I was in my local Citroen dealer recently and took the opportunity to sit in the new C8. Our Synergie has given us excellent service, I like the folks at the dealership and a discounted C8 would be a logical replacement for the Synergie.
However, I was disappointed to see that the C8 instrument cluster is in the centre of the cabin. Now in 30-odd years I've never owned a car where the instruments aren't in line with the steering wheel and I associate the central positioning of instruments with old-fashioned or utility vehicles e.g. Morris Minor, BL Mini, Land Rover. If I'm going to shell out thousands of pounds, I want the car designer to make the driver's job as easy as possible. That includes arranging the switches, stalks and instruments around the driver, not sharing them with passengers or scattering them around the cabin.
What do others think? Irrational prejudice or valid point?
H.
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Stranger in a strange land
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definatly valid point i think,
My cousin got a mini cooper s and got the sat nav so that the speedo has to go in the usual place rather than in the middle,
i love the mini interior but that is one draw back for sure.
When the usual place for the speedo has been good for so many people for so long why do these manufacturers have to change it I wonder???
I also dont like the yaris's speedo in the box all electronic and stuff i just like regualar normal nice dials! good and old fashioned!
God how old am I!
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I liked the new Primera instruments. In the centre and angled toward the driver. They are surprisingly easy to read - eyes don't need to re-focus when checking the dials.
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An interesting question. I spent a while considering thenew Primera with this question in mind. Actually, its worth giving your car a test drive because I found that the testdrive on the Nissan showed how quickly I could get used to this sort of thing. (subsequently didn't buy but not for this reason).
On another tack, in pre-seatbelt days in my youth I always used to sit on the back seat leaning forward (if you can picture it)so I could watch dad drive on long journeys and keep an eye on the road and the speedo. Nowadays journeys must be so dull for people in the back given that they have to remain strapped to their seats. Centrally mounted speedos must help them...!
Splodgeface
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I've got a Picasso - speedo also in the middle. It was strange for a day or two, but then seemed perfectly normal. In practice it doesn't make the job of driving more difficult in any way.
Having no experience of old-fashioned or utility vehicles (sorry!) I don't share the same thought association as you, and it's really not an issue.
(The only problem (based on 6 months use) with the dash design in my opinion is the Hazard lights being too far to reach quickly.
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I rented a Nissan primera a month ago...instantly disliked the central instrument cluster and huge centrally mounted control panel shelf....I did get used to it but didnt like it.
It is worthwhile noting that I doubt that anything other than cost it the resoning behind this move....easier to make lhd and rhd versions. The Primera 'cockpit' it almost completely symmetrical between left and right except for the tilt of the instruments and the driving controls, all of the trim etc would be the same.
Ian L.
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I assume it's to make life easier for the manufacturer, as it must simplify the switch from LH to RH drive (big plastic mouldings are expensive things to tool for). Never mind that the driver no longer has the instruments in front of him/her!
WRT tachos, I also wonder at the choice of multiplier. I surmise that it's to make it 'match' the speedometer, but that's a two-edged sword, as I discovered when driving a friend's big Moto-Guzzi that had its instruments the other way round to what I was used to. The Guzzi had an effective fairing, and I was driving along at what I thought was a sedate 40-50 mph, only to discover at the next corner that I was looking at the wrong dial...
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I would prefer a Head Up Display myself; controlled by voice. (You would have thought that SAAB with their much vaunted aerospace background would have knocked something up by now for their cars.) However in the very limited "choice" provided by the manufacturers in the current market it would be central and digital.
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"Head Up Display"
Standard on Chevrolet Corvette since last year, I believe. Agree that Saab should have been onto this, especially now they're part of GM!
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Something else to consider [noticed this especially in the MINI] is that the most commonly done speeds are to the left pf the dial [ie. 30, 40, 50, 70] so are even further away.
Surely it must be harder and taking more time to work out if it's pointing at 30 or 40?
Also with central mounted stuff, the area infront of the driver looks bare and bland, [Yaris, Primera] and like something is missing.
Kev
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Only real comment is try them for a week or so if possible and you'll get used to them. I much prefer the system the Yaris uses - the readout is clear, well positioned and doesn't get hidden behind the steering wheel. I find it really easy to glance over to see the speedo - better IMO than glacing down, often past the wheel to see.
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Is this really a new idea or a cunning plan to reduce the cost of producing left and right hand drive cars. The hand brake in both the Saab and Passat are situated for the left hand driver, one passenger i regularily have in my car puts on the hand brake for me!, he also turns the central key on the Saab when he thinks i've finished parking!
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I imagine that it would be uneconmical to convert a modern car from LHD to RHD but the old mini's with the centrally mounted instrument panel were a piece of cake. New steering rack, shift the pedal box over, re-route a few pipes - job done.
More recently I came across a new VW LT35 van with no heater air flow. It turned out that a LHD bonnet had been factory fitted and the air intake to the heater blower was blanked off when the bonnet was closed. Looked OK from the outside though.
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Not me. I get enough grief from SWMBO as it is with her restricted view of the speedo (she can only see the top quarter of the scale). Heaven help us if she could see it all right in front of her!!
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