Using my mirror in a rentacar

I have a long foreign trip planned starting in March and plan to rent a car, maybe a Kia Picante (I think it is) or a Mazda 2.

I will have a phone with maps, most days (If I know where I'm going the night before and take the time to dl the proper map) and I may have paper maps of much of the area (I really prefer paper maps.) but there will be times when I'm just wandering around, on roads that wind and have barely any relationship to north, south, east or west.

I just installed a rear view mirror with a compass in my own car, and it's great. I've used the sun or the shadow of telephone poles and speed limit signs to navigate in the past, but that's really hard when it's anywhere near noon, or when it's overcast.

The rentacar will probably be this year's model or last year's, and I think they will be too cheap to have a compass, but they may have a electically self-dimming mirror... Do you think even these little cars will?

So I wonder what you think about the idea of taking my rear view mirror with me on this trip, and changing the mirror for my own until I return the car?? Likely to work? I don't see how I can get in trouble, right? Is a cheap, small Japanese car likely to have an electric mirror. (used for self-dimming)

I planned to take a hand compass, but that might mean stopping and getting out of the car each time I want to check direction.

My own car doesn't have the standard 6 pin connector which iiuc late model cars have for the rear view mirror. But it was easy enough to figure out which 3 of the 6 pins on the compass/mirror were needed** and make my own adapter to fit my two pin connector, an adapter that I can take with me. It has two wires that are stripped, twisted, and soldered so that I can insert them in the 2-pin socket that is meant for the mirror.

Won't the rentacar have either a 2-pin socket like mine, or a 6-pin socket that will just plug into my mirror without any adapter? These things are standardized aren't they?

I would go look at such cars at local dealers to see if the mirrors are electric, but I don't think they have those models here. (I"ll still go to look at the connectors (but I don't think they'll let me unplug anything!)

I can buy an allen wrench, or bring one if my luggage is not too heavy. If it doesnt' take an allen wrench, I can buy whatever it takes. I can buy or bring a cheap meter to verify which lead is positive, but won't the 2-pin connector be just like mine, and the 6-pin connector go on in only one way? So I won't need a meter.

Just this past Monday I was coming back from Camden NJ on local roads, headed for the Delaware Mem. Bridge. The sun was down but it was still light out. Two cars in front of me turned right and one car behind me did, and I figured that right was the way to go, but the compass showed I was going west and if I turned, I'd be going north, away from the bridge! I love the compass.

**It also has a thermometer, but a) the car already has one, b) I'd have to install a sensor near the grill and run a wire, so I'm glad about a.
Reply to
micky
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Seem like a lot less trouble to take a Garmin with Europe maps and have everything you need. If you are staying in the same place for a couple of days it is easy to set it as "home" so you can get back easily.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

*No, they are not*

If all you need is a *portable* compass, consider an "old-school" automotive compass such as this one:

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Reply to
Retired

Paper maps and a compass? Will you be packing a sextant as well? Are you traveling by horse?

Reply to
Krispy Kreme

I don't carry paper maps any more but long before a trip I do use them. Always good to know the relative distance to where you are and where you want to go. Compass is handy but you have to be careful. The roads often twist and turn so you may show south in portions but the road is going to end up east.

Last few trips to Europe I used a GPS and it is very handy to have. Bigger and better than using a phone, IMO.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

I can't recall using a compass in a mirror in a car for anything other than novelty amusement. With so many GPS tools available as either standalone or as part of a smartphone, a compass is kind of a relic and not particularly useful. If you need to get from A to B, the GPS will tell you how, the best route, etc. The compass will only tell you what direction you're headed in and with twisting turning roads, even that isn't much use.

Reply to
trader_4

Doesn't work in the dark, but I rely on people's satellite dishes to c show me south.

Reply to
Ivan Vegvary

We usually vacation out west and the compass in the car is handy although I have not been in a rental in close to a decade that was without NAV. Maybe Micky should rent a better car ;-)

We still like paper maps because our plans are very fluid.

Reply to
gfretwell

Or a simple hand-held GPS which you can use in the car and has a very accurate "compass" tghat is not affected by magnetic fields - - -

Reply to
clare

With Micky anything is possible. My brother in law was a merchant seaman and I think he used a compass as a navigational aid when he was driving. He wrecked a lot of cars is all I know.

Reply to
rbowman

But don't the maps get soggy with fluid plans?

One big advantage of paper maps is you can get a good overview of the area so you can come up with a logical route.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Some cut. I'm curious why you care about direction if you're just wandering around. The main things to involved then is fuel, food, left, right, or straight ahead. Plus the hysterical markers along side the roads. Ya gotta stop at those to see what they're about.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

For the last many years, I have depended on my smartphone for navigating. I haven't updated my Garmin GPS in I don't know how long. Why bother?

