I recently drove the new Porsche Macan EV, and while I’ll be writing a review on the $110,000 car soon, I just need to get something off my chest: Extending sun visors have to be standard on all cars. They just have to. The amount of bullshit that’s standard on cars these days is shocking (electric door handles, screens out the wazoo, weird capacitive buttons), and to leave out something so basic and yet important is just not OK. So please just allow me this short rant that doubles as praise for one of the unsung heroes of automotive features.
Want to see something ridiculous? Owners of absurdly expensive Porsches — vehicles with beautifully designed interiors — have no choice but to strap a cheap Amazon extender to their sun visors because Porsche, for some bizarre reason, doesn’t offer telescoping fold-down mirrors.
Look at this atrocity:
What’s worse is that the forum thread above, posted in 2021 to the Macan section of Rennlist.com, was started by a Macan owner was was using a piece of cardboard to block the sun; cardboard!:
How absurd is this? You spend an average American’s salary on a Porsche and you have to use a piece of paper to block the sun from your face?
But this isn’t just a problem on old Macans, it’s an issue on the brand new Porsche Macan EV, too. Here’s me trying to drive without the sun burning my face off:
By the way, here’s the Monroney for this Macan, which costs over $110,000!:
It’s not just me complaining about this. Back in July of 2021, car journalist Zac Palmer wrote on Autoblog “Please, just give all cars extendable sun visors.” From that article:
It’s remarkable how brand-new, clean-sheet, redesigned cars keep coming out without extendable sun visors. I know, it feels like such a small and dumb thing to be up in arms about. But that’s also what’s so frustrating. An extendable or sliding sun visor is such a small add-on to a car that can ultimately make driving significantly less stressful. But there are still so many new cars (even from luxury manufacturers!) that don’t ascribe to the extendable sun visor strategy. Is it because we don’t tell them that it’s a desired feature?
And YouTube channel The Straight Pipes has been doing a visor test for years. If a visor telescopes, it’s a pass. If it doesn’t, it’s a fail:
And look at all the posts on Reddit complaining about this very issue:
And yet, here we are in 2025, and we’ve got new $110,000+ cars coming out without such an obviously-should-be-standard feature.
I myself own a 2021 BMW i3S that cost over $57,000 new, and does it have an extending visor?
Nope. It drives me nuts. My wife’s 2017 Lexus RX350?
Yep. Lexus has its shit together. The rest of the industry needs to do the same.
Obviously, this is possibly the most first-world-problem ever, and you can easily find things that people complain about on cars across the industry, but this extremely useful and relatively cheap feature — especially on an expensive car — just isn’t excusable in my eyes. Neither is the sun.
These became a thing on the GMT 400 era Silverado trucks and LT Suburbans. I have a ’97 Silverado and a ’99 LT Burb and they both have the extension panel that pulls out the end. My big problem with these is the lighted mirrors, because GM cheaped out and used the lid for the on/off switch (open lid, lights come on, close lid, they go off). The “switch” is a small plastic pin that frequently breaks off…and then the battery is unknowingly drained by these lights being on! I swear our old Buick LeSabre Estate Wagon had lighted visors with a slider switch; why could they not have done this on the trucks? These are vehicles that sold for $28-34K new so it’s not like they weren’t making money on the platform that had been in service for several years…..
IIRC the ’90 square body GMC Burb we had, had pull out extensions, but no lighted mirrors.
This is a feature I’ve wanted in every car I have ever owned, and yet not had. The closest I have had is my 99 Oldsmobile Eighty Eight which had dual sun visors, the main one folded down and could pivot to the side like normal, then there was a second thin one that could fold down for just the front windshield if the main one was folded to the side. Was nice for when the sun was roughly at the A pillar.
No, no DT, don’t take that apologetic tone. You’re right on point here.
This is exactly why the rant was invented. It has become abused as a rhetorical device and is all too often used where a bitch-n-moan would be more appropriate, but this is a prime example of the type of use case for which the rant should be invoked.
It’s a first world problem because developing country cars have extending visors.
Properly tinted windows really help in this regard – but that doesn’t help your press car…
My Mini Cooper SE (EV) has a separate side visor that folds down—it works, but I am always aware of its presence just over my left temple. I give them a 7/10 for creativity.
You’re always wearing a baseball cap. If you young’uns can wear those backwards, you can also wear them sideways. Problem solved. Being of a generation who believed only catchers should wear caps that way, I prefer a wide-brimmed hiker hat for that genteel “R.E.I. Degree” look.
I drive a 2005 Ford Excursion. It has what is hands down, the BEST sun visor arrangement ever, I’ve only ever seen in one vehicle ever. Main visor folds down and extends, then when you swing it to the side there is a second visor to continue blocking from the front.
Anything else is just stupid. What’s super stupid is I have it on 20 year old truck, and the other vehicle I remember was from 1994.
Range Rovers have this, too.
My 1999 Buick Park Avenue has those on both driver and passenger side.
While we are at missing features, I want true keyless entry. A fob in my pocket is still key, but Ford has offered this on some cars for 40 years, that keypad on the driver’s door. Never be locked out again. Never go to grab something out of the car and realize you left your keys. Need to leave a car for someone? Give them the code, lock the keys in it. And more. I hate that it didn’t catch on.
Ford had some Better Ideas, remember?
My CPO VW ID.4 has extending visors, so apparently this is only an issue with expensive VWs.
I concur 100%! We’ve all had that late day low blinding sun in the eyes at the absolute worst moment possible, especially when you need to make a left turn with on coming traffic. Those things can save lives!
I agree with David on this one. I have had them in far cheaper cars than the examples in the article.
Seems redundant to me. A luxury SUV driver looking at the road? Colour me surprised.
The solution is to move to Ohio. We only occasionally have enough sunshine to cause this problem. I don’t know if my shades extend or not, and I can’t remember the last time I had to move the shade to the side window.
I am 1000% with you on this. After realizing my Polestar 2, which was my first “fancy” car, didn’t have telescoping sun visors, I was livid! Luckily my new Mach-E has them. Phew!
Objectively speaking, you’re absolutely right. However, for some reason, deploying a sun visor, even though it means using said visor for its intended purpose, makes me itchy – I can’t shake the feeling that something in my car is out of place. Extending it or moving it to the side feels even worse. I’d rather squint for hours 🙂
My cayenne has two sun visors per side, but the one that rotates out to the side does not extend. Luckily the visor is almost long enough to block the whole driver’s side window. The lack of extending sun visor on the Macan is a stupid cost cutting measure that should have never been approved. Even my wife’s tiguan has an extending visor.
Yes to better sunvisors, NO TO ANIMATED GIFS on the main page.
I liked it
When I first started dating my now wife we were driving her car and she was angry that the sun was currently blinding her on the side. I had a Jeep at the time and mentioned the visors extended. I reached over and gave the visor a pull and sure enough her cheapo Nissan visor extended. She had this car for years and never knew it did that and was amazed. Her new car also extends and she can’t believe not every car does. It was a revelation to her.
I’m almost 40, and didn’t know this was a thing until a couple of months ago. I kid you not! I’ve owned/possessed like 24 different cars!!!!
From what my swiss chesse memory can recall, the only vehicles I’ve owned with extendable visors:
2007 Scion tC (had a small flap the extended out from the visor itself to cover behind the mirror without obstructing it.
2018-2021 Jeep Compasses and Cherokees just had the visor on a moveable rod.
So that’s 4 cars out of 28 that I’ve owned, aside from german brands I’ve owned something from almost every major OEM for sale in the US, and one old Audi.
Totally agree.