On 9 Jun 2015 16:39:18 GMT, KenK wrote:

Last week on the way to downtown I found my main east/west road was closed.
Trying to avoid a two mile drive to and from the next e/w main road I
ducked into the residential area nearby. This is a dry agricultural area so
there are lots of irrigation ditches and I kept getting blocked by them.
Quickly became lost. Finally ended up on the next main road I was trying to
avoid driving to but with many side trips on the way. sigh I had wished I
had a compass. Can you still put one in the car? There used to be many more
places to fasten one around the windshield than nowdays on a modern car.

There are two styles, makers or rear-view mirror compasses. Either is
probably as good as the other, but since I drive a convertible, I like
to attach a convex rear view mirror over the existing mirror,so I get a
complete panorama of what is behind me (no blind spots) and this will
not work with one style of the compass mirrors, because it displays the
heading in the mirror area. The other brand displays the heading below
the mirror and that works well.

Unfortunately the mirror compass itself didn't work. (I bought this
maybe 3 years ago so if they had a bad batch or a bad one, this
shouldn't be a problem for you. OTOH, keep your receipt.) First it
wouldn't do metric, but who cares about that. In a couple months, it
would only turn on one time out of three. Should have exchanged it
then. May have to buy another one at this stage, and then exchange the
bad one, ending up with two of them. So I may have one for sale at a
reduced price.

It helps if you already have an electric rear-view mirror. Mine was
self-dimming, so there were 12 volts right at the mirror. Still had to
fildde with the connector, but one end of that came with the mirror. I
think I just used metal pins I extracted from something that I soldered
to the wire and inserted in the original mirror connector. A total of
less than an inch long. Nothing visible to those in the car, and
because of the tinted top of the windshield, nothing visible from the
outside either.

IIIRC all the mirror compasses are calibrated by driving in a circle.
Very easy. And clever of whoever thought of it (originally for
dash-mounted mirrors))


One or more models will also display the outside temperature, but a) I
can tell that before I get in the car, b) by sticking my hand out the
window, or c) the Climate Control AC shows that, which is about the only
thing about it better than manual AC. Otherwise manual is better.

There might be one more thing (time?) that some models display, that
you'll have to decide if you want before you buy.

I havent' seen either brand at autoparts stores, only at JCWhitney.com
and Amazon.


If not the mirror, definitely don't get the standard Airguide compass
from the 1960's, with the adjustable magnets in the bottom. Too many
electrical things in the dash to count on a good field. Way back when,
around 1969, I wrote them to ask if a more expensive compass would work
better and they said No. That all their compasses were the same and the
only difference was the case.

There was also an dash-mounted electronic compass, with 2 adjustable
magnets for sale at Radio Shack and elswhere under a different brand
name, and I have one and it worked well, but they don't sell them
anymore for maybe 10 or 20 years. It has a rotating disk in the front,
vertical face of the compass, and the top is slanted in back, to go
close to the windshield. If you see one used, I'd buy it.

What you can get instead, and I've only seen this at real truck stops,
not even autoparts stores in town, is a dash mounted compass that is
adjusted by driving in a circle. Like the mirror-type, you don't have
to fiddle with the N/S magnet and then the E/W magnet, etc. etc.
I would no longer hesitate to drill a hole in the dash, if I had to, but
when I needed a cup holder, I was able to make a bracket that attached
to the dash with a piece of sheet metal that folded around the dash,
went under a bezel, and was bolted in by one of the radio bolts. It
worked great. If found some scrap from brown aluminum siding and bent
it to fit. Of course the cup holder was primarily on the face of the
dash, and not the top of the dash. So you may be back to drilling. Try
not to drill through the radio.

Or you can buy a Chrysler mini-van and some other vehicles.


I have no interest in GPS, but my friend tells me his cell phone app,
whose name I can get if you want, is cheaper and better than the GPS he
has. The difference is something like, The GPS just says to turn left
in 1000 feet, but the cell phone says that and also what the name of the
street is that one is turning on to. That's going to be especially
valuable when you're in an area you know somewhat, and will know the
named street when you get to it. Or if the streets have street signs.
He likes it a lot better, and it's part of the phone.