SAFETY and strength in car design is vital but it does seem to come at a price in terms of vision in some models.
Consumer magazine Which? Car has just revealed research which shows that all-round visibility for the driver is generally worse than it was around 15 years ago.
One of the reasons for this is that car roof and door pillars have been strengthened tremendously and drivers' views are becoming more restricted than they were over a decade ago.
Once barely noticeable, these pillars have been beefed up into thick hunks of metal and drivers of today need to be aware that although the vehicle of 2010 is massively safer, it is not the glasshouse on wheels it once was.
So ignore blind spots at your peril because they account for around one per cent of all accidents. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) calculates that eliminating them would prevent around 25 fatal accidents each year.
But I am sure the overall strength of vehicles has saved many more lives so it really is down to being streetwise over blind spots.
In Which? Car's rigorous research, the Smart ForTwo Coupé comes out top for driver's vision with a visibility score of 64.8 per cent, aided by its lack of a B pillar (usually found between a car's front and rear doors).
The Fiat 500 (58.7 per cent) is second and the Citroën C3 Picasso (58.2 per cent) is third.
The raised driving position in the Ford Galaxy MPV (57.4 per cent) brings benefits for the driver's line of sight, as it does to a lesser extent in the VW Golf Plus (56.2 per cent).
At the bottom of the list, convertibles such as the Porsche Boxster (31.4 per cent), BMW Z4 (38.7 per cent) and Lexus IS 250C (39.4 per cent) rate poorly, though obviously their view improves considerably once the roof is down.
And there are issues with the futuristic Honda Civic (37.6 per cent), which has a split rear screen that does rear visibility no favours.
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