Some folks have bemoaned the loss of “full gauges” (ammeter, coolant temperature, oil pressure) ever since “idiot lights” appeared back in…the dark ages. Or more like the late 50s, early 60s, except of course for dear old Chrysler, and Checker too. I suppose I shouldn’t even enter this debate, as I’ve been driving my ’77 Dodge Chinook without a gas gauge for over a decade, and more recently without its temperature gauge. But hey, I can watch the (rock solid) oil pressure while I’m rolling down the highway! And the ammeter gives a reassuring surge after the engine lights up.
No doubt, the manufacturers saved a couple of bucks by replacing the gauges with warning lights. But I suspect it was a bit more than that too. By the mid-sixties, as drivers spent ever more time in their cars, and driving was second-nature, I suspect fewer and fewer driver ever scanned the non-essential gauges; a warning light going off was much more likely to get their attention.
And full gauges were still generally available, although all-too often in utterly absurd locations, like these on a Camaro. I didn’t realize until just now that the gas gauge was relocated to down there too.
Well, the question I pose is not so much about old cars, but newer ones. Yes, I like to have full gauges on a vintage car, as the odds of something going out of normal were so much greater, like keeping an eye on the temperature going over a mountain pass in the summer. And yes, driving an older car makes one feel a bit less secure, and it’s nice to know things are (mostly) in order. Strictly speaking, I have always felt that the both a gauge and an idiot light would have been the best solution, as even the most fanatic gauge-watcher might easily miss the sudden change.
But a car built in the past couple of decades? Fuggadaboutit. Overheating? Sudden drop in oil pressure? You’re more likely to be hit by an asteroid. In fact, if you’d asked me if my Acura TSX had a temperature gauge, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you for sure. But there it is; never looked it. I guess it makes for a symmetrical layout in the IP.
What about you? Still like to see full gauges on a modern car? Thought it was a crime to get rid of them?
I recently bought an ’89 LaForza. What’s funny is that despite the full VDO gauge package, it doesn’t have separate turn indicators – just one light above the gauges that comes on whether for both the right and left blinkers.
It also has a brake light that comes on when your foot is on the brake.
> It also has a brake light that comes on when your foot is on the brake.
New cars could use that! Too often today I see cars driving with their brake lights on. I presume that the driver learned to drive using the right foot for gas and left foot for brake (tsk, tsk) and they’re resting their left foot on the brake pedal just hard enough to activate the lights.
Give me gauges or give me death! Or something like that. i like full gauges on my vehicles, and I watch them like a hawk. Drives me nut driving my Fairmont as it has a speedometer and a gas gauge and that’s it. Sooner or later I’ll have to install the tach and oil/temp/volt gauges I bought last year from Summit.
And where’s the “Like” button for leading this article off with that sweet Checker instrument panel? Brings back a lot of fond memories.
I have long wondered about the “flat spot” on modern Temp gauges, that explains a lot since I had trouble believing that even the Japanese could regulate coolant temp that well. When my ’88 Accord’s thermostat seized, the otherwise invariant Temp gauge suddenly came to life & went towards vertical; that warned me in time to pull over & stop the car. After cooling off, I made it home.
By contrast, my ’81 Escort’s Temp gauge was all over the place. I chalked it up to Ford’s incompetence, but the real problem was, from the factory it had a miscalibrated thermostat; after replacement it ran a lot cooler but the damage was done. Evidently they hadn’t gotten the message about 6σ yet.
My 87 Porsche 944S has a big red light top dead center of the gauge cluster that will notify you of anything dire happening if you’re not paying attention to the gauges.
I like the way they did it on old trucks – a nice big round speedo and around the speedo your basic gauges: gas, oil pressure, ammeter, and temp. gauge. This makes a very compact “cluster” and is easy to read; you can pretty much read everything every time you glance at the speed.
What I don’t like is gauges hidden behind the steering wheel. Some cars have a little binnacle in the center of the dash (Toyota Echo comes to mind, but there are others) so you have clear sight of the gauges.
I don’t need a tach, even with a stick. I really don’t understand a tach with automatics.
Speedometers need a lot more attention from manufacturers. My wife’s ’04 CR-V for example has a 150 mph speedo. Not really necessary, as I rarely try to keep up with Corvettes. Worse though, is that it’s not marked well. The numbers jump in units of 20 mph, with a little line for 10, 30, 50, etc. Most speed limits have a 5 on the end so a line to rest the needle on would be great when doing 35, 45, etc.
