The speedometer on my 2014 Forester goes up to 150 MPH (240km/hr)? That means the straight-up-and-down position is just below 80 MPH! Ideally, I'd want 55 or 60 MPH to be the "top dead center" of the gauge dial.
Why did the engineers at Subaru decide they needed to have the gauge go to 150 MPH?
Wishful thinking?
A clever sales ploy?
I'm sure there is a clever reason that I am not recognizing.
Thanks!
Seriously? 144 mph? Mine will not likely ever go above 75 mph.
Here'sa bold thought. How about displaying the speed on a digital display that goes up to 200 mph and keep the analog dial display for the everyday driving we do 99.98% of the time?
144 MPH huh. Do I need to fire the hidden JADO rockets and jettison the roof rack?
It is marketing and it creeps higher and higher.
Several years ago 220 km/h was the standard.
The further you go in the past the lower it goes.
I don't rationalize it.. frankly, after 140 km/h it could just have one reading: TOO FAST
I agree - and this is rather annoying: when you drive in the city, it is hard to tell 55 km/h vs 60 km/h. Older speedos and JDM are limited to 180 km/h - makes a lot more sense for 99% of drivers, 99.9% of time.
A third guideline is that the speedometer pointer, or needle, be near the 12 o'clock position when driving at the maximum normal speed, say 65 mph. For the speedometer in the photograph, this is pretty much near the 12 o'clock position, which is easiest to see and read.
I actually prefer 'normal' speeds to be slightly to the left of top center (usually around 10 to 11 o'clock on the speedo). Depending on your height and how you prefer your seat/wheel relationship, top center is sometimes slightly blocked by the steering wheel.
The article gives interesting reasons but they might be slightly outdated.
"One reason for this is to prevent damage to the device when it hits the upper stop limit, sometimes referred to as being "pegged." This is especially true for mechanical speedometers versus electronic types."
Does any car after 2005 have a mechanical speedometer? In the 'old days' there was a mechanical cable that ran up to the speedometer head. Now it is all software controlled. It is easy to program the display by adjusting the gain. It is a calibration curve.
"Exceeding the upper limit can also cause the speedometer to come out of calibration; in other words, it may not display speed accurately."
Nope. Not since ABS became common. The software interrogates the wheel speed sensors and uses that for the speed indicator.
"One guideline used by pressure gauge manufacturers is that the upper limit should be about two times the intended operating pressure. Applying this logic to speedometers and using 65 mph as a normal maximum driving speed, two times would be 130 mph."
That is fine for a mechanical gauge so you are assured it is always in the linear region. These are all electronic.
"A third guideline is that the speedometer pointer, or needle, be near the 12 o'clock position when driving at the maximum normal speed, say 65 mph."
The 12 o'clock position on my Forster is 78 mph! 60 mph would be a better choice - (or even 55 mph (shudder)!
Maybe they put the extra mph's in there to accommodate mods. Your stock car may not go all the way, but after somebody mods it, they might find it handy to know how fast they're going ... :shrug:
What bugs me even more than the speedo going up so high, is the 2mph increments by which it reads, and the fact that only every 20mph is really labled. So if I want to go 55 mph, I have to put the speedo needle 3/4 of the way between 40 and 60, and there isn't even a notch there; it has to go between the notches for 54 and 56.
It is not uncommon for us westerners to see posted limits of 75+ and then the mandatory +9 on top of that to keep things civil. Grew up with a kid that swore (thought) the indicated maximum was real. Singing Joe Walsh here.
It's called a speedometer, but let's not forget what it really is: A GAGE.
To pressurize a system to 1000# would you want a gage that only read to 1000#? 1100#? 2000#?
IMO, the gage is designed not for the purposes of marketing trickery, but practicality. The range is high enough to provide accurate indication throughout the entire capable range, but also to make reading the gage easy in the normal range.
"Sorted by price, luxury cars are the least accurate, and cars costing less than $20,000 are the most accurate. By category, sports cars indicate higher speeds than sedans or trucks. Cars built in Europe exaggerate more than Japanese cars"
"nearly all speedometers are controlled electronically. ... Variations in tire size and inflation levels are the sources of error these days. ...All our speed measurements were made on cars with new stock tires correctly inflated, but one might expect a manufacturer to account for wear and to bias the speed a bit low; results suggest that not to be the case."
My buddy and I used to roam the nicer part of the area and look at all of the cool cars, and one determining factor for how cool the car was dependent on how high the speedo went. We weren't even teens yet, but i'll never forget that passtime and how ignorant we were.
The speedometer is entirely inappropriate (for me).
I'm just a regular family guy who lives in the suburbs in the Northeast like about 50 million other people (most of whom also seem to own Foresters). 80% of the roads here have speed limits between 25 and 45 mph; the rest is highway. I don't "drift", don't drag race, don't burn rubber, and don't pull a trailer full of draft horses. I just want to get from point A to B without getting a ticket. A digital speed display would be much more useful.
Also, ditch the tach. It takes up a lot of real estate and provides little useful information. My wife and daughter don't even know what one is...and, really, why should they? I'd rather they keep their eyes on the road and tell me if the engine is making a funny, high-pitched whining noise.
Mine is very easy to read. I have the "electroluminescent" one, whatever that is.
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