, territorial and proud of our machines. Its a mechanical love affair .!!

 

Skuzzy, I can't believe that after waiting soooo long for Romi, that she came that close to being in the body shop. Great instints on your part. Soccer moms, suv's and phones, now thats a danderous combination.

 

Oh...I'm sorry. I perhaps read your post way too quickly. Then I really don't see an excuse for him not seeing you. I have to say though, I rear ended someone once while we were stopped because the light changed and I thought he had moved and hadn't really...I felt horrible because it was such a stupid mistake. I also thought I hadn't "seen" him, but I actually hadn't looked; I just assumed he had moved. We were both stopped so there was really no damage.

 

I came across this the other day: http://roadrage.com/

Sounds like you guys could use it.

 

Skuzzy, NICE move on your part to avoid an accident. I definitely would not want to be around the day someone runs into Skuzzy's mini, and hopefully that will NEVER happen, talk about about a complete and total meltdown whine-O-rama!!! SCARY! I know form experience that size of the vehicle does not always matter. My dodge 1998 15 passenger van has been run into 3 times now, one lady just decided to switch lanes....how could you NOT see the humungous van in the way?!?

 

This happens to me a lot! My MINI is all Astro Black and I drive with lights on all the time and fogs when appropriate. Sometimes I feel invisible on the road. I'm not sure if it's a size or color thing.