Digital Dashboard Preferred? Or More Traditional Dashboard In Vehicles?

[oldgamerz]

I remember a long time ago I used to see a lot of cars with computerized numeric dashboards and I think their kinda cool to look at. Now at least in the cars I've been in recently. have the old fashion RPM and Speedometer in which is more traditional. With the actual clock type hand that tells you how fast you're going on the road

If you were shopping for a new or used vehicle. What kind of dashboard would you like to have more? A digital one? or more traditional? and what color do you prefer it to light up at night? green? yellow?  red? or orange? as some examples.

Some of the more expensive 1980's and 1990's cars had a real cool back lit LED digital display, and it gave you a number of your RPM and how fast you were going on the road, Now all I seen in most of the new cars I've been in lately only have the traditional dashboard with the speedometer cables present, and I don't find them as attractive to view at night.

And last thing I would like to ask is does it matter to you? As a driver or a passenger?

[rayne315]

I much prefer mechanical ones to digital ones. for a mechanical one to fail on you there has to be something INCREADIBLY wrong to stop it from working where as a digital on can stop for any number of reasons. electrical short, bad programing, screen malfunction, sensor malfunction, etc.

now if a digital one were to come out that has less potential failure points than current mechanical dash boards then I would be all over that. or if the cost of trouble shooting and replacing faulty digital dashboards were significantly less then maybe. as it goes now if there is any sort of electrical failure in a car the whole system gets replaced not just the component that went bad (unless you do it yourself). so any electrical issues you are dealing with can easily cost thousands of dollars to fix even if it is just a bad $20 sensor.

although not electrical related a good chunk of my job as a hydraulics engineer is to reduce the total possible locations of hydraulic leaks and hydraulic failures thus making a better machine with less warranty issues and easier and cheaper fixes if there is any issues.

EDIT: I just remembered this but back in high school when my class first got our licenses one of my friends got a vehicle with a digital dashboard and we found out that it can be fooled into displaying a different speed by swapping from drive into neutral and back to drive while moving. it would display the return to drive as 0 mph and any speed up would increase the mph by the increased speed (resetting at 30 and speeding up to 45 would display 15 mph) but slowing down would keep the speed at 0 but if you went over a few minutes of going under your reset speed the dash would blank out. no speedometer, no engine rev, no temp, no mileage counter.

[jce3000gt]

Old fashioned.   I hate technology in cars.   

[ronchichio]

Old fashioned.   I hate technology in cars.

I believe that's why a lot of people drive at night with their headlights off.  Newer dashboards are illuminated regardless if the headlights are on or off.

I prefer the old style instrumentation.  You'll know your headlights and taillights are off since the dash lights will also be off.

[jce3000gt]

Old fashioned.   I hate technology in cars.

I believe that's why a lot of people drive at night with their headlights off.  Newer dashboards are illuminated regardless if the headlights are on or off.

I prefer the old style instrumentation.  You'll know your headlights and taillights are off since the dash lights will also be off.

Yup, exactly.  That and too many people are complacent / lazy and think their daytime running lights make good headlights. 

[ffxik]

Give me the mechanical any day.  Although I'm a bit iffy on the ones that mounted the tachometer in the hood.  To be fair as a passenger it doesn't matter much, as a driver it does. 

[bikingjahuty]

I bought a brand new RAV4 last year and it definitely hits that sweet spot between being somewhat old school, but also having some nice modern tech. My main concern with these ultra tech loaded cars is longevity. I miss when cars were a lot more basic and even if you found a working one 30-years later, a lot of the instruments and features were still likely working. I wonder how many frontal collision sensors, infotainment (god I hate that term...), and auto driving features will be fully working and functional when some of these cars are 20 to 30 years old.