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Dangerous reflection


JohnRoss
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Reflection of the dashboard top in the windscreen would seem to be a world wide problem and not just in France! However the Renault Zoe, which in all other respects is a wondeful little car, is no exception. Ok this reflection problem is proving to be downright dangerous. If you drive along a road and there is a shaded area ahead and you are still in direct sunlight you can see hardly anything in the shaded area on the road ahead until you are in the shaded area. Two options are carry on and hope there is nobody in the road you cannot yet see or slow right down until you can see. Neither are safe options. Having searched the web using "reflection of dashboard in windscreen" in the search bar I note that this would seem to be a common problem with many modern cars and is to do with the angle of the windscreen.

I have tried, as an experiment, putting a large piece of cardboard painted matt black with blackboard paint on top of the dash and that solves the problem but looks awful. I note that some manufacturers sell dash mats to tackle this problem but they don't look that good either. Glad I am not alone but why did they not sus' this before building all these cars with windscreens at this angle. Air flow and efficiency are not the only criteria for designing a car. Safety is as if not more important surely! One can only hope that Renault produce a solution soon like a dark coloured dash mat. Don't fancy having to paint the top surface of the dash with matt black paint. Any thoughts folks?..........JR
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Seems Renault forgot why most cars have matt black dashboards.[:(]

I don't think it's a worldwide problem, more a problem for owners of cars with light coloured or shiny dashboards.

The only time I've been bothered by such reflections has been when I've put a map or something light on top of the dash - automatically removed as soon as the reflection was noticed. Especially at night.

 

 

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From what I can see looking at the problem on the net any car with a light

coloured dash top and a windscreen at that angle would seem to have this

problem. Lots of American sites for example are full of posts from folk who have

felt strongly enough to report the manufacturer to the appropriate authority. So

this must apply to any car with that angle of windscreen anywhere! It is however

weird that nobody thought of it or noticed the problem before they started to

manufacture them...........JR
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I have seen this previously, but my new Renault has a matt black dash and the only reflection I see under certain circumstances is the door handle oddly enough. not enough to distract or obscure. I guess it's all about the interior colour scheme, a dark interior probably isn't a problem? what colour is the Zoe inside?

 

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Not many options I'm afraid....

Live with it

Paint the dash.

Have the dash "flocked" (velvet-like finish, popular in motorsport) - DIY kits are available.

Treat the dash with matt or satin finish plastic cleaners. ArmourAll and many other makers of car cleaning stuff offer interior plastics cleaners in matt or satin as well as gloss.
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Some sites suggest trying this but having tried it I would say not a

significant reduction and shaded areas are dark enough without wearing

sunglasses. This is no minor annoyance! It is really very dangerous and sooner

or later a disaster for somebody assuming it has not yet happened which it

probably has! One paper I found on the net shows that by an experiment conducted recently that the problem seems to affect a higher percentage of us olduns more than younguns. Brain function? Eye response speed? Which group are more likely to buy a Zoe or a car of that ilk? Probably not a factor as these young people today have more money than sense methinks cor blimey matey!.........JR 
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Buy a cleaner that dries to a matt finish, Simonise? make one. There's so many features in modern cars that were campaigned against in the 1960s/70s by Ralph Nader in the States, and taken up here in Europe, that have been brought back in the name of Styling. How many drivers appreciate when they can't see properly? Furry dice, satnavs in the centre of the windscreen and so on suggest that quite a few don't.

Years ago we used to mask the instruments on our rally cars and then spray the rest of the dashboard matt black. Now I have a VW that has little red "ambience" lights that shine down from the courtesy light onto the gear lever area with its chavy chromey  bits. (I know where the gear lever is, doh)

Positioning of sidelights/indicators  with more regard to style than safety is another issue for me.

Steve 

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The dash is finished in a very light fawnish grey colour and it is not

shiny but being very light in colour it reflects an image in the windscreen

which is at just the right angle. It is surprising that there has not been more

said about this on TV motoring programmes or perhaps there were and I did not

see them. I would not have thought any coating that does not lower the reflected

light frequencies to the bottom end of the spectrum like black would have much effect. I can

find no ads for Renault dash mats for the Zoe but will talk to the local

dealership. Meantime maybe a flexible black floor mat would do the job though maybe too thick. The

whole dash does not need covering only about the third that is in front of the

driver...................JR
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This sounds like really poor design, and I suspect that any DIY matting will look exactly that...DIY !

I just Googled "Renault Zoe Forum" and found at least 3 forums/owners websites; I didn't look further, but I know from the other Renault forums Megane) that I've used that you can get some good feedback and sometimes good ideas; why not have a look there?

EDIT  Sorry John, I decided to look after all, and I see that you've already been there!!!

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Ok took some photos of the problem and the sun was partly covered in light cloud. Problem much worse than these photos show in bright sunlight! The last one shows the effect of placing a large piece of black painted cardboard on the dash.

http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/johnross10/media/P8171010_zps74e719e8.jpg.html

http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/johnross10/media/P8171006_zps5efedc47.jpg.html

http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/johnross10/media/P8171008_zpscc330303.jpg.html

I want to make it clear that this is not a criticism of only the Zoe design but all modern cars with windscreens at that angle. In all other respects I love the Zoe and can find no other fault in her. However yes it is a bad problem and much worse than my shots show in really bright sunlight. One thing we noticed when we moved to Deux Sevres in France in 2001 was that the light values are much higher in general compared with the UK so the problem might not be so bad there. As you approach a wooded area with the road in shadow and you are still in sunlight you would not be able to see a tractor, very common in rural France, or someone or something lying in the road until you were on top of it when it was too late to stop! The test drive we had in a Zoe was in a car with a near black dashtop so the problem did not show itself then………….JR

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Yes, it's bad isn't it! The matting is quite effective.

We noticed this about the skies in 79, basically there's a lot of sky! We came from the north od the Peak District with only a fraction of the sky area there. Love the skies here though!

 

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