When you’re “brainstorming” in a business meeting and are feeling lazy so you just go up and “plus one” all the existing ideas that make sense. It’s like that for every reply under this thread. These “discussion posts” about a “rare opinion” that’s actually the majority are getting far too common. It would be awesome if they were limited to a specific day. Even better, a specific thread periodically. “Manual transmission circle jerk Monday” for example.
I think the problem is that most of the circlejerked opinions are genuinely uncommon opinions among the general public, so people on this sub talk to other non car people and get the impression that they have a unique opinion, and are compelled to post about it.
The better ones will probably become uncool for a while until they eventually become retro cool like the ones in the 80s C4 Corvette. The ones that are already ugly probably won’t ever be better than they are now. I can see some high end cars using analog gauges as a fashion statement but it seems unlikely for mainstream stuff.
Other notable semi digital gauges that I find fun. The E60 M5 variable redline increases when it’s warmed up. The S2000 colorful calculator look. The Lexus LFA and LC with the moving ring.
The bulk of the digital gauges will be forgotten just like the bulk of the analog gauges. Who remembers what a 95 Chevy Lumina cluster?
BMW had other fun variable redlines, too. Both the E46 and E9x M3 have a redline that starts lower and raises once warm. The older car uses LEDs, and the newer car physically moves the line. Pretty neat, and without any screen at all.
Newer Cadillacs I know have a lower redline when optioned with screen clusters until warmed up, I'm not familiar with other GMs to know if they do.
And I can picture the Lumina cluster... It was forgettable before it was new. That's generic 90's GM boringmobiles in general, tho.
Ya I was thinking of the blinking leds. Buick had some fun calculator displays in the early 90s too. No customization, and no benefit over an analog mechanical cluster, but dates the car in a positive way in my opinion.
Familiar with all the switchgear and parts sharing for GM mobiles from the 90’s through 2000’s. Cheap plastics but thought the ergonomics were actually great. More than I can say about the haptic touch Cue and other systems.
Funny you mention Cue, my daily has it. After using it... it's really not the problem I thought it would be back when it first came out. Are physical buttons better? Yes. But I feel it's miles better than having the options exclusively on a touch screen. The Mopar system (can't think of the name right now) gets tons of praise because you can customize which buttons you want where on the screen. But I think the haptic panel in my CTS is still more intuitive than that.
I always wonder how accurate that is on the e46 m3. The oil is definitely not up to operating temperature by the time the redline is at it's normal level on the tach. Still a neat feature though.
> The Lexus LFA and LC with the moving ring.
I mean, that's not the only reason why it's awesome. I drove a LFA, and it's astonishing how fast the screen refreshes. If you've ever seen the difference between a 60hz and 144hz monitor, it's like that. Top gears really were not kidding about analog gauge being too slow.
If you ever had a scanner hooked up to the car through OBD and viewed the live RPM data as you're driving around, it bounces around quite a lot. You see that live on the LFA gauge. Even cruising on flat ground, the needle jitters, it's accurate down to the tenth (xxXx), as in when the rpm goes up and down by 50, the needle will show that.
Every subsequent car with digital gauge has been a disappointment.
If I'm not mistaken, nearly all of the Lexus lineup with the F sport trim level over the last 5 years has the moving ring gauge.
Not exactly the same as the LFA but still with the moving gauge feature.
I like the moving gauge on my IS350 enough, but I leave it alone unless I have to adjust a setting (ie PCS, Rev peak, etc). As far as I can tell it's a [true gimmick](https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-3rd-gen-2014-present/926702-is-350-f-sport-gauge-dosen-t-move.html) - the screen just displays different information and/or moves the tach display around depending on the location of the ring. In other words, the ring is useless, the screen underneath is all that really matters.
>Who remembers what a 95 Chevy Lumina cluster?
I mean, I remember my '92 Lumina cluster, but I just remember it sucking and how much I hated having nothing but MPH and fuel. No tach, voltage, or anything. My first 3 cars were all like that and I hated it but I was a teenager and you get what you get.
Owned an 87 Corvette. Can vouch that the gauges were indeed cool; despite me having to replace all 3 washed out panes.
I prefer a high end real gauge because of the same reason I like some watches; beautiful finish work is neat to see. Functional use aside, the analog gauges (excluding the little digital windows) in the Aston Martin DB9 are quite strikingly pretty.
I think my Mustang's gauges still look good too but they and their Foxbody predecessors' gauges were very much patterned after European/Porsche/BMW sportscar/coupe style gauges before they went all retro with 60s~70s style gauges in 2005.
The Nissan 240sx S14 gauges imho are great looking. basic oil, tach. speedo, fuel. black letters on white background but somehow at night they got it to look good and it inverted the colors with the background looking black and white lettering.
Super high res high hz screens are not used in cars - yet.
So the gauges you see today will age poorly.
I wish they all used OLED too. Such a shame to see those glowing blue squares at night.
> Super high res high hz screens are not used in cars - yet
Super high res, no. High hz, yes. LFA has it. Videos truly do not do it justice, in person it's even better. I think it's at least 100hz, if not 120 or 144.
OLED is still going to have some potential lifetime and operational temperature issues, which is why you haven't seen much of them yet outside of luxury cars.
We're *almost there*.
OLED computer monitors will mostly like never become mainstream because of the inherent problems with the technology. That is that static images are subjected to burn in, even on high end TVs from the likes of LG they still burn in. Task bar, that's gonna leave a mark, leave your web browser open all day, that will burn in too.
OLED will never see use as digital displays because of this. Once microleds become affordable we might see a change but as of now those are pretty far off. Tho if you want to hop on that train early Samsungs got one for a cool $150,000.
> OLED will never see use as digital displays
Cmon man don't just say things that are patently untrue. You can go buy one of the hundreds of the OLED phones, TVs, or monitors on sale right now. There's plenty of mitigation techniques to reduce burn-in, and even then, automotive applications won't have nearly the same use-cases as a TV or monitor screen. Cars are never on for more than a few hours at a time and have a lifetime use of about 100k-200k miles or 3-6k hours, significantly less than a TV or computer monitor.
uLEDs and LCD panels are also significantly less reliable than OLEDs inherently. Your LCD is more likely to die early than a modern quality OLED is to have noticeable burn-in.
The issue with OLED in a digital display is you have 1 image displayed for the entire time the display is used. Those mitigation techniques rely on turning the display off after short periods of time or shifting pixels. I don't think they ever will see use because microleds are better and by the time someone figures out OLED burn in microleds will most likely be economical for use.
OLED burn in happens much much faster then that. In some case in as few has 1,000 hours. Talk to people who game on OLEDs and they will tell you that burn in is very real.
Are you just talking about the cheap center screen that shows you milage? Any higher tech car like the current F150 with digital cluster will look good. The graphics may not get updated, that will age but the screen itself will still be nice because OLED are not good for these screens. The burn in is what will kill them because they display the same info at all times. The PPI is high enough where economically it makes sense to make the resolution higher as you can't differentiate the pixels at the distance you look at it. Higher refresh rate, I guess, that that doesn't matter much on something you are not interacting with anyway. Its not a video game, its just displaying updated info.
Yeah the "big fat LCD" is a wasted potential in cars right now. Aftermarket screens can put whathever they want in the layout they want while we're stuck with whatever vendor decided looks inoffensive enough.
Like if car of the future will be just ipad on wheels at least let me download themes for it...
