Boring Interiors.....

wymondham

Just a rant...

looking around at most cars these days the layout of the dash hasn't really changed that much. Some techy cars plonk a display somewhere that looks like its stuck on with tape but that's about it. Only makes like Tesla seem interested in how their cars look inside with regards to the dash...

surely by now car dash's should be entirely electronic with one big display which can change whats on them depending on needs/taste etc?

in the absence of jetpacks, which I'm still disappointed we don't yet all have then at least attempt to make the mundane car look a little more hi-tech and interesting inside?

PasturesNew

Needs and taste? It's a dashboard .... I rarely notice it at all because, when driving, I'm looking out of the functional/practical glass window in front of me

DonnySaver

AUDI now do "Virtual Cockpit" dash. I'm quite impressed by it...

AdrianC

Given the reliability of 10+yo displays, and the dealer-diagnostic kit required to pair up replacements with the car - I'd rather have dials, thanks.

Analogue displays are much quicker and easier to get the kind of reading that's relevant to driving at a glance. You don't need to know your speed to the last 1mph, especially if that requires re-focussing. You need to know the broad position, which your brain can then interpret in the background.

(That can cause fun'n'games switching between cars if the speedo is similar-looking, but differently calibrated, as I found out when I switched from a Mk3 Golf GTi to a VR6... Same dash, but the numbers were MUCH closer together... <ahem>)

The vast majority of information displayed on a changeable display is guff anyway. All you NEED is speed and fuel. Anything else can be flagged up as and when necessary. Saab's black-panel display had it right in the early-mid 90s.

EssexExile

As above, traditional is easier to take in at a glance. A little thing that annoys me is that my car has the tacho on the left & speedo on the right but my van has speedo on the left & tacho on the right (or is it the other way around). Following on from that, why on earth does every vehicle have a tacho nowadays, it used to be only the sporty models? My car doesn't need a tacho because it's automatic & knows when to change gear all by itself, my van doesn't need a tacho because it's a diesel & I just change up when the noise gets unbearable.

Strider590

A classic inspired car interior will never look old, in 10-15 years time you'll look inside a Tesla and it'll be like looking back at 1980's fashion.
Don't forget that in the 1980's, their vision of a futuristic car interior was KITT from Knightrider.

Stoke

Analogue dials are great. Good god why the heck would you want them changing to a digital TFT screen? Not only are analogue dials accurate (they merely represent an electrical signal), they're so simple that they will effectively last forever. The stupidest thing car manufacturers did (although probably to stop dodgy car selling) was start using LED backlights that are soldered to the electronics behind the dial.

That said, my Lupo had 172k miles on the clock before I sold her, and the LED's were fine. You do get the occasional story of the LED's packing up though, but if you're at all handy with a soldering iron, you could easily replace them with a new one. Heck, you could replace them with nicer ones

Never did like the 'cosmic blue' VW dials....

TFT screens are finite pieces of equipment. They have a lifespan that is probably shorter than your average motor vehicle. The massive reduction in manufacturing costs have also made them like a piece of disposable technology. Someone said 10 years above? Good luck. TFT's have come along way but they're not bullet proof just yet.

facade

My MG montego had a futuristic dash in 1984.

It had a reassuring female voice telling me that "All monitored functions are working correctly" too

If only Austin Rover had bothered to use anti corrosion paint, I might still have it (I got rid when I was sweeping too much of it off the drive each weekend)

It was a truly brilliant car- fast, comfortable, reliable, economical, huge boot, very little to go wrong....

MataNui

I know what you mean. It goes beyond just the actual dash and instruments. Anything 'normal' is just an expanse of cheap and rather naff plastic. Even better spec German stuff isnt much better. Current BMW interiors really havent evolved at all in the last 10 years. In fact some aspects on newer models look worse than on my 2007 model.

If i want to 'upgrade' then i expect to actual feel like i am getting something better and really modern rather than just something thats a bit cleaner but still looks 10 years old.

Herzlos

If the design is well optimized and the best available, why change it?

Some things are likely going to be around forever, like the speedo dial* and pedal configuration.

*Even most digital ones are just mimicking it. I had a shot in a Yaris with a numeric display and it was awful

Johnmcl7

AdrianC wrote: »

Given the reliability of 10+yo displays, and the dealer-diagnostic kit required to pair up replacements with the car - I'd rather have dials, thanks.

Analogue displays are much quicker and easier to get the kind of reading that's relevant to driving at a glance. You don't need to know your speed to the last 1mph, especially if that requires re-focussing. You need to know the broad position, which your brain can then interpret in the background.

(That can cause fun'n'games switching between cars if the speedo is similar-looking, but differently calibrated, as I found out when I switched from a Mk3 Golf GTi to a VR6... Same dash, but the numbers were MUCH closer together... <ahem>)

The vast majority of information displayed on a changeable display is guff anyway. All you NEED is speed and fuel. Anything else can be flagged up as and when necessary. Saab's black-panel display had it right in the early-mid 90s.

Agreed, I like all my fancy gadgets but not in the car - I've got a 2011 Mazda6 and they've gone for a pretty simple dash, big dials for speed and revs plus smaller dials for fuel and temperature. It looked pretty basic when I chose the car but now I've had it a few years, it doesn't bother me at all as it has all I need.

What I also like about it is that the centre console has distinctive physical buttons for everything, I'm really not keen on the giant touchscreen approach Tesla have gone for.

John