I have the same issue. I'm just a little bit under 5'7" and I have the seat all the way down but I still have issues with that stupid mirror. I'm slowly adjusting but if something came on the market to replace it with something smaller then I would definitely make the switch. I suppose part of my problem is that I sit up straight while driving. It's the ballet and private schooling in me. I'm uncomfortable if I'm leaning back.

 

Driving around in northern Virginia, I saw this thread and thought - What are these people going on about? The mirror is big, but it has never blocked my view of anything on the road (aka the important stuff).

Now I know. Last weekend, I drove on US 58 from Bristol to Hilton Virginia. Hill country. Tight turns. Elevation changes. This is a favorite drive of mine. It should be great fun. It was, except my view of the important stuff was blocked at every right turn. The worst case for me was for a downhill approach to a right that immediately turns uphill. There is no seat position low enough to clear my view on this type of turn.

 

Lower the seat.

 

I guess there's no way of retro fitting an R53 mirror onto an R56

 

I would, but then I can't see over the convertible top when open (which is ALWAYS open. 7h42m open, maybe 5m closed)

 

I could do that, but even though I'm nearly 6' tall, my torso is very short. When I have the seat down it looks like I'm sitting in a whole

 

I am 6', same problem.
To solve this problem------ask your girlfriend or your wife to drive. and enjoy being a passenger.

ken

 

I wish a vendor would sell me a rear view camera and a screen which incorporates the electronics from the mirror. However, after dealing with this problem since 2005 I have discovered that if you text while driving, you won't notice the mirror.

 

If the mirror really bothers you, why not just remove it? As long as you have both side view mirrors, you don't need it. I had a Chevy Astro cargo van and when I insulated it I could not see out of the back. n fact after talking to a highway patrolman, he recommended taking the mirror out. It made a big difference in my field of view.

 

The title of your post is very incorrect. In some places it is illegal to remove your interior mirror.

I.E. New Your State Vehicle & Traffic Law Article 9 Section 375 subsection 10, subsection c. states:

Every passenger motor vehicle registered in this state and
manufactured or assembled after June thirtieth, nineteen hundred
sixty-nine, and designated as a nineteen hundred seventy or subsequent
year model, shall be equipped with adjustable interior mirrors meeting
specifications established by the commissioner which specifications may
provide minimum and maximum reflectance values.
So at least in New York State there is a requirement for a rear view mirror.

And I would be willing to bet that many other states have the same requirement.

 

Would the remote circuit fit stuffed above the mirror in a cabrio?

 

I'm 6'5" and the mirror in my '06 seems to block a huge amount of windshield. Seat is all the way down and all the way back, and when driving on back roads I find myself ducking and craning my neck on all the right turns! It's a bit unnerving at times, actually...

 

I've got this far...I can't see how to unscrew the "cross-heads" (what is a "cross head"?) to get the chip out of the mirror, as the screws holding it in are sandwiched in there...no way to get a screwdriver on those screws...see attached pics...the screws are those tiny silver "buttons" between the mirror housing and the circuit board.

By the way, I'm taking lots of pics of this operation...one thing I noticed is that there are NINE clips holding the two halves of the mirror case.

 

To answer a question nobody but me is asking, I got one of the small mirrors. I was hoping to adapt it to a Cabrio. Well, it would not be easy, to say the least. The Cabrio mirror is mounted on a ball joint that enters the top of the mirror housing. The coupe mirror mount enters from behind mirror. That's a possibility. The Cabrio bracket is probably half as wide where it mates to the roof. I can't tell whether you could make the coupe one fit by cutting the mounting bracket down. The coupe mirror would be mounted slightly higher if you did that. I haven't taken the time to cut up the coupe mirror bracket I've got, but I'm considering it.

Going without a mirror is also a possibility, since it is almost totally useless in a Cabrio anyway. The only thing you can see through it that you might care about would be flashing red and blues, and you ought to pick those up in your side mirrors anyway. My wife isn't keen on that idea though (the no mirror idea, not the getting tickets idea - nobody is keen on that).

 

RE: Check my pic of the chip inside the mirror. I can't figure out how to unscrew the chip?

Here's the fun part. to unscrew the chip, you need to remove (i.e. break) the **** which controls the day/night mechanism. Either that or drill two holes carefully through the housing directly over the screw heads. Make sure the drilled hole is large enough to fit a screwdriver thru.

I pried off the ****, unscrewed the chip from the housing, then removed the two awkward screws. I didn't want to damage the housing. I reassembled the now chip-less mirror, and bought some JB Weld 2-part epoxy from Home Depot. I mixed the epoxy, pressed a fair amount into the hollowed ****, and pressed it back onto the stalk nice and straight. 24 hours later, that sucker is one piece again. Now I can put the mirror back into tha car anytime and no one is the wiser! The chip now resides above the interior light assembly in the headliner and works perfectly. Just make sure to secure the chip so it doesn't rattle around. I used a 90 degree piece of heavy plastic as a bracket.

As to the question of rear view mirrors being legal or illegal, think about windowless vans and moving trucks. Neither have rear view mirrors. Adjusting your side-view mirrors easily covers the rear view. Any motorcyclist will tell you that.

 

I posted pics of my successful removal of the OEM mirror and installation of replacement mirror here:

THREAD

 

I'm 6'4" and the mirror is a BIG issue for me. So far, I have removed the Comfort Access chip, relocating it above the headliner. Now I can twist off the mirror and drive with a great big clear view of the world outside, without having a wire hanging down and/or having the remote non-functional.

Since I ride a motorcycle, I have taken to using the side mirrors as I do on the bike. I angle them more to view the space behind the car, but am not satisfied. The next step will be a couple of stick on convex mirrors to regain the blind spots out to the side. If this fails, I will bite the $80.00 bullet and pick up convex mirror stick-ons from Moss MINI - the cover the entire glass surface.

I feel a vision deficiency to the rear is preferable to a deficiency to the FRONT!

For shorties, this is not a problem, but when your eyes are at the mirror's height, it's brutally dangerous, and sufficiently annoying.

 

I'm thinking of a Countryman next year possibly, I wonder if they'll have the same mirror issue in that model? If the headliner was just a bit further back it wouldnt be as much of an issue. Anybody know?

 

Has anyone tried to fit one of the early style mirrors (2002-2004) onto a newer model? I just picked up an '07 convertible, which I love, but the mirror is way too big and mainly just blocks out the front view for me. Ideally, it would be a round shape to see out the "portal" between the rear hoops, but I also want to preserve the "MINI" look, so I thought the smaller early model mirrors might work. I checked ebay and there are a few early model mirrors for sale, but they do not look compatible with the '07 convertible mounting point. I am not sure though. Just wondering if anyone has tried it.

Thanks!