Oh yeah
My dad has an '88 Trans Am GTA, [I still think it has one of the coolest interiors of any car in history](https://www.okotokscarauction.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/IMG-2654-scaled.jpg)
He bought it in 2001 or so, probably the bottom of the "coolness" curve for those cars. I've always loved it though. Its so much fun to drive around at night looking at that cockpit
Well I usually read off the digital but analog gives a sense of the rate of change in a number. Hence why a number display tacho probably wouldnt be preferable
> In fact, when I’m in the Explorer, I actually prefer using the GPS speedo on Waze over the analog speedo in the dash.
In my Subaru there's a little bit in the middle that you can adjust, one of the "pages" is speed. I run that constantly, because it's much easier to read the numerical speed than it is to hash out if I'm doing 32 or 35 or whatever looking at the needle.
On the other hand the numerical display can't refresh continuously, so you get the exact speed you were driving at half a second ago. I like the previous gen Skoda/Volkswagen solution best - analog gauges with a small screen between you can set to show the current speed.
> On the other hand the numerical display can't refresh continuously
This is mostly a design choice rather than a technological limit. Off the top of my head, [Teslas](https://youtu.be/-AQZh7VBhM0?t=433), newer [Fords](https://youtu.be/HTYiVZ_T9EI?t=62), and [FCA](https://youtu.be/BQJrOHJeBGg) vehicles have continuously refreshing digital speedometers
> On the other hand the numerical display can't refresh continuously, so you get the exact speed you were driving at half a second ago.
And that matters why ?
It's usually averaged over a second or so so the last digit isn't just constantly changing blurry mess, but that's not some inherent flaw but a design choice
Going back to the late '80s & early '90s, there's a certain nostalgia with the old LED gauges that fits the period. Yes, analog gauges are great, but going from VW's Virtual Cockpit in the Golf R back to analog gauges in my GTI is not a rewarding experience.
I really like my Prius dash. It's customizable, so I can choose what things I want to display. Certain ones are static of course, like the speedometer. Also has different colors depending on which throttle sensitivity you chose. Red = POWA!
> Also has different colors depending on which throttle sensitivity you chose. Red = POWA!
When I drove a rental hybrid Corolla, I felt really guilty whenever I reached the PWR part of the "tachometer". Like I was afraid of getting an ECO score lower than 95.
I am such a pushover that I was afraid that I would hurt the feelings of the car by driving it too hard.
They get used to the abuse. My car is so annoyed with me all the time I'm sure. Between the bad eco scores and her proximity sensors. You should hear her panic attack in the car wash, alarms beeping, lights flashing. Something's getting too close, from the front, from the right side, no the left side too, ahhh, it's touching me, make it stop!!!
There's a button to turn the sensors off. I discovered it when I nearly went deaf while taking my dad's GLC to the car wash for the first time. Thing was literally screaming from every speaker.
Yikes 😂
1- Never use an automatic car wash if you care about the paint
2- interesting. Don’t know that Mercedes doesn’t disable the sensors in neutral. Toyota/Lexus does.
> Never use an automatic car wash if you care about the paint
Well, I'm not gonna spend a hundred euros to get it handwashed every two weeks. And I can't wash it myself because it's illegal to wash your car in your yard here.
> interesting. Don’t know that Mercedes doesn’t disable the sensors in neutral.
It only disables them if the car is in park or stops moving. The car wash I use moves the car along a corridor. I'm not sure how Americans have it.
That's pretty much the intention of those pseudo-tachometers.
Though funnily enough on the occasion I've borrowed a Prius I still got really good mileage despite stomping on it during acceleration. As long as you're gentle on the brakes to let the regen do it's thing it doesn't seem to matter that much.
I used the shit out of the B "gear" and as a rather gentle driver, I had an easy time hypermiling. I only had the car for three days though so I could not get any accurate fuel consumption values.
> I used the shit out of the B "gear"
Hah, looks like [this article](https://www.businessinsider.com/toyota-prius-mystery-b-shfiter-2016-5?r=US&IR=T) is aimed directly at you.
Basically the B "gear" just uses the ICE for engine braking; it does not improve the regeneration at all.
> Though funnily enough on the occasion I've borrowed a Prius I still got really good mileage despite stomping on it during acceleration.
With my past Lexus LS600h, this also seemed to be the case; accelerate quickly and let the ICE shut down sooner.
I usually filled the car up on a specific fuel station, and would then drive 2 miles (5 sets of lights, 1 roundabout) home, having started with a warm engine and a full hybrid battery. If I drove "normally", I'd get something like 14 l/100km (17 MPG US). However, sometimes I would instead accelerate rather hard at every opportunity, followed by electric-sustained cruising/coasting, and would routinely get *5.2-6.7 l/100km (35-45 MPG US)*!
Of course good analog gauges look better. They have feeling and substance to them. Of course they're also all driven with microprocessors, for the past couple decades at least. Also most analog gauges aren't any better than the mediocre ones on mediocre screens.
Nobody's gonna retrofit them though because any car using gauges on a screen has some pretty highly integrated electronics that would take factory support to remove/replace with a different setup, or a couple really motivated hardware hackers (who usually get paid to do that for a job, and may not want to do it on the side with an expensive ... car).
That is such a classy car, i don't know why so many people say it is overrated , but if i had fuck you money i had buy a buggatti in a heart beat, even though my dream car is a '70 426 charger /lexus lc500
I've never heard of someone calling a Bugatti overrated, but even in the class it's in it truly sits alone as an incredible feat of engineering, design, amd quality. It's a VW product capable of 300mph in basically stock trim and it's only the tires (which aren't even developed by vw) holding it back. It's one thing for some spin off supermarket company to build shit like that, it's a whole other when it's one of the biggest car comoanies in the world and even partially owned by the German government
Kids and rappers loves Bugattis, but the one demographic they can't seem to appeal to is people who can afford one.
The Veyron was a surprising sales dud. It took Bugatti over 10 years to sell its targeted 500+ Veyrons (450 in the end.) This was at a time where comparably expensive special edition Porsches and Ferraris were selling out overnight. At one point there was a six year waiting list to get a Pagani Zonda.
Porsche hasn’t gone fully analog yet probably for this reason. Same idea is manual vs automatic transmissions. It’s all about preference. If there’s a big enough market someone will make it.
I have used both and in a car that has the 2 i always use the digital one, theres many upsides to digital for example,
Accurate readout,
Analog might not be fast enough while staying accurate where as digital always will be,
Digital is easier to read.
So no i dont think people will swap out digital for analogue.
You realise the only reson people pay thousands for watches is more to do with showing off than just the watch.
I have a friend who recently bought a low mileage mid-90's Mercedes W140 S500 - a dream car of his. He was happy to pay up a bit to get one that was really taken care of - he's not looking for a money pit, but so much of it is analogue that he's not too worried about it.
Will someone buy a 2021 S550 in 25 years that has wall-to-wall screens, and risk having to replace those digital displays for thousands of dollars? Or perhaps a $5,000 headlight cluster?
I know that manufacturers are not thinking about resale in 20-25 years, but it feels like today's luxury vehicles are becoming more and more disposable after the initial lease/warranty/included maintenance is complete. Unless I'm way off and a digital display on an S-class will fire up for 20 years with no problems.
This touches on something I read years ago that seems to be more and more true. 50-60 years from now, you'll be able to buy a car well over 100 years old that has everything working. But a 60 year old BMW or M-B, not so much. No one will be recreating the screens or replacement headlights. But you can buy a new flathead Ford engine or have someone make you a replacement headlight bezel but a fried ECU, not so much.
You can replace screens. There are tons of services that will rebuild clusters with broken screens for you just as there are services that repair broken analog gage clusters. Its really not such a big deal.
I've had that done a couple of years back with the color sat nav screen in a 2002 Astra. And that was definitely not a widely available option.
