In Clarkson's road test of the new Rolls Royce on Top Gear he praised the minimalist approach to instrumentation - just a big speedometer and 'power usage' meter. Quite a different approach to the parent company's BMW 7 series I-Drive with sufficient instrumentation displays available for a lunar module.
I confess to liking gadgets and am forever looking at the various functions of the computers on both of my cars, although I really don't need to know my average MPH/MPG - not that they are that accurate anyway. With BMW's toy I would be tempted even more, with the consequent distraction from driving.
Have Rolls Royce got it right - do we really need so much information?
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Modern fighter and commercial jets base their intrumentation on a need to know basis - ie a very few indicators/read-outs on permanently, the rest effectively hidden until requested. Any problems which develop are flagged up immediately to the pilot however. Wouldn't be surprised if similar concepts appeared in cars.
See also the HUD thread.
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Can anybody suggest why my C5 diesel has oil temperature, water temperature and battery voltage guages as well? Oil level guage comes on at ignition too.
I can see it distracting some motorists, not that it is unreliable, but say 10 years down the line, someone may not know if the water is about to boil over as they were looking at the wrong guage.
There again, the display would probably also print something.
Ben
On my 3rd Citroen. Saxo, Xsara, C5.
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There is a third way (!)
Oil press. guages and water temp guages. are very useful and can
give early warning of a problem, given that so many threads in the Tech room revolve around electrical gliches why not a voltage
guage.
I see little point in a rev counter really (perhaps on a performance diesel), but rev ranges become intuative after a couple of thousand miles., outside temp guages are useful (usually the display of choice on the BM's computer) given the cosseting effect of most modern cars. Having driven a 7, the I-drive got boring after the first couple of miles. Lets minimize this. Got to have a Speedo, fuel guage and water temp guage (a light a la peugeot are pretty useless), I need a clock, need a o/side temp display. The rest is surplus, but how many BMW would get sold without a tacho ?
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Pug,
Oil press and water temp gauges totally agree.
Ditto speedo, fuel, outside temp, clock.
Must admit liked the oil temp gauge on my old Pug205 GTi.
Voltage gauge, hmmm. Trouble is all it shows is the alternator output voltage, or the battery voltage when stood engine off. In my opinion by the time most folks have registered there is a problem by means of a voltmeter its too late by a long way.
So you can have a batt flattery, run the engine, voltmeter soon up to normal readings but in reality the battery is hardly charged. In the other direction there can have been an unhealthy shortfall for some time before the gauge drops. Yet an ammeter would have shown discharge/charge right from the off.
Tacho, probably agree for most normal driving; but for example my Mondeo TDCi is so easy to spin well into the red and hit 5000 rpm + quite a bit (ahem!) in 1st and 2nd not too happy to dispense with it. Guess your perf. diesels comment covers that though.
Oh for the Cortina dash top set of 4 gauges.
Nurse time for my Horlicks!
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The gauges on my sister's 205 are a speedometer, fuel gauge and, well that's it, which seems a bit sparse.
However, I don't think many modern temp gauges are more use than just the light. I had a 1990 Fiesta where the dial meant something, but the one in my old 2000 model never budged from dead centre in normal use. The digital dash was probably set to stay right in the middle under a relatively wide range, only going high with a serious problem.
My current Mazda does not have an oil pressure light. It has a needle, but it is only connected to an on/off pressure switch a light would have, not a variable sender. It sits just right of the middle all the time, but would point left if there was a problem. I would spot a red light indicating loss of pressure, but never pay attention to the needle that never moves.
I'm not sure whether Saab still do their black panel. It seemed a good idea to only show the speedo at night, with other info only on a need to know basis.
James
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As the custodian and carer for the company Cavalier, I can testify that the water temp. guage is an indespensable item. I have learnt to watch this with an Eagle eye, I have found that throughout its documented cooling problems that the guage provided plenty of forewarning of faliure, I can now predict the point which the thermostat opens and closes and how the guage's position relates to coolant remaining. The Beemer's on the other hand goes up to halfway within a 1/2 mile of starting, stays there, and seems to lack the hair trigger quality of the ancient Cav's needle. Anyway there are two other idiot llights on the Beemer that predict doom in the coolant department (low coolant and high temp) so is a guage needed in a modern car ? Good question.
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