Adjust Your Car Mirrors to Fully Cover Your Blind Spots

Since I saw this (originally post by Lifehacker a while back) , I can't help to notice how many car mirror's are not setup correctly and some have those little blind view things stick on their mirror's. I'm now used to this setup & can't go without it, even when I get into a rental, this is the 1st thing I set. The setup works so nice that as soon as the car disappears from my mid view mirror, it will be visible in the side view mirror & as soon as it disappear form the side view mirror, I can see the car next to me, so full view of the cars around me at all times without breaking a neck....

The way most drivers, and car makers, keep their side mirrors doesn't actually cover the blind spot outside the driver's vision. Car and Driver illustrates a car mirror setup that, once you get used to it, could prevent lane change freak-outs.
The auto magazine calls its mirror alignment diagram from a paper published in 1995 by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). That paper suggested, basically, moving your side mirrors to point further out into adjacent lanes, a trick that can take some getting used to:

The paper advocates adjusting the mirrors so far outward that the viewing angle of the side mirrors just overlaps that of the cabin's rearview mirror. This can be disorienting for drivers used to seeing the flanks of their own car in the side mirrors. But when correctly positioned, the mirrors negate a car's blind spots. This obviates the need to glance over your shoulder to safely change lanes as well as the need for an expensive blind-spot warning system.

So the trick is to get the side mirrors aligned just outside what your rearview mirror covers, and rely on your own vision to cover the areas in your peripheral vision. Neat trick, but as the magazine (and their commenters) mention, you'll want to train yourself on a neighborhood road before taking this setup out on the interstate.

Those who have switched to the SAE’s approach swear by it, however, some drivers can’t adjust to not using the outside mirrors to see directly behind the car and miss being able to see their own car in the side mirrors. To them we say, “Have fun filling out those accident reports.”