Car mag writers really hate/hated digital speedos. Surveys 15-20 years ago showed that about half of drivers liked digital ones, but car cos. got such a negative reaction from the press that they dropped it (see All Corvettes are Red and like every car mag review of a car with a digital speedometer ever). They're also somewhat more common outside of the US--Toyota's Yaris/Vitz/Platz cars (the US version is the Echo) all came with digital speedometers. That's why the analog one for the Echo was in such a small housing, making it even harder to read.
Center-mounted speedos smell like butt. The so-called rationale in some cases is that you have to look farther away so your eyes don't have to adjust as much when shifting from speedometer to road, but in most cases it's a matter of cheapness disguised as style (like in Toyota's Scion's xA, xB, and Echo) for cars built for both left and right-hand markets. Or it's "retro," based on horrid ergonomics of the past (see the MINI and the BMW Z8--but it still saves them money, & at least the MINI's is huge), or it's just shitty "stylish" design for cars only built for the North American market, like the Saturn ION or the Nisasan Quest.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 02:33 pm (UTC)Center-mounted speedos smell like butt. The so-called rationale in some cases is that you have to look farther away so your eyes don't have to adjust as much when shifting from speedometer to road, but in most cases it's a matter of cheapness disguised as style (like in Toyota's Scion's xA, xB, and Echo) for cars built for both left and right-hand markets. Or it's "retro," based on horrid ergonomics of the past (see the MINI and the BMW Z8--but it still saves them money, & at least the MINI's is huge), or it's just shitty "stylish" design for cars only built for the North American market, like the Saturn ION or the Nisasan Quest.