My mirrors are not great, but are acceptable...barely. The right is easily better than the left. In the right, I can tell a car from a van and judge distance fairly well. On the left, though, it's half as clear. I can tell that there is a mass of something there, but couldn't tell you what that is exactly. I can't tell you make or model of the vehicle behind me nor can I tell you if it's a LEO while looking through either side, either. Judging by some of the comments on other threads, I count myself as lucky. I simply can't imagine that Fred's are better than mine or anyone else's. Maybe his tolerance is simply higher than others.