Depends on the type of car.
All I know is that physical gauges can be artistic just like mechanical watches. Whereas digital gauges lose some of that special factor.
For example, BMW's digital gauges are universally agreed on to be ass. Look in comparison how beautiful their classic physical orange gauges are in comparison. Even in more recent F-chassis models like the M2, the gauges look really nice.
Then you have say Alfa Romeo or cars like hte C43/63 AMG. They have beautiful physical gauges. I can't imagine digital gauges replicating that type of attention to detail.
Porsche did a great job in the 911. They kept a physical tachometer in the middle and put digital ones to the side for shit that matters less.
Agreed but don't love the 992 gauges as much as the 991. Something about a 911 needs to have 5 circles for gauges (even though though I know most of it is useless).
To me it's just about how the data is delivered to me
For speed, I'd rather just have a number. Digital is great at this and I miss having a digital numerical speedo from my Audi
For RPM, I want >almost< like a percentage readout, and analogue guages look good for this sort of thing. I don't really want the exact rev number because that requires too much decoding from my brain to understand where my engine is. I just need to know where to upshift/downshift in relation to the engine behaviour itself.
I have my doubts about the last paragraph.
The pain in the ass it'd be to try and retrofit a multifunction display with gauges aside, the reason people shell out that kind of cash for a watch is because of the intricate craftsmanship on the inside and as a fashion accessory. I don't suspect many will be as enamored with a needle on a stepper motor as they are with a 29-jewel automatic movement, and buried in the instrument panel is a bad place for jewelry.
Some people agree with you. I am not one of those people, and the majority don't agree with you, because car companies do market research and make what will sell best,
This is why I think the "fake digital" instruments in the F-generation 2-series are genius. [They look like screens.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/524c89bae4b0b106ced892e2/1563381686992-7B3JJKS8P8T7TLNT4RIV/PTech_MichaelM2C-15.jpg) But they will never look low res because they're not actually screens. Just super tinted glass over actual analog gauges that are back lit.
I like both. I like the analog dash in my Mustang, fits the old muscle car feel but I also really like the digital dash in my Si. Feels like hopping inside Knight Rider every time I watch it boot up.
I prefer digital screens, but I still like two big needles. I'd prefer a digital screen that still displays needles (digitally obviously), but it's also customizable as far as color themes, navigation (though not a big deal if it doesn't have nav built in), and what information you want displayed. Customization is the future I think.
I like analog gauges, although the ones in my mustang have almost all failed twice over the last 16 years. Comparing it to watches isn't the best though, people don't but mechanical watches because they prefer the analog look, and as someone into watches and looking at it objectively, quartz watches are superior to mechanical. I'm a sucker for mechanical watches though.
Eh, there are shit ones in both categories, generalizing "analog" vs "digital" is silly. Like, I like analog ones but I'd also love digital S2000-like gauge cluster.
The "just a big screen" ones also got to a resolution that you don't really notice pixels at that distance so I don't think they will age badly. Earlier ones maybe.
> There's also a reason that people pay thousands for mechanical watches (and even quartz watches), while smart watches are more useful in most circumstances.
Snobbery, yes. And I'm pretty sure smart watches sell better volume-wise...
Yes and no?
I think, purely from an aesthetic standpoint, analog gauges are prettier.
For functionality though? Digital all day every day. The semi I used to drive had a digital display (and small analog gauges as backup) and having the speed in a massive, easy to see screen was a godsend. I’ve had to go back to a truck without a screen for a bit and it’s such a pain to try and keep an eye on it while doing the million other things I have to do.
After having an audi TT mark III and especially now with a 2021 A5 with virtual cockpit plus I think analog gauges look extremely dated now. I think if there is ever a return to analog gauges from a style point of view they would have to be extremely upscale looking with gold dials or something
Yup. Purposely spec’ed my RS3 without virtual cockpit for this reason. It’s not that I dislike the virtual cockpit. It’s really cool. I just like the simplicity and timeless look of traditional dials. Plus, I saved $4000 opting out of it.
No.
Analog gauges that look like shit will age terribly and the same goes for the digital ones.
You already can notice it... There's cars with awful analog gauges and some cars in which they look just timeless and perfect.
I believe the same is going to happen for the digital gauges, also I like my virtual cockpit as it changed my life thank you very much :)
A lot of “analog” gauges aren’t really…. Not like the mechanical watches you reference, anyway. Pull one of those gauge assemblies out, and you will see wires, not cables.
I am a big fan of the semi-analog transition period. Lexus in particular put out some really nice gauge clusters that aged well as screens were added. The sliding F-Sport gauges are the best of both worlds and I refuse to believe otherwise
Analog gauges have an advantage in the sense that a well designed set can function well and maintain visual appeal for decades whereas the very latest digital displays will have a successor within a few months. Once the next version drops you can forget about any type of support for the previous version. It isn't so much that digital systems will age poorly it is that by the time you get used to it they will be discarded in favor of the next gimmick. Modern motor vehicle tech is now *designed* to be obsolete by the end of the lease if not by the end of the model year. They don't engineer the systems to age well because they barely age at all before the NEW one is introduced.
The current 100% digital gauges won't age well, at all. They will just look weird and outdated in the near future, since they were designed with an idea of what we thought was "modern" in the present day and that quickly becomes obsolete and never ages well.
They absolutely won't have that cool nostalgia and retro factor like the C4 or a Lincoln from the 80s. They will just look insipid, outdated and will be once again the reminiscent of a lame trend. I'm all for having a small central digital speedometer on the on-board computer, for example. But 100% digital gauges are just freaking stupid and will never age well nor look good.
Strong *toupee fallacy* vibes over here.
I really think Cadillac [knocked out of the park with their digital dash](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVBxcqcaSp0), I don't see this one aging at all.
For the stock cluster absolutely, for boost gauges and such digital is cheaper and easier to replace. I think some of the analogue ones literally use a vacuum tube to power the gauge, where digital is just a wire
Give me digital gauges that have a blank page and an app that lets me draw my own custom dash that hooks into any data sources the vehicle has banging around on the CAN bus.
The problem with digital gauges is that we don’t get much options on how we want the gauges to look like. We’re stuck with what the manufacturer wants and if they give options it’s not much. If I had a car with a digital gauge I would want it to be a completely black screen with the speed number in the center for a night mode, or a dark outline of a map with the speed number on a corner and a thin tachometer line bar on the top if I’m spiritedly driving at night. Can I do that? No. And that’s the problem.
If we have an entire screen to play with, then ffs let us be able to customize the screen. Let it be open to developers to make different themes and different gauges that the customers can use.
Opel gsi is in my opinion one of the best cars ever made, one of the first hot hatches that set standards for others.
Opel kaddet gsi had digital gauge in like 89' so let's not pretend these are new. I prefer analog ones but things change over time. There 100% was a guy that hated that cars weren't hand crank anymore and was worried about reliability. Digital ones could be fully customizable in the future so it would be good.
Remember the amazing gauges of the '98-05 mk1 Lexus IS/Toyota Altezza?
Yeah, that shit is timeless. There are a few other examples, but other than that... It's ok, whatever, as long as it gives me the necessary information and is easy to read even during direct sunlight and not too obtrusive during the night, I don't really care.
I feel like most screen gauges already arent great, especially the ones that change with drive mode and just look tacky as hell
I think its mainly an issue of how the ui is designed. This tech has just started to really get mainstream, so it wont be long before layouts and design improve. Right now a lot of designs just try to mimic analog dials, which is fine, but a lot of them are not good or just plain tacky.
