Ask The Best And Brightest: Which Cars Need Less A-Pillar?
Wards has a fascinating piece on the recent evolution of the A-pillar, starting with the aesthetic novelty of the B5 Passat and ending with the various roof crush and head-impact safety standards that are creating ever-larger and more vision-obstructing pillars. But is the added passive safety worth the trade-off in visibility, and therefore active safety? A researcher equivocates:
We lack quantitative models that express the safety cost of vision obstructions. We’ve worked on it, but it’s difficult to see the relationships in crash data. People are highly adaptive, and any vision effects are buried in other larger effects due to exposure and driving style.
Inspired by the write-up, I found that the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (Australia) has its own annual forward visibility rating system, and that it refused to give a single 2011 model-year vehicle a five-star rating (in a rare display of respect for the five-star system). Without a rating system of our own, I thought TTAC should embrace the subjectivity of the subject matter and pool its collective wisdom to help the automakers understand which vehicles need an A-pillar diet. Which vehicles feel the least safe in terms of forward visibility? Which need window inserts and which need to just slim down? Or have we reached the point where we need A-pillar cameras?
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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Looks not that different from the Suzuki SX4. The problem with this solution is all the framing involved. Instead of two windows, there's 2 1/2. Your mind has to integrate three views of varying size and shape. When the task is fast, accurate pattern recognition without conscious attention, simple shapes are easier to see and understand. Like the curve of the NB's C-pillar-- glancing over the shoulder in traffic, I can follow that arc back to its sharp conclusion at the beltline and know instantly that I've checked my whole blind spot for a merging hazard. One more visibility issue nobody seems to think of is the relationship between windshield and side windows. To a driver sitting within an aero-wedgie roofline. the side windows appear larger, brighter and more visually compelling than the distant, pinched windshield. There['s little to pull you eyes forward to the road, where they belong. Compare that to some 50s and 60s detroit designs, with windshield that curved upwards to form the front edge of the roof. What a different view that gives! That additional windshield height draws the eyes forward automatically, I believe.
As the owner of B5 Passat I can attest to the "smoothness" of its shape, it is like its molded from one lump of steel instead of several interconnected pieces. Our Volvo C30 has good forward visibility due to a low dash and low hood... not as good as my '89 Prelude or '85 Civic, but I don't think many cars can hold a candle to those front views. However the view to the sides and rear is utterly terrible - now I know why Volvo sells blind spot detection systems! Between the location of the B pillar and stylish sides of the C30 you can't see crap over your should in the the side mirrors. The rear mirror is tiny and the rear hatch is nothing more then a ships porthole, especially with the rear seat head rests in place. I also have a '02 Dakota and the A pillars are pretty meaty but worst is the roof that slopes down before the windshield starts. Its almost like they wanted to save money on glass. I think the combination of high belt lines (and high hoods) plus these oversized dashes has really killed visibility out front in all modern cars. Mirror mounts and sail pillars have become huge as well, while the mirrors themselves have become smaller. Any car with an A-pillar triangle window just looks completely out of proportion to (see Pirus and newer Civics_ High trunks are a problem as well, I've got a rental Galant this week for business and the rear deck slopes UP to meet the trunk making rear visibility bad in a car that otherwise has pretty good sight lines.
My 2012 Acura TL's A-pillars are not only massive, but so deeply raked that I cannot see what's ahead when turning right or left as the forward blind spot is huge. My Subaru Legacy's thin A-pillars and large windows, by contrast, are picture perfect. Because of the Acura's awful sight lines, I look forward to the end of its lease. I'll never get another car with such compromised visibility.
The original question is drawing a degree of agreement that's rare on this forum, or any other. Lots of folks are upset at today's plunging rooflines, and no one has spoken up to say this is not a problem.