Our 6 picks for cars with the best visibility
Source: Pixabay
The outward visibility a car offers is crucial to the vehicle’s overall safety equation. A car’s optimal visibility comes from a combination of innovative design and technology. Large and tall windows, slim roof pillars, fewer blind spots, more glass, the size and heating of side mirrors, and innovative headlights all contribute to enhanced visibility. As do rearview cameras, sensors that detect other vehicles, and any number of monitors and systems that alert a driver when dangers missed by the human eye are sensed or seen.
While driving, the more dangers you are aware of, the more options you have to avoid them. For that reason, we’ve assembled a list of vehicles that we believe to be among the cars with the best visibility.
2020 Honda Pilot
The higher you climb a mountain, the better the visibility. The same rings true for towering SUVs like the 2020 Honda Pilot. A combination of enormous side mirrors, tall windows, and slim roof pillars, joined with the Pilot’s impressive height, set the perfect stage for near 360-degree visibility.
Standard supercharged headlights help cut through the uncertainty of pitch darkness, inclement weather, or morning fog. Features like a rearview camera alerts when you depart your lane, a system that monitors your blind spots, and warnings of oncoming collisions all act as digital extensions of your sight, helping to keep you and your entire family safe. In fact, many owners of this Honda SUV swear that visibility is its number one asset.
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2019 Land Rover Range Rover
The greenhouse—the above-the-doorline window portion on the 2019 Range Rover—delivers excellent visibility by utilizing tall windows and slim roof pillars, both of which are essential to great outward visibility. It also doesn’t hurt that this extra tall SUV rides higher than most vehicles on the road.
Land Rover continues to take advantage of technology to increase visibility electronically. Among these features: a rearview camera for backing up safely; a warning monitor for passengers exiting the vehicle that alerts them of approaching cars or cyclists; a warning system for when you leave your lane; sensors to alert you of obstacles while parking; a 360 parking aid that provides visual and audio feedback; and a side mirror warning light that activates when changing lanes while traffic is entering one of your blind spots.
All of this technology places the Range Rover among the cars with the best visibility; now, if they could only design a sensor for when you’re about to spill your morning coffee on the way to work!
2021 Honda Accord
With large windows surrounding the cabin of this model, not only does this extended visibility add to the overall safety of driving—it keeps your passengers content and interested as they observe the world passing by. Heated side mirrors increase visibility by melting away snow, fog, and ice.
As we’ve seen with previous cars on this list, technology plays a significant role in our abilities to “see” as drivers. The 2021 Accord is no exception. Our favorite among these is a system that alerts drivers if another vehicle enters a blind spot. This alert is deployed through beeps and a mirror light when the driver engages the turn signal.
Like other vehicles on this list, the Accord is loaded with cameras and monitors to increase your visibility, such as the multi-angle rearview camera and another camera that alerts you when you’re above a street’s posted speed limit.
2020 Cadillac Escalade
This Escalade is built tall. So tall that those in the front seat may be able to see all the way to the end of bumper-to-bumper traffic. (That’s unless another Escalade is blocking the view, of course.) The coveted surround vision feature comes standard with this model. This feature points cameras in every direction to display your vehicle’s surroundings. It provides an eye-in-the-sky view to aid with parking and backing up.
Higher trim models come with a rear camera mirror that expands the field of vision of a standard rearview mirror by up to four times! These higher trims also come with features that alert you of a potential forward collision or drifting into another lane and headlights that automatically switch from low to high as needed.
All of these improve visibility. All of these land the 2020 Escalade on our list of cars with the best visibility.
2017 Mercedes E-Class Wagon
This wagon has excellent visibility with a large windshield, thin roof pillars, and full windows that stretch back to the substantial-for-a-wagon rear window. The windows are also lightly tinted. This increases visibility, especially when it comes to glare from the sun hitting another vehicle. Daytime running lights also increase your visibility to other drivers.
When it comes to the technology portion of this vehicle’s visibility, you will not be disappointed.
The standard model comes with heated side mirrors for that pesty fog and snow. Higher trim levels come with blind-spot and forward-collision monitoring, a 360-degree camera system to help with parking and backing up, and monitors that alert you when you’ve veered out of your lane.
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2021 Subaru Legacy
The 2021 Legacy uses creative design and technology to qualify as one of our picks for cars with the best visibility. Smartly placed, thin windshield pillars provide a high degree of visibility, as do the spacious cabin and large windshield. Higher trim levels offer a windshield wiper de-icer that keeps your wipers from freezing to the glass. Heated side mirrors chase the fog and snow away.
Utilizing technology to serve as an additional set of eyes, the Legacy has sensors that detect and alert you to vehicles in your blind spots. Other sensors warn of approaching traffic when backing up, while a rearview camera further increases visibility. This model even has headlights that automatically shift on curved roads to point in the direction the vehicle is heading. It doesn’t take long to find reviews from 2021 Legacy owners raving how they’ve never had better visibility out of a car’s windows, whether it be day or night.
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