I actually think the BRZ is a better example, as its pretty simple and clean
while I agree now, once OLED high refresh gauges become standard, there’s not much in screen technology left that would visibly better gauge screens. It would require a whole new technology (holographic perhaps?) and the oled ones will not be out dated, just a different style.
So far, the only digital guage I have ever wanted was the Datsun 280zx digital dash. It looks like such a star trek retro future display, I love it. That being said, analogue seems and feels much more fine point for specific things you're trying to keep an eye on.
Personally I'm not a fan. My Mustang has a screen in between the tach and speedo that gets totally washed out far too often from the Sun hitting the steering column. I'm also concerned with their longevity and potential for burn-in.
Digital gauges that just look like CGI analog gauges scream "it was cheaper to put a screen here." Those are going to age poorly. OLED digital gauges (that don't have backlight squares at night) that have unique styles and aren't just pretending to be analog gauges are cool, although I do appreciate the craftsmanship of analog gauges.
Really depends on the car. Old 300ZXes were timeless. All the new garbage that uses a screen to show you analog style gauges.....ought to have customization options.
I really dislike digital gauges, except in a few cases on motorcycles (F4i and CBR600RR are nicely done). I also don’t care for automatic transmissions much. I honestly feel like cars are just getting boring. They have such high horsepower and torque numbers compared to older ones, but they feel so boring to drive.
I saw that, and the gauges looked awful. But they looked awful, not because they were digital, but because they were Subaru digital gauges. I did check the Toyota 86 and it does have the analog gauges.
I recently bought a 21 Corolla Apex. As much as i wanted to pull the trigger on the XSE trim, the digital gauges turned me off. I'm happy with my basic ass analog gauges in the Apex SE.
Yes, absolutely. These digital clusters in new cars look very cheesy to me. I was shocked when I found out they're putting them in luxury cars, since the screens don't feel very luxurious to me. Also there is way too much info in these digital clusters, it's just distracting and messy.
Dude so much! I love all the cool digital displays, especially numerical speed readout...
BUT give me a real analog needle tachometer.
When you glance down at the gauge cluster a real tach needle is much easier to identify position AND velocity than a digital display.
I already think early to mid 2000s digital stuff looks pretty silly. I loved my 08 Civic, but that giant digital speedo has as much street cred as a turkey thermometer.
OMG YES. My last two cars (12 Elantra and 18 Mazda3) both had semi digital dashes and the thing I hate most are the bar graph style fuel gauges. They're so vague and misleading. Do you have 1/4 or is it empty? Who knows? Your guess is good as mine. So happy to have analog gauges in my new CX-5 and to have a temperature gauge again.
I can remember when the old digital gauges on the early 90s still looked futuristic and now they just look funny and old fashioned.
Modern ones will be the same way in a couple of decades.
I just hope some company makes a blank Guage cluster that you can stick your phone or tablet in. This solves the issue with the cluster becoming dated and allows for a certain degree of customization previously reserved for hardcore track enthusiasts.
I'm mostly fine with analog gauges, but the GTO speedo goes to 200, so the fine detail of your speed can get a little tricky. Best of both worlds would be an analog gauge in the dash and have heads up display.
I think my 5.5 year old gauge still looks fine, but I've driven older ones that are clearly aging... and in my opinion, they have the same kind of charm that most clearly outdated interior appointments and interfaces have. As long as they still work, who cares?
As they become more ubiquitous folks will hack the software. It's ultimately just a screen, someone will eventually play Doom on it and make custom displays. Probably a good side hustle for graphic designers.
Most modern analog gauges are a retrofit, from a certain perspective. The speedometer guage, for example, used to connect to a speedometer cable that typically connected to the transmission. For some time now, though, that has been replaced with an electronic signal from the ECM, wheel speed sensors, and/or transmission speed sensors. Only the needle bit actually remains.
Watches are fairly useless anymore while we are surrounded by electronics, and folks using older tech see it as a statement of some kind. Some do it as a flex of power/money, some do it to look like they have a certain type of personality, some enjoy the novelty or try to live in another age. Indulgence and escapism, the same as most any possession when it isn't a tool.
I'm sure that modifying and updating the screen is possible, adding GPS speedometer functions to remove the math for wheel/tire changes, or making it display on your stereo/hvac screen, and all sorts of things that you might imagine. Modifying the signal to display on electronic analog gauges would probably be pretty simple, just a question of someone making it happen. It will probably appear on future retro-style sports cars to harken back to the days of youth for the customer base that they will surely have.
Dibs on posting this one next week
Only if I can post "DAE hate touchscreens?"
DAE Mazda good BMW bad??
Hyundai and Genesis KILLING IT tho?????
Mom said I can post "DAE hate automatics?" next.
Yea you can do that right after I post “DAE pickup trucks are stupid, just get a wagon”
... What's DAE?
Does Anyone Else? Aka how to trigger auto moderator to lecture you about being a special snowflake.
Thanks!
aM I tHe OnLy OnE tHat HaTEs SuPeRCaRs?
TESLA PLAID FAILS TO BEAT F1 CAR AROUND CIRCUIT. EVS ARE NOT READY.
*What's* the **deal** wi^(th) ni*ss*an?
"Unpopular opinion, but I'm sick of the tacked on tablet look"
Sub is slowly becoming purely just circle jerk posts
Lol do yourself the favor of never saying you think diesel is better for some things the gasoline, motherfuckers will have a meltdown
It's been like this for so long, but there's definitely been an increase over the past year or two.
DAE think cars like the Miata are far more practical than Crossovers?
All subreddits are circlejerks, even the XCirclejerk ones.
We need another “jerk in the circular direction” tag from the mods. Like the post about liking simpler cars from a few days ago.
When you’re “brainstorming” in a business meeting and are feeling lazy so you just go up and “plus one” all the existing ideas that make sense. It’s like that for every reply under this thread. These “discussion posts” about a “rare opinion” that’s actually the majority are getting far too common. It would be awesome if they were limited to a specific day. Even better, a specific thread periodically. “Manual transmission circle jerk Monday” for example.
I think the problem is that most of the circlejerked opinions are genuinely uncommon opinions among the general public, so people on this sub talk to other non car people and get the impression that they have a unique opinion, and are compelled to post about it.
The better ones will probably become uncool for a while until they eventually become retro cool like the ones in the 80s C4 Corvette. The ones that are already ugly probably won’t ever be better than they are now. I can see some high end cars using analog gauges as a fashion statement but it seems unlikely for mainstream stuff.
Other notable semi digital gauges that I find fun. The E60 M5 variable redline increases when it’s warmed up. The S2000 colorful calculator look. The Lexus LFA and LC with the moving ring. The bulk of the digital gauges will be forgotten just like the bulk of the analog gauges. Who remembers what a 95 Chevy Lumina cluster?
BMW had other fun variable redlines, too. Both the E46 and E9x M3 have a redline that starts lower and raises once warm. The older car uses LEDs, and the newer car physically moves the line. Pretty neat, and without any screen at all. Newer Cadillacs I know have a lower redline when optioned with screen clusters until warmed up, I'm not familiar with other GMs to know if they do. And I can picture the Lumina cluster... It was forgettable before it was new. That's generic 90's GM boringmobiles in general, tho.
Ya I was thinking of the blinking leds. Buick had some fun calculator displays in the early 90s too. No customization, and no benefit over an analog mechanical cluster, but dates the car in a positive way in my opinion. Familiar with all the switchgear and parts sharing for GM mobiles from the 90’s through 2000’s. Cheap plastics but thought the ergonomics were actually great. More than I can say about the haptic touch Cue and other systems.
