When I bought the MX5 I wore varifocal glasses and just couldn’t get them right, ok for normal use but just didn’t feel right driving the 5. Ended up going back to bifocal and it was brilliant, best vision I have had in a long time.
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I’ve always considered that the “you’ll get used to them” ploy means that either the optometrist made a mistake when testing your eyes, or the dispenser just grabbed stock lenses that are “close enough” to your prescription. Outrageous when you consider the ridiculous prices charged for these bits of titanium wire or cheap plastic…
If everything has been done properly, you should have pin sharp vision from the moment you put them on for the first time. The only exception might be if you’re going from standard lenses to varifocals, where a slight disorientation may occur at first (in my case, descending a staircase…), but you should still have sharp focus at infinity.
When I have my yearly eyetest, I ask to check my distance vision at the door of the shop with the proposed prescription so that I can look at true infinity rather than the artificial version seen in the testing room. If I’m not happy, I tell the optometrist…
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Agreed.
Part of my work required precise vision, both geometrically and colour-wise, and involved lenses, so over the years I had a bit of fun at the expense of D&A who I knew were trying to rip me off.
But eventually I abandoned them when they insisted I needed new frames, and these degraded in three months to look infinitely worse then the ten year old ones they had sold me previously. I got my money back on those duds (Sale of Goods Act) and went elsewhere.
(Edited to remove weirdness when FF crashed)
I’ve always had varifocals so just getting a new prescription should have been as easy as previously. Not this time, had trouble with adjusting them to my preference but I can see ok with them.
It’s not helped having to go into the city centre, a pita actually but my choice, then the replacement glasses had a chipped lense, they went back. I knew this was all going to be a palava during this Covid but needs must, having waited and waited I needed my eyes testing.
It’s not the lenses so much it’s the frames, I wished I’d never picked these particular ones. When I can I’m going for another tweak to them, appointments and all that, I used to just be able to walk in and get seen there and then.
Yep, bifocals for me too in the 5. 
Can’t get on with them in our Volvo though.
Really weird, just a different driving position set up.
Just hate varifocals which I believe has something to do with having rugby ball shaped eyes! (Astigmatism).
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As a professional pilot I have to have a medical check, including an eyesight test, every six months. Four years ago I was diagnosed with onset of cataracts. I ended up having lens replacements which give me very good distance vision but I now wear the same strength reading glasses that I was prescribed twenty years ago. I’d very strongly resist losing my driving licence for no other reason than reaching an arbitrary age decided by beurocrats.
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There’s no likelihood of that ever happening. An assessment every so often is reasonable IMO as the alternative is just to wait until you have a big enough scare that you realise you need to give up driving or other people realise it and persuade you. I think this idea, that there might be a reduced capability licence which lets you keep driving in good daylight, is a pretty sensible compromise for people developing conditions which cause night blindness for example.
My wife avoids driving at night as she finds headlights and streetlights cause too much glare to see clearly. Optician tells her she has the beginnings of cataracts which are the likely cause.
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Why should the seating height of the car make any difference to your sight? Surely if that were logical you would need a different pair when you stood up and walked around to the ones you used driving the car, and another pair if you drove a truck!
I do have a Class C licence but just use my normal distance pair.
And a pair for washing up and doing the hoovering. 
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It is the varifocals that cause this. As the head is tilted, the eyes look through a different part of the lens and get a different focal length. If the driver is lower, the head is at a different angle to a higher position getting a different correction. Bifocals need a clear change to angle to look through the different (part of the) lenses.
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Varifocals are graduated to suit your specific needs. Before I retired I spent a lot of time using computer screens so the optician set the lens central area at a focal distance to suit the screen distance with a distance area at the top and close reading at the bottom. When I retired and bought the MX5 this set up was totally wrong as I needed a greater long distance area. Hence the move back to bifocal that only have a small arc at the bottom for reading and the majority for distance, perfect in the MX5.
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That explains why I’m OK with bifocals! Thanks!
I have needed glasses since I was 45 and initially had bifocals. My job at the time was bus driving and I just couldn’t get on with them. After talking it over with my Optician I was persuaded to buy Varifocals and I have never looked back. The driving position is very different between a bus and an mx-5 but your brain after a while instinctively makes you look through the “right” part of the lens. I do find a slightly deeper lens in my specs alloys a greater difference in depth of vision. I forget I am wearing my glasses since the current glasses bought for a new prescription one month ago.
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My understanding is that it’s all adjustable with varifocals.
If you want the close vision magnification to start further down the lens, it can be done but you do need to discuss it with the optician.
They can also very the amount of close vision magnification.
If your new varifocals are not right, say so. Otherwise they have no way of knowing.
I have to have special correction to stop me having double vision and my latest varifocals didn’t have enough, so I went back to Specsavers and they were great and tried really hard to get it right for me.
My experience is that they want to get it right, enjoy a bit of a challenge and are grateful for discussion and feedback.
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That can be done with varifocals too.
Adjusting the backrest to alter the angle of your head may help.
Otherwise, go back and tell them they’re not right, that you’ve tried to get used to them but it’s just not happening.
Do try to establish yourself what the problem is first though. For instance, try closing one eye at a time and get something in focus at that angle by tilting your head and then close that eye and open the other to see if the focus is the same.
Also try to work out if the point at which the closer vision magnification starts to kick in is right for you.
The more information you can give them the better
This is excellent advice.
A few decades back my new glasses were dreadful, but the alternate eye blink test revealed the images did not quite line up; the arms were at different height settings for my odd ears and the frame was twisted at the bridge.
I ‘bent it straight’ (easy with metal aviator frames) until the images coincided and the specs sat square; headache gone.