I think the second shot is about the best you could have gotten in a situation like this. The flare isn't bad either, you could easily clone that out in Photoshop. Lens hoods actually make a big difference; they would likely have had more problems without one. Dedicated hoods - the ones made by the lens manufacturer specifically for that lens - will give you the most benefit.

Fill flash is going to help a lot but it won't do everything. You could also try spot metering off the driver's face and with caucasian skin tones open up one stop from what that reading is. IOW, if it says 500 at f8, shoot 500 at f5.6. It will blow the background highlights, but the subject will be properly exposed. There are limits to the medium (film or digital), it can record only so much. Color neg won't do this as much as digital, but it's got it's own peculiarities. With some situations, it's just next to impossible to get the results you want.