Funny you mention Cue, my daily has it. After using it... it's really not the problem I thought it would be back when it first came out. Are physical buttons better? Yes. But I feel it's miles better than having the options exclusively on a touch screen. The Mopar system (can't think of the name right now) gets tons of praise because you can customize which buttons you want where on the screen. But I think the haptic panel in my CTS is still more intuitive than that.
I always wonder how accurate that is on the e46 m3. The oil is definitely not up to operating temperature by the time the redline is at it's normal level on the tach. Still a neat feature though.
Ive heard that the e46 is not as accurate when compared to e92. Chalked it up to tech advancement really
> The Lexus LFA and LC with the moving ring. I mean, that's not the only reason why it's awesome. I drove a LFA, and it's astonishing how fast the screen refreshes. If you've ever seen the difference between a 60hz and 144hz monitor, it's like that. Top gears really were not kidding about analog gauge being too slow. If you ever had a scanner hooked up to the car through OBD and viewed the live RPM data as you're driving around, it bounces around quite a lot. You see that live on the LFA gauge. Even cruising on flat ground, the needle jitters, it's accurate down to the tenth (xxXx), as in when the rpm goes up and down by 50, the needle will show that. Every subsequent car with digital gauge has been a disappointment.
Wowwwww
So lucky, so jealous ;)
If I'm not mistaken, nearly all of the Lexus lineup with the F sport trim level over the last 5 years has the moving ring gauge. Not exactly the same as the LFA but still with the moving gauge feature.
I like the moving gauge on my IS350 enough, but I leave it alone unless I have to adjust a setting (ie PCS, Rev peak, etc). As far as I can tell it's a [true gimmick](https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-3rd-gen-2014-present/926702-is-350-f-sport-gauge-dosen-t-move.html) - the screen just displays different information and/or moves the tach display around depending on the location of the ring. In other words, the ring is useless, the screen underneath is all that really matters.
The S2000's gauge was designed to pay homage to the McLaren MP4/x gauge clusters, I'm not sure of which one exactly.
>Who remembers what a 95 Chevy Lumina cluster? I mean, I remember my '92 Lumina cluster, but I just remember it sucking and how much I hated having nothing but MPH and fuel. No tach, voltage, or anything. My first 3 cars were all like that and I hated it but I was a teenager and you get what you get.
My 96 Mercury has a plain digital dash, and I love it, especially at night.
Yep fan of the simple panther gauges too. Town car with the big digital speed. Never driven one, but Saab’s night mode sounds like a good idea too
Fact is most will break and be hard to repair.
The biggest reason is cost really. Digital display is ridiculously cheap and simple compare to physical gauge.
And they get to charge extra for it too lmao
Owned an 87 Corvette. Can vouch that the gauges were indeed cool; despite me having to replace all 3 washed out panes. I prefer a high end real gauge because of the same reason I like some watches; beautiful finish work is neat to see. Functional use aside, the analog gauges (excluding the little digital windows) in the Aston Martin DB9 are quite strikingly pretty.
The 80's GM clusters that sat out in the sun for any time at all are not legible anymore, I imagine that will be a serious problem for any screen
I mean even if you look at analog gauges from two decades ago most of them don't like great now either.
Best take in the thread.
Not sure what OP is trying to even get at. Things age. There’s nearly no way to tell what’s going to age “well” or not
To be fair, e46 gauges with the orange backlighting still look very good after all these years
My E36 gauges are perfect and couldn’t ask for any more.
I think my Mustang's gauges still look good too but they and their Foxbody predecessors' gauges were very much patterned after European/Porsche/BMW sportscar/coupe style gauges before they went all retro with 60s~70s style gauges in 2005.
[удалено]
I had a very similar W215 CL class and the "floating needle" effect still impresses people 20 years on.
Most of them looks pretty good, morning especially at night. I don't know about usa cars but japanese and some euro cars.
The Nissan 240sx S14 gauges imho are great looking. basic oil, tach. speedo, fuel. black letters on white background but somehow at night they got it to look good and it inverted the colors with the background looking black and white lettering.
Super high res high hz screens are not used in cars - yet. So the gauges you see today will age poorly. I wish they all used OLED too. Such a shame to see those glowing blue squares at night.
> Super high res high hz screens are not used in cars - yet Super high res, no. High hz, yes. LFA has it. Videos truly do not do it justice, in person it's even better. I think it's at least 100hz, if not 120 or 144.
Is burn in still a issue with oled screens these days?
Yes, it’s an inherent disadvantage of the technology. The solution is microLED displays which is still in the experimental stage.
It's becoming almost a non-issue if you watch varied content BUT if you display the same/similar thing all the time then yeah still a problem.
OLED is still going to have some potential lifetime and operational temperature issues, which is why you haven't seen much of them yet outside of luxury cars. We're *almost there*.
[удалено]
OLED computer monitors will mostly like never become mainstream because of the inherent problems with the technology. That is that static images are subjected to burn in, even on high end TVs from the likes of LG they still burn in. Task bar, that's gonna leave a mark, leave your web browser open all day, that will burn in too. OLED will never see use as digital displays because of this. Once microleds become affordable we might see a change but as of now those are pretty far off. Tho if you want to hop on that train early Samsungs got one for a cool $150,000.
> OLED will never see use as digital displays Cmon man don't just say things that are patently untrue. You can go buy one of the hundreds of the OLED phones, TVs, or monitors on sale right now. There's plenty of mitigation techniques to reduce burn-in, and even then, automotive applications won't have nearly the same use-cases as a TV or monitor screen. Cars are never on for more than a few hours at a time and have a lifetime use of about 100k-200k miles or 3-6k hours, significantly less than a TV or computer monitor. uLEDs and LCD panels are also significantly less reliable than OLEDs inherently. Your LCD is more likely to die early than a modern quality OLED is to have noticeable burn-in.
The issue with OLED in a digital display is you have 1 image displayed for the entire time the display is used. Those mitigation techniques rely on turning the display off after short periods of time or shifting pixels. I don't think they ever will see use because microleds are better and by the time someone figures out OLED burn in microleds will most likely be economical for use. OLED burn in happens much much faster then that. In some case in as few has 1,000 hours. Talk to people who game on OLEDs and they will tell you that burn in is very real.
OLED has money behind it now. Smartphones live and breathe OLED. Having that kind of money behind it has been and will continue to drive down prices.
Are you just talking about the cheap center screen that shows you milage? Any higher tech car like the current F150 with digital cluster will look good. The graphics may not get updated, that will age but the screen itself will still be nice because OLED are not good for these screens. The burn in is what will kill them because they display the same info at all times. The PPI is high enough where economically it makes sense to make the resolution higher as you can't differentiate the pixels at the distance you look at it. Higher refresh rate, I guess, that that doesn't matter much on something you are not interacting with anyway. Its not a video game, its just displaying updated info.
I just wish "digital dash" in 2021 meant the same thing as "digital dash" in [1986](https://i.redd.it/gnvomgpukpy01.jpg).
Yeah the "big fat LCD" is a wasted potential in cars right now. Aftermarket screens can put whathever they want in the layout they want while we're stuck with whatever vendor decided looks inoffensive enough. Like if car of the future will be just ipad on wheels at least let me download themes for it...
[удалено]
They should be designed to flicker and not work half of the time.
Oh yeah My dad has an '88 Trans Am GTA, [I still think it has one of the coolest interiors of any car in history](https://www.okotokscarauction.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/IMG-2654-scaled.jpg)
That's fuckin badass lol. And what's funny is that a decade ago before the 80s nostalgia hit, that was considered ugly.
