Scary

[Vipers]

Over in the states and got my hired car, a Chevy Malibu. After a few days of the OH keep asking what the temperature was as the digital read out was in Fahrenheight, decided there must be a way to change it to centigrade.

So sitting at the lights, had a fiddle and voila it now reads Centigrade.

At this time I was following my son in law through a 40 mph limit, nice and easy. As I pulled away and matched his speed, I looked down to the speedo, and thought "Jesus Christ I can't be doing just over 60", then as I looked at the centre of the odometer I noticed by changing the temp from imperial to metric it had changed the odometer to kilometres, phew, be warned.

[Papa Hotel]

That's snazzy. A much more elegant solution than our dual mph/kmhr readouts in the UK.

[marksx]

Not that snazzy. My car from the colonies had the option to switch the dash from metric to ye olde English and that is nearly 10 years old.

[Papa Hotel]

marksx said:

Not that snazzy. My car from the colonies had the option to switch the dash from metric to ye olde English and that is nearly 10 years old.

Sorry, I didn't know we were having a competition.

Compared to the ugly UK displays, it's snazzy. I didn't say it was a particularly technologically challenging or impressive feature. Can we just leave it at that or do we have to completely deconstruct why it isn't snazzy?

[marksx]

I'm good with either to be fair!

Snazzy to me means new, different and interesting. But yeah, I agree, it is much better than printing some numbers inside some other numbers, for when you visit 'Johnny'.

[Ari]

Nice idea. The speedo in my car just shows MPH and then there is a small digital readout with KPH as well.

[Vipers]

Papa Hotel said:

That's snazzy. A much more elegant solution than our dual mph/kmhr readouts in the UK.

Your right there, a clearer display.

[Stuartggray]

Vipers said:

Papa Hotel said:

That's snazzy. A much more elegant solution than our dual mph/kmhr readouts in the UK.

Your right there, a clearer display.

But not suitable for British tastes...

[SturdyHSV]

marksx said:

Not that snazzy. My car from the colonies had the option to switch the dash from metric to ye olde English and that is nearly 10 years old.

My first thought was Monaro, and I got lucky

My colonial coupe is the same, much nicer, looks lovely and neat, and you can change it whenever, there's something oddly cool about watching the needle flick round when you change to metric...

Just me then? OK

[AJS-]

How come the fuel gauge didn't turn metric?

[phumy]

The old Audi quattro turbo (UR) has been able to change from MPH to KPH since 1981.

[Vipers]

phumy said:

The old Audi quattro turbo (UR) has been able to change from MPH to KPH since 1981.

Interesting, could you change degrees without changing mph/kmh.

[nightcruiser]

I think it's there/useful if you are going to Canada as they use Km/h and use Celsius for their weather

[AJS-]

Useful but only up to 160 Kph.

[Vipers]

AJS- said:

Useful but only up to 160 Kph.

Don't think my hire car would go much faster, probably a 1.6 engine in it, but a good point.

Does anyone have the answer?

Edited by Vipers on Saturday 24th August 05:52

[carl_w]

I should imagine that the issue in Blighty is that EU type approval rules require the km/h display (probably at all times). But I'm guessing.

[phumy]

Vipers said:

phumy said:

The old Audi quattro turbo (UR) has been able to change from MPH to KPH since 1981.

Interesting, could you change degrees without changing mph/kmh.

No not possible to do one without the other, it was all or nothing, all Imperial or all SI.

[philmots]

I kind of want to know... The Missus' new Ibiza has real clean looking mph only dials. When you're actually moving the display (mileages/temps/mpgs) changes to show kmh and I can't see a way of getting rid of it.

In guessing its regulation.

[MGgeordie]

Why change it?

Don't you understand farenheit?

[Prof Prolapse]

MGgeordie said:

Don't you understand farenheit?

I have no idea what a "Farenheit" is.

Aside from miles, I've never used Imperial units and certainly wasn't taught in school.