I find that there are times that the auto-dimming rearview mirror just isn't dim enough. Sometimes it's when a yahoo behind me has his brights on. Othertimes it's when a jacked up 4X4 (because of it's height) has its lights on during the day. The contrast is not great enough during the day for it to be effective.

I wish it at least had an override so I could just flip the mirror manually.

 

I'd have to say I love it, although at first I was surprised how many cars had green headlights before I realized it was the mirror. It's almost too effective as sometimes I don't realize immediately when someone is trying to get up my rear end at night. I've not had the annoyance of having bright headlights from behind during the day so can't comment on that. The system works by judging the difference in ambient lighting (out front) vs rear lighting so during the day it would not expect it to dim much at all in this case.

Maybe as an improvised manual system, you could have a little slicky note or something to put over the sensor on the back (front facing part) of the mirror to simulate a dark night.

 

I'm not completely happy with it either. It seems an overly-complicated tech solution that isn't really better, and is in some cases worse, than the manual tech it replaces.

In fairness, since I got it in summer, I haven't done a lot of driving after dark, but I expect to refine my opinion as soon as DST ends this month. I plan to post back then.

 

Simply turn it off.

 

I hate it too, I've listed this on the "what I would change about the TCH" thread. It's fine to have the auto-dimming feature, there should just be a way to set the default to either ON or OFF, so I don't have to hit the button every time I get in the car at night.

 

I was surprised too to find that the mirror did not dim the lights of following cars very well. The auto-dimming mirror on my '97 Jeep Cherokee actually works better...and THAT my friends is an insult!

Could it be that the mirror is actually malfunctioning? I have a hard time believing that Toyota, with all its technical talent, can't provide a good working example of technology that has been around for years.

 

Surely by now they've seen folding side view mirrors, also!

 

Since there are a number of us saying the same thing I'm guessing it's working as it's supposed to.

 

Quote:

Originally posted by orcrone.

Since there are a number of us saying the same thing I'm guessing it's working as it's supposed to.

Having been in the vehicle business in the past (motorcycles, not cars), I know from experience that a model can suffer from a "bad run" of parts, so that you see the same malfunction in many units of the same model.

So I am not convinced that, just because several of us have the same issue, it is not a malfunction. I plan to call the 800# and register my concern.

 

Good point. I'll do the same. Just be lazy. Can you post the number.