Then last month I took a trip out west. Nevada and California. Las Vegas, Reno, San Francisco, etc. I had no clue that there were so many areas where cell coverage doesn't exist. On one occasion I mapped out a route using Google Maps on my laptop and wrote down a number of via points to put into my phone because I knew didn't want to take the direct route that my phone would use. That's always worked for me back east.

Well, you get out into the deserts of Nevada or outside the major metropolitan areas of California and your smartphone doesn't do you any good. I've got a list of via points with me but no way of knowing if I am on the correct route or not.

At one point we were driving from Tonopah, NV to Reno, via a very scenic route when we lost cell coverage. I assumed I was still heading the right way but I didn't know when/where the next turn was going to be. When you are out in the middle of nowhere, one missed turn and you could drive hours out of your way. So we're driving along, feeling lost (but not really knowing) and suddenly we see a sign that says "We miss you already! Come back soon!"

Wait...what? Who misses us? Come back to where? The next sign we see is "Welcome to California". Huh? California? What are we doing in California? It was totally my fault, but as I was mapping out the scenic route from Tonopah to Reno, I neglected to notice that we were going to pass into California for a short period. Luckily, California has those agricultural inspection stations soon after you cross the border, so we were quickly assured that we were on the right road. The nice lady even told us how far we were from our next turn so we felt a lot more comfortable after that.

The next time I head out that way you can be sure I'll have my Garmin with me.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

I dont' know how to use a sextant yet, but I'd like to learn.

That would be wonderful. You see so much more when you go slower (than a car).

Reply to
micky

Actually, you see a lot less, you just see it for a longer time.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Someone who fully appreciates my situation.

I'm sure there will be places without cell towers.

Does this mean a compass app on the cellphone won't work either?

I think there was a Hitchcock episode where they were totally lost in the desert. (At least one of the two of them was.)

We don't need to assign blame here. As I said about my hiking club, Any event where everyone comes back alive is a success.

Reply to
micky

A friend pointed that out to me, but the one time I needed it I couldn't find one. Nice n'hood. I'm sure they had them but the yards were too big with too many trees and bushes. (This was right in Baltimore, but on probably the only street within 5 miles of my house that I'd never taken in all these years. Very tucked away, very close to downtown. I wonder if the streets existend when I first got here.

I think I used that coming back from Pa. too.

On that trip I passed a modern, ranch style house with a clothes line from the house to near the street, and when I looked to my right, I saw they had a buggy too. And maybe even a guy in dark blue overalls. It was an Amish family's house but not a traditional farmhouse or a farm.

I wish I'd paid more attention exactly where I was.

Reply to
micky

Bummer. So I have to actually go look at Mazda and Kia and maybe even Fiat and see what they use in the US. Maybe that will help. (They don't promise you the make of car you sign up for. )

I've had ones like this. They barely work. 45 years ago I wrote to Airguide to ask if I bought a more expensive model would it work better, and they wrote back to say, "No, they are all the same and only the case is different" and they enclosed 2 or 3 more pieces of 2-sided tape, so I could find a better location. Might they would work better now?

I've also used the Radio Shack dashmounted electronic one and that worked well but reqires power from the fusebox, or I guess the cigarette lighter. I still have that and it's smaller and lighter than the mirror. So maybe I should connect a cigarette plug and take that. It required calibration, which required knowing which direction was north, which tends to require a compass.

I also have another one, never used, that I gave to a friend. He died about a year ago at 79 and either his brother gave everything to Goodwill or when my friend's apartment flooded he had already taken it to his sister's, who told me I should come and look for, more or less, whatever I want. To calibrate that one had to drive around in circles.

Also the rearview mirror doesn't require anything more than driving around in circles a few times, and it figures everythng out.

The posters here gave me the idea to use a cellphone app, and that woudl be v. good but I don't have a magnetometer in my phone, which excludes about half of them, and maybe the others need cell towers nearby.

Reply to
micky

I'm just not willing to spend more money on something I will only use on this trip.

By phone, do you mean an app for the cellphone. I thought you meant that so Iwent to the Playstore and it lists 20 compass apps.

However about half require the phone to have a magnetometer, which I don't have,, and I don't know what they others require. Maybe that cell towers be nearby and that won't be true everywhere I plan to go.

There are several ways the cell phone can get position, and I suppose they will also tell north, but other than using cell towers, I don't know what they are.

Reply to
micky

Nope That app doesan't require connectivity.

Reply to
clare

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