I actually look at my gauges while I drive (to the extent I have them) on my own vehicles and on the work truck. I only look at the gas gauge once, first thing, unless I’m on a lengthy trip.
That’s a very good point with speedometers, most cars have limiters that come on well before the highest number anyway. The current V6 Mustangs instantly come to mind which have fuel cutoff at 118mph IIRC, yet they come standard with a 160 mph speedo!!! It was only 10 years ago the 390 horsepower SVT Cobra had a 160 mph speedo, the GT and V6 were 150 and 120 respectively, which made much more sense and still makes sense, even with the more powerful engines of today.
True confession: I just had to go out to my car to check what gauges it had. I knew about the speedo, tach and fuel gauge, just couldn’t remember what else was there (’05 Mazda 3 Maxx Sport).
Anyone else that couldn’t remember?
yep! had to count them all up from memory and used all ten fingers and thumbs… actually DO HAVE at least TEN of the darned things on my dragster T bucket (rev counter, fuel pressure, fuel level, manifold vacuum/boost, speedo/odo, water temp, EGT, cyl head temp, oil temp, oil pressure, volts, amps) actually that’s 12! ..it’s a boosted engine and easy to cook and destroy so these are needed to watch how it is going.. the first engine died through poor handling by a former owner (overheated and seized) ..it was an SBC 400 …however with siamesed bores these are difficult to cool under any circumstances let alone with a small radiator so can’t blame the dude too much
has anyone had experience with the ‘Snow Boost’ engine cooler system??
my first supercharged engine was destroyed by a mal-wired ‘Snow Boost’ ..under ‘ignition on’ it was operating …result a hydraulicing ocurred and on start-up ‘bang’ a bent rod .. .. .. .. (that was a 4.0 Coon VCT engine)
you can actually see it still “running” LOL on ‘You Tube’ ..sounding like a very loud diesel tractor engine…
put into the search bar of ‘You Tube’ the following words… “Ford Falcon VCT Tickford Engine Destroyed By Beaurepaires”
enjoy
🙂
It’s nice to have full gauges, but I’ve never found it to be a necessity. The only time I would want oil pressure and oil temp gauges is if I was racing the car. A water temp gauge is nice to have though, as with a few of my older cars I’ve managed to address overheating issues without getting caught off guard.
I’m currently driving a 2012 Volkswagen ‘up!’ and it’s the only car I’ve owned that doesn’t have a temp gauge. Just a tach and fuel gauge. However, my up! is specced with a removable infotainment device called ‘Maps & More’. It’s basically a gps that streams bluetooth calls and such. It also has a water temp gauge and an extra tach. (because one isn’t enough I guess) So if you buy an up! and feel compelled to look at the water temp, (that never moves from dead center when the engine is running) you need to order a removable dash-mounted infotainment device to see it. Strange!
Just try sitting through a midwestern winter WITHOUT a temperature gauge:
you need that thing to try and wish it upwards and get that heat blowing in the morning.
You spend the first 20 min watching that thing, looking, waiting, and hoping.
[I know, you’ve now all got heated seats…]
It’s bad enough in the relatively mild mid-atlantic winters without heated seats, it’s gotta be five times worse out there. It’ll be interesting this winter to see if the ones in the Volvo actually work… (only the oldest of my three cars actually has them and I’ve not had it through a cold season to test!)
I believe that while warning lights are a fine supplement to the gauges, they’re a poor substitute to the gauges. The reason is this: Warning lights only tell you “hot” and “cold”, “charged” and “discharged”, etc. Gauges, on the other hand, whether they’re digital or analogue, actually show you where in between the two extremes you are. They tell you *how* warm the engine is, or *how* charged the battery is. So yeah, I think gauges are just as relevant today as they were 60 yrs ago. Can you imagine if all you had to tell you the fuel level was a warning light showing *red* for “empty” and *blue* for “full”, but nothing to indicate where you were in between, that way you know how far you can drive before you need to refuel? Answer that one.
My second new car was the first US spec version of the VW GTi which in addition to the speedo, tach, fuel and coolant temp gauges also featured a mini console with a clock, voltmeter (not ammeter) and an oil temp gauge. My best friend from high school fried his nice BMW 2002 because he ran the coolant dry and always maintained that had he had the oil temp gauge it could have been saved.
That’s not bad. It’s better than warning lights. Are gauges perfect? No, they’re not. I had a fuel gauge fail on me, the only time it seemed to work was when I filled up the fuel tank. I still prefer gauges over warning lights.