Garden Shed

[Guest Asch]

Be a nice touch if they incorporated a diagnostics.

[Angrydicky]

I have zero interest in modern cars so hadn't realised they have started sticking Ipads to the top of the dash for the instrumentation. Looks daft, like an afterthought, and look very easy to steal. Plus most people nowadays spend a lot of their day staring at computer screens (myself included) you don't need that while driving too IMO. But then what do I know, I'm never going to buy one so it probably doesn't matter what I think. I'm sure the fancy tech-savvy modern people that blow thousands of pounds on cars such as these will love them.

 

I also dislike not having a temperature gauge. The A35 never had one from new and mine has an aftermarket electric one fitted, which doesn't work. A previous owner has for some reason lopped most of the capillary tube off the Somerset. After about four years I found a decent looking one which is complete but unfortunately it doesn't work so needs to be overhauled.

 

The Clio has a warning light, and mum's 205 has a warning light and a STOP light. It just seems unbelievably tight not fitting a temp gauge to any car.

[Partridge]

I for one do not enjoy the sensory overload from modern car dashboards. When I had an office job which was a pretty horrible, oppressive experience, I had a Nissan company car (well, a Nissan press fleet car, but it did amount to the same thing in practice) but most of the time I commuted in my own 800 Sterling. Because what did I want after a day of staring at screens and having notifications pop up at me? Certainly not more of the same on my drive home, and I certainly didn't want that polluting the little snippet of time I had to myself in the drive in. I'd take the Rover's walnut dash and T-Series burble any day - probably made me old fashioned, but isn't that why most of us are here?

The place I wrote for very corporate and discouraged pretty much anything other than bland. On the eve of the day when I handed my notice in, I had to drive to Cromer to interview the CEO of a company that made curtain-side trailers. What I should have done was put my Fred and Florence suit on and drove across in the Nissan. Instead, as a big F.U to the Arsehole and Arsehole Media (and if I'm honest, the whole of society which I was feeling alienated and confused by) I took the Sterling and donned my blazer and chinos, and put on the most '90s tie that I owned, and departed from said CEO with a Gareth Cheeseman style handshake standing next to the Rover. It was worth taking the job just to be able to do that.

 

Back on topic: Mrs_Partridge, who works in design thinks that these iPads on dashboards are partly driven by ease of repair and ease of updating. It's probably much easier to whip out one of the iPad, than it is to faff about trying to take apart a modern car dash, with it's six thousand airbags and miles of wiring, should a speedo pack up or something else has a spazz fit. It's a hard enough job to do in a Peugeot 405, let alone a 2018 A-Class. I imagine modern digi dashes are more accurate, too. Probably a good thing in a country that has god knows how many average speed cameras waiting for you when you drive into work...

[Jmac]

Be a nice touch if they incorporated a diagnostics.

yes they should have this available on the display , but I'm sure they will security code it so they can read it to us at £120 + hour + vat !! .

[JimH]

The end of the dashboard? Wouldn't that be a fine thing? The modern car mostly sorts itself out so all information is pretty much useless with the exception of speed and how much fuel is in the tank which could be delivered using some sort of teeny weeny HUD. If something is wrong then tell me. I just need a wee screen that tells me why you were going to light a light or tell a gauge to indicate something or other. Tell me that the O2 sensor is out of range then no one needs to plug anything in to find out.

 

Think about all the space that could be given back to the occupants if we get it into our heads that the car isn't a fighter plane and the interior doesn't need to feel like a cockpit. Just think of an ADO16 interior done with modern technology or even better the near non-existent dashboards of the early Pands could be even more non-existent.

 

What about the radiogram? How would I control that? Well I control the radiogram at home from my phone so why do I need to replicate a load of shit in my car? The same approach can be taken to most of the other systems. Now just give me somewhere sensible to mount a phone and that takes car of that. I long to open a car door and see as much space for me as a Mini or a Panda or a 2CV. Throwing all this legacy crap in the bin would go a long way to helping make that reality.

[holdyerhandout]

Now that cars are getting modems I look forward to being able to look at the fault codes from the warmth of my front room on a remote screen.  I'm sure the future of running old heaps will be better in 20 yrs (or maybe not!)