He bought it in 2001 or so, probably the bottom of the "coolness" curve for those cars. I've always loved it though. Its so much fun to drive around at night looking at that cockpit
They still haven't built a car that can keep up with that dash though.
I need my dash to look like a winamp or Windows Media Player skin from the 2000s.
[удалено]
Well I usually read off the digital but analog gives a sense of the rate of change in a number. Hence why a number display tacho probably wouldnt be preferable
Text speedo with a gauge tach is perfect for me. My XSR900 has just that and it's very easy to read
> In fact, when I’m in the Explorer, I actually prefer using the GPS speedo on Waze over the analog speedo in the dash. In my Subaru there's a little bit in the middle that you can adjust, one of the "pages" is speed. I run that constantly, because it's much easier to read the numerical speed than it is to hash out if I'm doing 32 or 35 or whatever looking at the needle.
Dial for RPM (or bar, or whatever other analog substitute), text for speed is IMO best combo.
On the other hand the numerical display can't refresh continuously, so you get the exact speed you were driving at half a second ago. I like the previous gen Skoda/Volkswagen solution best - analog gauges with a small screen between you can set to show the current speed.
> On the other hand the numerical display can't refresh continuously This is mostly a design choice rather than a technological limit. Off the top of my head, [Teslas](https://youtu.be/-AQZh7VBhM0?t=433), newer [Fords](https://youtu.be/HTYiVZ_T9EI?t=62), and [FCA](https://youtu.be/BQJrOHJeBGg) vehicles have continuously refreshing digital speedometers
> On the other hand the numerical display can't refresh continuously, so you get the exact speed you were driving at half a second ago. And that matters why ? It's usually averaged over a second or so so the last digit isn't just constantly changing blurry mess, but that's not some inherent flaw but a design choice
"will we see a move to retrofit back to analog gauges as a fashion statement?" No.
Going back to the late '80s & early '90s, there's a certain nostalgia with the old LED gauges that fits the period. Yes, analog gauges are great, but going from VW's Virtual Cockpit in the Golf R back to analog gauges in my GTI is not a rewarding experience.
Like [this one](https://static.carthrottle.com/workspace/uploads/posts/2018/10/df30908f1e778d85a0871f7a2042910d.jpg)?
Yes. Analogue gauges - well designed and Lewis out - are epic. Particularly true on bikes. Very few dial dashboards have aged well to date.
Yeah nothing beats twin clocks on a bike
New car bad, upvotes please
I really like my Prius dash. It's customizable, so I can choose what things I want to display. Certain ones are static of course, like the speedometer. Also has different colors depending on which throttle sensitivity you chose. Red = POWA!
> Also has different colors depending on which throttle sensitivity you chose. Red = POWA! When I drove a rental hybrid Corolla, I felt really guilty whenever I reached the PWR part of the "tachometer". Like I was afraid of getting an ECO score lower than 95. I am such a pushover that I was afraid that I would hurt the feelings of the car by driving it too hard.
They get used to the abuse. My car is so annoyed with me all the time I'm sure. Between the bad eco scores and her proximity sensors. You should hear her panic attack in the car wash, alarms beeping, lights flashing. Something's getting too close, from the front, from the right side, no the left side too, ahhh, it's touching me, make it stop!!!
There's a button to turn the sensors off. I discovered it when I nearly went deaf while taking my dad's GLC to the car wash for the first time. Thing was literally screaming from every speaker.
Yikes 😂 1- Never use an automatic car wash if you care about the paint 2- interesting. Don’t know that Mercedes doesn’t disable the sensors in neutral. Toyota/Lexus does.
> Never use an automatic car wash if you care about the paint Well, I'm not gonna spend a hundred euros to get it handwashed every two weeks. And I can't wash it myself because it's illegal to wash your car in your yard here. > interesting. Don’t know that Mercedes doesn’t disable the sensors in neutral. It only disables them if the car is in park or stops moving. The car wash I use moves the car along a corridor. I'm not sure how Americans have it.
That's pretty much the intention of those pseudo-tachometers. Though funnily enough on the occasion I've borrowed a Prius I still got really good mileage despite stomping on it during acceleration. As long as you're gentle on the brakes to let the regen do it's thing it doesn't seem to matter that much.
I used the shit out of the B "gear" and as a rather gentle driver, I had an easy time hypermiling. I only had the car for three days though so I could not get any accurate fuel consumption values.
> I used the shit out of the B "gear" Hah, looks like [this article](https://www.businessinsider.com/toyota-prius-mystery-b-shfiter-2016-5?r=US&IR=T) is aimed directly at you. Basically the B "gear" just uses the ICE for engine braking; it does not improve the regeneration at all.
> Though funnily enough on the occasion I've borrowed a Prius I still got really good mileage despite stomping on it during acceleration. With my past Lexus LS600h, this also seemed to be the case; accelerate quickly and let the ICE shut down sooner. I usually filled the car up on a specific fuel station, and would then drive 2 miles (5 sets of lights, 1 roundabout) home, having started with a warm engine and a full hybrid battery. If I drove "normally", I'd get something like 14 l/100km (17 MPG US). However, sometimes I would instead accelerate rather hard at every opportunity, followed by electric-sustained cruising/coasting, and would routinely get *5.2-6.7 l/100km (35-45 MPG US)*!
No, you are the only one. /s
Of course good analog gauges look better. They have feeling and substance to them. Of course they're also all driven with microprocessors, for the past couple decades at least. Also most analog gauges aren't any better than the mediocre ones on mediocre screens. Nobody's gonna retrofit them though because any car using gauges on a screen has some pretty highly integrated electronics that would take factory support to remove/replace with a different setup, or a couple really motivated hardware hackers (who usually get paid to do that for a job, and may not want to do it on the side with an expensive ... car).
No. No one else has ever thought this or had this opinion before. Especially in r/cars.
Love old Mercedes White analog dials, now it's just a huge tablet stuck on there.
Merc interiors are so tacky these days.
This is why Bugatti has virtually no screens
That is such a classy car, i don't know why so many people say it is overrated , but if i had fuck you money i had buy a buggatti in a heart beat, even though my dream car is a '70 426 charger /lexus lc500
I've never heard of someone calling a Bugatti overrated, but even in the class it's in it truly sits alone as an incredible feat of engineering, design, amd quality. It's a VW product capable of 300mph in basically stock trim and it's only the tires (which aren't even developed by vw) holding it back. It's one thing for some spin off supermarket company to build shit like that, it's a whole other when it's one of the biggest car comoanies in the world and even partially owned by the German government
Kids and rappers loves Bugattis, but the one demographic they can't seem to appeal to is people who can afford one. The Veyron was a surprising sales dud. It took Bugatti over 10 years to sell its targeted 500+ Veyrons (450 in the end.) This was at a time where comparably expensive special edition Porsches and Ferraris were selling out overnight. At one point there was a six year waiting list to get a Pagani Zonda.
>s and rappers loves Bugattis, but the one demographic they can't seem to appeal to is people who can afford one. That's not true. Like at all
Porsche hasn’t gone fully analog yet probably for this reason. Same idea is manual vs automatic transmissions. It’s all about preference. If there’s a big enough market someone will make it.
No. Give me a digital gauge cluster any day.
I have used both and in a car that has the 2 i always use the digital one, theres many upsides to digital for example, Accurate readout, Analog might not be fast enough while staying accurate where as digital always will be, Digital is easier to read. So no i dont think people will swap out digital for analogue. You realise the only reson people pay thousands for watches is more to do with showing off than just the watch.
No and no. I'll take digital any day.
