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[BazaJT]

I was a fan of the digital dash in the Senator and the little button you could press to switch the display to metric for continental driving and back to imperial once on home soil.

[Marks DTM Calib]

I still haven't forgiven Vauxhall for not using the Senator digital dash in the Omega. Still miss it after all these years.

I was never a fan. When I first got my Astra GTE, I thought it was really cool, innit?  But the novelty wore off for me, and I longed for traditional dials.

Full on LCD screens make sense, as the best of both worlds.  I'm surprised they aren't commonplace now.

Its all about ASIL init.

The cluster has to meet a certain safety rating (some warning lights and speed is considered a safety item so has to be designed accordingly, hence why certain lamps are still separate on LCD clusters), this today makes it expensive when compared to dials (but road mapped chipsets may well change this).

You will note the Insignia display is actually a centre LCD with dials......makes it much easier from an ASIL perspective.

[TheBoy]

I still haven't forgiven Vauxhall for not using the Senator digital dash in the Omega. Still miss it after all these years.

I was never a fan. When I first got my Astra GTE, I thought it was really cool, innit?  But the novelty wore off for me, and I longed for traditional dials.

Full on LCD screens make sense, as the best of both worlds.  I'm surprised they aren't commonplace now.

I dont see how the novelty could wear off tbh. A very quick glance tells you your travelling at xxx mph. Traditional layout requires looking down for seconds to try and glean that info. Which means if you were travelling at xxx mph, they will probably be finding bits of you up nearby trees for weeks to come. 

The speedo on the Astra didn't update fast enough and was laggy, so was always a bit crap (as the only time I ever drove at a constant speed was when it was bouncing on the limiter in 5th - even to this day, it remains the only car I have ever owned that could do that).

Other issues were the other gauges like fuel was 6 or 8 segments, which I found wasn't granular enough to judge if I needed fuel before a medium length journey.

For me, the novelty wore off within a week or 2, to the point it started to annoy me.  Even the last Senator I drove, the dash I found frustrating.  A great idea, just not implemented as well as it could have been - though we have to remember this was 1980s tech.


It was one thing that worried me when I decided to go for an XJ, though I'm pleased to say its responsive, clear and doesn't piss me off, although the software needs improving (things like the user option to flick it to KPH leaves the speedo in MPH, but brings up an insert with a digital KPH). That and the fact its been known to reboot whilst driving (JLRs usual low battery glitches), and it takes about 5s for it to bring all the dials back - that was properly annoying before I changed the battery .

The S-Class digital display is pretty good as well, though lacks a bit of clarity due to the scatter gun approach MB used to get as much info as possible across the the drivers half of the screen.

[Doctor Gollum]

Arguably, if you're driving properly at speed, then you should be driving to the road rather than the speedo. This remains true whether is a fast, twisty B road or and empty autobahn. 99% of your focus should be ahead of you. 

[TheBoy]

Arguably, if you're driving properly at speed, then you should be driving to the road rather than the speedo. This remains true whether is a fast, twisty B road or and empty autobahn. 99% of your focus should be ahead of you. 

Being a reformed character, I now drive purely by looking at the speedo. As exceeding the speed limit kills, ergo, staring at the speedo to ensure not exceeding a limit means I can't kill.

[YZ250]

Being a reformed character, I now drive purely by looking at the speedo. As exceeding the speed limit kills, ergo, staring at the speedo to ensure not exceeding a limit means I can't kill.

It's good to hear that you are more concerned about the safety elements of speeding and less concerned about the big fine and points that follow such an indiscretion. 
Not everybody can change their attitude to safer driving as quickly as you so well done for that. 

[STEMO]

I try....I really do. But the pressure release valve in my head keeps blowing. It's a medical condition, you know.

[Andy B]

The thing that p's me off with Merc is that they insist you have a digital kph display somewhere. On my R Class, this was where Europe & the States could have a continual outside temp display but I had to scroll through umpteen pages to get to it. You used to be able to get someone with STAR to make it such that you could toggle between outside temp & kph, but then Merc made it so you couldn't. The ML is better.

[TheBoy]

Being a reformed character, I now drive purely by looking at the speedo. As exceeding the speed limit kills, ergo, staring at the speedo to ensure not exceeding a limit means I can't kill.

It's good to hear that you are more concerned about the safety elements of speeding and less concerned about the big fine and points that follow such an indiscretion. 
Not everybody can change their attitude to safer driving as quickly as you so well done for that. 

Looking up to you, as I do, once I learnt you had applied to go on such a course, it didn't take me long to also get booked on one.  So thank you YZ250, its all down to you 

[Andy B]

Being a reformed character, I now drive purely by looking at the speedo. As exceeding the speed limit kills, ergo, staring at the speedo to ensure not exceeding a limit means I can't kill.

It's good to hear that you are more concerned about the safety elements of speeding and less concerned about the big fine and points that follow such an indiscretion. 
Not everybody can change their attitude to safer driving as quickly as you so well done for that. 

Looking up to you, as I do, once I learnt you had applied to go on such a course, it didn't take me long to also get booked on one.  So thank you YZ250, its all down to you 

Just the one? I've been invited to attend two of them ..... 

[TheBoy]

Thats just greedy, Mr B

[STEMO]

Anyone who hasn't done one is just a very poor driver.......in my opinion, of course 

[Doctor Gollum]

I think I have only been invited to one, but have done enough commercial training to drive appropriately.

By appropriately, I mean not getting caught

[henryd]

I wasn't offered a course back in the day when I got done, was more concerned with keeping my license as at the time there was talk of a ban , as it was a first offence I got away with 3 points and 60 squid

[VXL V6]

I wasn't offered a course back in the day when I got done, was more concerned with keeping my license as at the time there was talk of a ban , as it was a first offence I got away with 3 points and 60 squid

Yes, same here.... Fortunately I managed to get the average speed down quite considerably with some very sedate driving on a stretch of road where it would not have been possible / safe to pull me over!