[Fliberdygibbet]

The lad has the map in his car but still normal gauges do not like the look of it a few switches and gauges are enough for me. Do these new cars have a mouse clicky thing like my computer

[Cavcraft]

 

 

[chaseracer]

I do recall, rather vaguely, my dad fitting temperature, voltage, amperage and oil pressure gauges to at least one of his Morris Minors.

 

In the garage somewhere, I have the under-dash pod - containing those very same instruments - that the Owd Giffer fitted to his Mini 850 van when he bought it in 1967.

[mat_the_cat]

https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news-list/highways-england-car-touchscreens-unsafe/

 

At least the potential safety concerns over touchscreens seem to be being recognised.

[robinmasters]

...I've been scoping them out have been disappointed to find that they don't seem to have a temperature gauge, the more I look around the more cars I find of that era that don't offer one either, not cool...

...not cool...

How would you know?

[UltraWomble]

Plug in temp /rev counter / speed in kmh gauge

[sierraman]

Breaker one nine I’ve got an eyeball on you cotton mouth. There’s a brown bear in a wrapper on the A42 come on...

 

What have you got a CB radio fitted for?

[Shirley Knott]

How would you know?

 

Good point

 

 

Plug in temp /rev counter / speed in kmh gauge

 

 

This looks like the answer, thanks.

[Sir Snipes]

https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news-list/highways-england-car-touchscreens-unsafe/

 

At least the potential safety concerns over touchscreens seem to be being recognised.

I really like Teslas but I find it that massive touch screen extremely obnoxious.

[PhilA]

I don't mind how the data is displayed so long as what I need to operate the vehicle is sensibly placed.

 

What I do not like is the artificial detachment of reality that having an algorithm decide where a needle should point rather than it displaying the truth.

 

Yes, your engine will get hot sitting in traffic or with your foot down going uphill. Yes the oil pressure will go really high at high RPM when cold and really low at idle when hot.

 

I would like the option to have the real gauge positions in "advanced, I understand how my vehicle works" mode. I do not need my dashboard to be dumbed down, particularly as it's capable of displaying anything you can imagine about the operation of the car.

 

Phil

[puddlethumper]

Plug in temp /rev counter / speed in kmh gauge

Where did you get that Mr Womble ? How does it work ? More info please Mr Womble.

[tooSavvy]

My IMPs were old enough not to have temp gauges..

 

RedLight of Doom (I laughingly referred to that fact, ironically of course, when test driving a DayCha--ah)

 

With my current 'wobbly tickover/carb tune needed' I'm fumbling around a low tickover and get a rythmic flash of Oil light...

 

*yes.. Tickover tooSlow

[UltraWomble]

Where did you get that Mr Womble ? How does it work ? More info please Mr Womble.

eBay - cost £20

 

Plugs into the OBD port and has a very long flat thin cable. Various different bits of data are available, like fuel used, trip times, fuel left and all sorts of shite but I wanted rev counter and temp so have it set to that.

[Isaac Hunt]

Neat. I don’t like a lack of Coolant Temp Guage in a car. Old Skool I know but nevertheless a quick visual check of the gauges every now and again

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[martc]

My IMPs were old enough not to have temp gauges..

 

RedLight of Doom (I laughingly referred to that fact, ironically of course, when test driving a DayCha--ah)

 

My Imp had that as well. I seem to remember that the same light was shared with the oil pressure sensor (mine was a standard Mk2 model) - so when it came on you didn't know if the engine was about to seize or boil over (or both).

 

Imagine the meeting - OK folks we've got a rear mounted engine with marginal cooling which, being aluminium, will be severely damaged by overheating.So do we need a temperature gauge or just a warning light? Who thinks just a light is a good idea? Accountants? yes it'll save money. Designer? yes it looks cool and uncluttered. Engineer? Nooooooooo. OK that's carried, no temp gauge. Next item on the agenda - how much rust proofing do we really need? Those in favour of the bare minimum...

[tooSavvy]

^^ my first of two '64 had '*pneumatic throttle linkage'...

 

*apart from running up the trailer ramp, I never ran it >> that one got the guts from a 70s IMP + low pivot arms/modded kingpin brackets for a 'bit o'neg'

 

**and adj trackrod on both sides!

[Matty]

My favourite dash was my manta. Speed revs oil pressure amps temp plenty to worry about. Or the fiat coupe I had, lovely bit of design