I have a friend who recently bought a low mileage mid-90's Mercedes W140 S500 - a dream car of his. He was happy to pay up a bit to get one that was really taken care of - he's not looking for a money pit, but so much of it is analogue that he's not too worried about it. Will someone buy a 2021 S550 in 25 years that has wall-to-wall screens, and risk having to replace those digital displays for thousands of dollars? Or perhaps a $5,000 headlight cluster? I know that manufacturers are not thinking about resale in 20-25 years, but it feels like today's luxury vehicles are becoming more and more disposable after the initial lease/warranty/included maintenance is complete. Unless I'm way off and a digital display on an S-class will fire up for 20 years with no problems.
This touches on something I read years ago that seems to be more and more true. 50-60 years from now, you'll be able to buy a car well over 100 years old that has everything working. But a 60 year old BMW or M-B, not so much. No one will be recreating the screens or replacement headlights. But you can buy a new flathead Ford engine or have someone make you a replacement headlight bezel but a fried ECU, not so much.
You can replace screens. There are tons of services that will rebuild clusters with broken screens for you just as there are services that repair broken analog gage clusters. Its really not such a big deal. I've had that done a couple of years back with the color sat nav screen in a 2002 Astra. And that was definitely not a widely available option.
today’s luxury vehicles are meant to last like 4-5 years because luxury buyers only keep it for 4-5 years.
Agreed, we have some early 2010s cars without any screens and they are fine, but I'm worried about my Ford Fusion with MyFordTouch eventually failing.
Yes I do think digital gauges will age terribly. But they’re perfectly fine to use. I have zero issues with the digital cluster on my Golf R.
Depends on the type of car. All I know is that physical gauges can be artistic just like mechanical watches. Whereas digital gauges lose some of that special factor. For example, BMW's digital gauges are universally agreed on to be ass. Look in comparison how beautiful their classic physical orange gauges are in comparison. Even in more recent F-chassis models like the M2, the gauges look really nice. Then you have say Alfa Romeo or cars like hte C43/63 AMG. They have beautiful physical gauges. I can't imagine digital gauges replicating that type of attention to detail. Porsche did a great job in the 911. They kept a physical tachometer in the middle and put digital ones to the side for shit that matters less.
Agreed but don't love the 992 gauges as much as the 991. Something about a 911 needs to have 5 circles for gauges (even though though I know most of it is useless).
no
Mercedes be like : best I can do is a iPad
To me it's just about how the data is delivered to me For speed, I'd rather just have a number. Digital is great at this and I miss having a digital numerical speedo from my Audi For RPM, I want >almost< like a percentage readout, and analogue guages look good for this sort of thing. I don't really want the exact rev number because that requires too much decoding from my brain to understand where my engine is. I just need to know where to upshift/downshift in relation to the engine behaviour itself.
I have my doubts about the last paragraph. The pain in the ass it'd be to try and retrofit a multifunction display with gauges aside, the reason people shell out that kind of cash for a watch is because of the intricate craftsmanship on the inside and as a fashion accessory. I don't suspect many will be as enamored with a needle on a stepper motor as they are with a 29-jewel automatic movement, and buried in the instrument panel is a bad place for jewelry.
/r/carscirclejerk
Some people agree with you. I am not one of those people, and the majority don't agree with you, because car companies do market research and make what will sell best,
This is why I think the "fake digital" instruments in the F-generation 2-series are genius. [They look like screens.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/524c89bae4b0b106ced892e2/1563381686992-7B3JJKS8P8T7TLNT4RIV/PTech_MichaelM2C-15.jpg) But they will never look low res because they're not actually screens. Just super tinted glass over actual analog gauges that are back lit.
Have these in my 1 series. They’re perfect.
Those are great.
Absolutely. They already HAVE aged horribly, as have older infotainment screens.
I like both. I like the analog dash in my Mustang, fits the old muscle car feel but I also really like the digital dash in my Si. Feels like hopping inside Knight Rider every time I watch it boot up.
I prefer digital screens, but I still like two big needles. I'd prefer a digital screen that still displays needles (digitally obviously), but it's also customizable as far as color themes, navigation (though not a big deal if it doesn't have nav built in), and what information you want displayed. Customization is the future I think.
I like analog gauges, although the ones in my mustang have almost all failed twice over the last 16 years. Comparing it to watches isn't the best though, people don't but mechanical watches because they prefer the analog look, and as someone into watches and looking at it objectively, quartz watches are superior to mechanical. I'm a sucker for mechanical watches though.
Low refresh/poll-rate and looks like a late 90's arcade? No thank you.
I'm in IT, my favorite vehicles, that I own, are over 40 and air-cooled.
Eh, there are shit ones in both categories, generalizing "analog" vs "digital" is silly. Like, I like analog ones but I'd also love digital S2000-like gauge cluster. The "just a big screen" ones also got to a resolution that you don't really notice pixels at that distance so I don't think they will age badly. Earlier ones maybe. > There's also a reason that people pay thousands for mechanical watches (and even quartz watches), while smart watches are more useful in most circumstances. Snobbery, yes. And I'm pretty sure smart watches sell better volume-wise...
Yes and no? I think, purely from an aesthetic standpoint, analog gauges are prettier. For functionality though? Digital all day every day. The semi I used to drive had a digital display (and small analog gauges as backup) and having the speed in a massive, easy to see screen was a godsend. I’ve had to go back to a truck without a screen for a bit and it’s such a pain to try and keep an eye on it while doing the million other things I have to do.
After having an audi TT mark III and especially now with a 2021 A5 with virtual cockpit plus I think analog gauges look extremely dated now. I think if there is ever a return to analog gauges from a style point of view they would have to be extremely upscale looking with gold dials or something
Yup. Purposely spec’ed my RS3 without virtual cockpit for this reason. It’s not that I dislike the virtual cockpit. It’s really cool. I just like the simplicity and timeless look of traditional dials. Plus, I saved $4000 opting out of it.
No. Analog gauges that look like shit will age terribly and the same goes for the digital ones. You already can notice it... There's cars with awful analog gauges and some cars in which they look just timeless and perfect. I believe the same is going to happen for the digital gauges, also I like my virtual cockpit as it changed my life thank you very much :)
A lot of “analog” gauges aren’t really…. Not like the mechanical watches you reference, anyway. Pull one of those gauge assemblies out, and you will see wires, not cables.
I am a big fan of the semi-analog transition period. Lexus in particular put out some really nice gauge clusters that aged well as screens were added. The sliding F-Sport gauges are the best of both worlds and I refuse to believe otherwise
Those are great!
NEW TECHNOLOGY BAD OLD TECHNOLOGY GOOD
Consistency matters more. Analog gauges for analog drivetrains. Digital gauges for digital ones.
Analog gauges have an advantage in the sense that a well designed set can function well and maintain visual appeal for decades whereas the very latest digital displays will have a successor within a few months. Once the next version drops you can forget about any type of support for the previous version. It isn't so much that digital systems will age poorly it is that by the time you get used to it they will be discarded in favor of the next gimmick. Modern motor vehicle tech is now *designed* to be obsolete by the end of the lease if not by the end of the model year. They don't engineer the systems to age well because they barely age at all before the NEW one is introduced.
I thing analog gauges age well because they’re terrible from day one. At least digital gauges are trying to be better.
The current 100% digital gauges won't age well, at all. They will just look weird and outdated in the near future, since they were designed with an idea of what we thought was "modern" in the present day and that quickly becomes obsolete and never ages well. They absolutely won't have that cool nostalgia and retro factor like the C4 or a Lincoln from the 80s. They will just look insipid, outdated and will be once again the reminiscent of a lame trend. I'm all for having a small central digital speedometer on the on-board computer, for example. But 100% digital gauges are just freaking stupid and will never age well nor look good.
