Speedometer Rant

[supton]

IIRC in Germany there are stiff fines if the speedometer reads lower than actual speed. Like the OEM is on the hook for any speeding tickets. Ergo, they read fast by a couple %, at least for German cars.

At first I thought this would be a rant about using mph instead of kph.

 

[Warstud]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
I don’t even look at the speedometer needle in my car, it also has a large digital readout.

The Jeep’s is pretty good. Here’s a blurry picture of it

Wow, I’ve only put 800 miles on it in 5 months...




That's what I'm talking about.

 

[eljefino]

My dad had a fairmont with that style 85 MPH speedometer. I like the 270-ish degree sweep, too, uses most of the dial. Every MPH had its own tick.

Back in the day we used to brag about "pegging it" which you don't hear about as much any more in an era where the computer cuts out at 106 MPH due to tire ratings even though the display goes way higher.

 

[CR94]

As on most recent cars, my (digital only) speedometer shows a bit above actual speed. The ScanGauge shows a little under actual (because the tires are apparently slightly larger than Toyota assumed, even though they are the OE nominal size).

For different legal reasons, most recent odometers show slightly less than actual---assuming of course the OE size tires. (Older ones typically showed above actual, sometimes by a lot.) Therefore, in recent vehicles, if you drive for exactly one hour constantly holding exactly x mph indicated speed, you'll travel an indicated distance less than x.

 

[Wurlitzer]

They should come in Roman numerals.

 

[SevenBizzos]

Heck, I don't even understand why speedometers read past 80mph. After that point, you're breaking the law. My Accord goes to 160mph. Why? I doubt I could get it past 120.

Bring the gauge back to realistic speeds and you can write out every 10mph for better accuracy.

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: SevenBizzos
Heck, I don't even understand why speedometers read past 80mph. After that point, you're breaking the law. My Accord goes to 160mph. Why? I doubt I could get it past 120.

Bring the gauge back to realistic speeds and you can write out every 10mph for better accuracy.
Yeah i don't understand it either.

My Sonata's goes to 160 as well. That's just ridiculous. I've had it to 115 before, but only for a moment.

 

[gfh77665]

I never understood why my Honda Odyssey had a 160 MPH speedo. It wasted the whole right half of the large gague. The 180 shown in that VW is just laughable. I can understand 120, but I would be happy with 100 max. It would build in more precision into the reading.

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: skyactiv
Many new vehicles have a center digital speed display in addition to a traditional speedometer to the right of it.
I think my VW is perfect.



That's a nice speedometer, wonder why VW made it so awful on my aunt's 2013 VW Beetle TDI, same year too. Here's a pic i took of it right before turn in last year. The mpg was 55 mph on the freeway.

 

[RooflessVW]

Well, now the pictures are coming out, so:

 

[Warstud]

4/4ths of a tank of gas. What kind of car is that?

 

[SeaJay]

Originally Posted By: SHOZ
Most read 2 mph fast too.


My Subaru is a solid 2 mph fast.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Originally Posted By: SevenBizzos
Heck, I don't even understand why speedometers read past 80mph. After that point, you're breaking the law. My Accord goes to 160mph. Why? I doubt I could get it past 120.

Bring the gauge back to realistic speeds and you can write out every 10mph for better accuracy.
Yeah i don't understand it either.

My Sonata's goes to 160 as well. That's just ridiculous. I've had it to 115 before, but only for a moment.
Agreed. However I sometimes wonder if it's to "standardize" the dash. 160kph is 100mph, which should again be sufficient in metric countries. [Only thing is, this idea fails, since they wouldn't bother with the second set of numbers--it's a different gauge background--so no savings on parts in the bins. But I guess they could just remove the second set of numbers, and only draw 0-160 once?]

 

[Olas]

Speedometers are NEVER accurate, and best ignored.

GPS speedo is correct and worth investing in if there are any speed cameras in your area.

 

[antonmnster]

My next car will have a heads-up display. I always keep the steering wheel set low, blocks the speedo in most cars.