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Many cars came with "fake" gauges anyway. During normal conditions, it stayed pointed right at the center, all the time. Volts, oil pressure, and temp, all right in the middle all the time. The reason they did it that way, was because when the gauges were more "realistic", they tended to fluctuate more than some drivers would have realized. Turn on the headlights, and the Volts gauge goes down. Get stuck waiting for a freight train, and the temp gauge goes up. People thought something was wrong so they headed to the dealer looking for warranty repairs. So the gauges were dumbed down. Now, many cars don't even have gauges anymore.
I have a car from 1988 and it has all the gauges, and they're real gauges. The volts gauge flutters with the turn signals. The oil pressure gauge goes up when I accelerate and it goes down when I'm idling. The temp gauge goes up and down depending on whether I'm on the highway or stuck in traffic. Its nice!
Exactly. Not only that, but people who don't understand what's going on give bad CSI surveys. Not understanding how a gauge works ranks the same as any other flaw. This way the manufacturers can protect themselves from bad ratings from the mostly ignorant masses.
My '12 Grand Cherokee has speed, RPMS, temp and gas on the dash. Everything else is in the EVIC. Oil temp, pressure, trans temp and the exact water temp, plus battery. No big, and they're all accurate.
I always wanted a Temp gauge instead of those idiot lights because with a gauge you can see the temp going up and do something before it is too late, with the idiot lights by the time it comes on it is already too late and you may have a serious problem, "Hey the car is running a bit hot, lets stop up here and have dinner while it cools down and I can check things".
I understand it would increase the cost of vehicles but I think ALL gauges should be numbers(they can be digital or analog) instead of idiot lights or relative level.
Oil Pressure
Fuel
Charging system voltage
Coolant temperature
My coolant temp on my '08 Chevy Cobalt is a digitally displayed on my dash. It's one of the bits of information in the Driver Information Center (DIC).
I was shopping new cars and noticed some of the 2012 models have eliminated the engine/water temperature gauge.
Namely the 2012 Civic, Fit, and Mazda3.
Why they would do this is beyond me. All they have is the dummy warning lights now.
How are you going to tell if your car is overheating before it's too late?
Opinions?
Mainly because most of the gauges were just idiot lights anyway or tuned to be incredibly non-linear to hide fluctuations. Basically, for decades now, the temp gauge as well as others have either been:
Idiot = Always showing good until it's not.
Non-linear = The needle only moves in broad jumps, cold to "good" to "trouble" with very little space in between. Basically you could be sitting there and the gauge go from "good" to "overheating" within the blink of an eye.
Since the gauges were just "idiot lights" anyway, save the money and just have the lights. You also now have a lot of cars coming up with customizable digital displays, so the driver can pick and choose what they want to see, this means less gauges and more LCD space.
I think it is related to the cost of the car.... The manufacturer is not going to put in the more expensive gauges over idiot lights on an entry-level car.
Though both are critical and important, I think the oil pressure gauge trumps the temperature gauge.
I had a Volvo in the '80's that had oil temperature, oil pressure, water temperature, outside temperature, battery voltage, tachometer and I few more I can't remember. The only idiot lights were ABS/brakes and air bags.
On a pro-street car I had all of the above, plus transmission temperature and fuel pressure and blower manifold pressure. (granted I did those three myself).
I think ya gets what ya pays for.
That's it. A dealer tried to convince me that going away from temperature gauges was the wave of the future.
Except the Honda Fit has never had a gauge and they JUST decided to take it off the Civic for 2012 and every mid size car or more expensive happens to have a gauge. Some wave of the future.
What sales guys will do to make a sale.
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