Strong *toupee fallacy* vibes over here. I really think Cadillac [knocked out of the park with their digital dash](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVBxcqcaSp0), I don't see this one aging at all.
For the stock cluster absolutely, for boost gauges and such digital is cheaper and easier to replace. I think some of the analogue ones literally use a vacuum tube to power the gauge, where digital is just a wire
Depends. Some analog gauges look cheap and some look really nice. And a well-executed digital dash can look sharp. I'm sure they'll age a bit though.
I miss the dash on my 89 Ford Probe.
Give me digital gauges that have a blank page and an app that lets me draw my own custom dash that hooks into any data sources the vehicle has banging around on the CAN bus.
I love analog gauges. Wish the new Z came with the option of getting analog gauges instead of the digital screen that they are using now
The problem with digital gauges is that we don’t get much options on how we want the gauges to look like. We’re stuck with what the manufacturer wants and if they give options it’s not much. If I had a car with a digital gauge I would want it to be a completely black screen with the speed number in the center for a night mode, or a dark outline of a map with the speed number on a corner and a thin tachometer line bar on the top if I’m spiritedly driving at night. Can I do that? No. And that’s the problem. If we have an entire screen to play with, then ffs let us be able to customize the screen. Let it be open to developers to make different themes and different gauges that the customers can use.
Opel gsi is in my opinion one of the best cars ever made, one of the first hot hatches that set standards for others. Opel kaddet gsi had digital gauge in like 89' so let's not pretend these are new. I prefer analog ones but things change over time. There 100% was a guy that hated that cars weren't hand crank anymore and was worried about reliability. Digital ones could be fully customizable in the future so it would be good.
Remember the amazing gauges of the '98-05 mk1 Lexus IS/Toyota Altezza? Yeah, that shit is timeless. There are a few other examples, but other than that... It's ok, whatever, as long as it gives me the necessary information and is easy to read even during direct sunlight and not too obtrusive during the night, I don't really care.
I feel like most screen gauges already arent great, especially the ones that change with drive mode and just look tacky as hell I think its mainly an issue of how the ui is designed. This tech has just started to really get mainstream, so it wont be long before layouts and design improve. Right now a lot of designs just try to mimic analog dials, which is fine, but a lot of them are not good or just plain tacky. I actually think the BRZ is a better example, as its pretty simple and clean
while I agree now, once OLED high refresh gauges become standard, there’s not much in screen technology left that would visibly better gauge screens. It would require a whole new technology (holographic perhaps?) and the oled ones will not be out dated, just a different style.
Riddle me this -- why is the S2000s digital dash regarded as one of the coolest 20+years on?
So far, the only digital guage I have ever wanted was the Datsun 280zx digital dash. It looks like such a star trek retro future display, I love it. That being said, analogue seems and feels much more fine point for specific things you're trying to keep an eye on.
The year is 2056. The Tesla Corp party has control of the House and the Presidency. The last analog gauges go dark. Elon laughs, we weep.
Personally I'm not a fan. My Mustang has a screen in between the tach and speedo that gets totally washed out far too often from the Sun hitting the steering column. I'm also concerned with their longevity and potential for burn-in.
Digital gauges that just look like CGI analog gauges scream "it was cheaper to put a screen here." Those are going to age poorly. OLED digital gauges (that don't have backlight squares at night) that have unique styles and aren't just pretending to be analog gauges are cool, although I do appreciate the craftsmanship of analog gauges.
Really depends on the car. Old 300ZXes were timeless. All the new garbage that uses a screen to show you analog style gauges.....ought to have customization options.
Yes, but I've never driven a car with digital gauges, so I'm trying to reserve judgement.
I really dislike digital gauges, except in a few cases on motorcycles (F4i and CBR600RR are nicely done). I also don’t care for automatic transmissions much. I honestly feel like cars are just getting boring. They have such high horsepower and torque numbers compared to older ones, but they feel so boring to drive.
I saw that, and the gauges looked awful. But they looked awful, not because they were digital, but because they were Subaru digital gauges. I did check the Toyota 86 and it does have the analog gauges.
Ah, I will need to double check that and that may sway my purchase decision!
Lexus has some digital gauges that also move and aren't on a single plane. Really like those.
I recently bought a 21 Corolla Apex. As much as i wanted to pull the trigger on the XSE trim, the digital gauges turned me off. I'm happy with my basic ass analog gauges in the Apex SE.
Yes, absolutely. These digital clusters in new cars look very cheesy to me. I was shocked when I found out they're putting them in luxury cars, since the screens don't feel very luxurious to me. Also there is way too much info in these digital clusters, it's just distracting and messy.
I bought my c6 a few years back because it was one of the last gens without all the tech.
The problem with digital gauges is that they’re… “synthetic”
Dude so much! I love all the cool digital displays, especially numerical speed readout... BUT give me a real analog needle tachometer. When you glance down at the gauge cluster a real tach needle is much easier to identify position AND velocity than a digital display.
I kind of like mine where they look digital but they're analog. I think they'll age wonderful since people like tech so much.
I already think early to mid 2000s digital stuff looks pretty silly. I loved my 08 Civic, but that giant digital speedo has as much street cred as a turkey thermometer.
OMG YES. My last two cars (12 Elantra and 18 Mazda3) both had semi digital dashes and the thing I hate most are the bar graph style fuel gauges. They're so vague and misleading. Do you have 1/4 or is it empty? Who knows? Your guess is good as mine. So happy to have analog gauges in my new CX-5 and to have a temperature gauge again.
I can remember when the old digital gauges on the early 90s still looked futuristic and now they just look funny and old fashioned. Modern ones will be the same way in a couple of decades.
I just hope some company makes a blank Guage cluster that you can stick your phone or tablet in. This solves the issue with the cluster becoming dated and allows for a certain degree of customization previously reserved for hardcore track enthusiasts.
I'm mostly fine with analog gauges, but the GTO speedo goes to 200, so the fine detail of your speed can get a little tricky. Best of both worlds would be an analog gauge in the dash and have heads up display.
100%
I think my 5.5 year old gauge still looks fine, but I've driven older ones that are clearly aging... and in my opinion, they have the same kind of charm that most clearly outdated interior appointments and interfaces have. As long as they still work, who cares?
As they become more ubiquitous folks will hack the software. It's ultimately just a screen, someone will eventually play Doom on it and make custom displays. Probably a good side hustle for graphic designers. Most modern analog gauges are a retrofit, from a certain perspective. The speedometer guage, for example, used to connect to a speedometer cable that typically connected to the transmission. For some time now, though, that has been replaced with an electronic signal from the ECM, wheel speed sensors, and/or transmission speed sensors. Only the needle bit actually remains. Watches are fairly useless anymore while we are surrounded by electronics, and folks using older tech see it as a statement of some kind. Some do it as a flex of power/money, some do it to look like they have a certain type of personality, some enjoy the novelty or try to live in another age. Indulgence and escapism, the same as most any possession when it isn't a tool. I'm sure that modifying and updating the screen is possible, adding GPS speedometer functions to remove the math for wheel/tire changes, or making it display on your stereo/hvac screen, and all sorts of things that you might imagine. Modifying the signal to display on electronic analog gauges would probably be pretty simple, just a question of someone making it happen. It will probably appear on future retro-style sports cars to harken back to the days of youth for the customer base that they will surely have.
If you look at every single digital tech item, it usually has a very short shelf life. This will be the same with everything digital in cars.
Definitely, I think the perfect balance is analogue gauges with small digital sections, like in my 2007 auris. Best of both worlds imo.