Driving back from London earlier tonight in a lovely E240 Elegance my colleague remarked the old cliche 'the dash looks like Blackpool illuminations' and i'd have to agree. It felt very surreal and expensive with virtually everything lit up from the air vent thumbwheels to the steering wheel controls. Even controllable ambient lighting for the cabin no less! What a sheltered life i lead!
What's your views on dashboard lighting? I personally love it nice and bright and everything lit up. Never use the rheostat. The more back lighting used the more expensive the car feels?
Love the blue VW uses but can't help feeling disapointed at Ford with the Mondeo and Galaxy with the dim analogue clock which is virtually unreadable at night.
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Agree with you there Imagos - that 320 I was playing in; the most impressive thing was changing the brightness of the lights and also, when you unlock the car, at night, all of the dash lights up.
I too like bright dashes - never distract me. Of all the cars I've driving, most of them had the radio dim when you turn the lights on (on purpose - not a dodgy battery) - that annoyed me and I had to turn that feature off.
I've seen a proper dash kit by some company which you can buy for most major makes which you can select whatever colour dials you wish. I'll try and dig the URL out because it was only around £40 for the full thing.
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Adam
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Classic BMW - turned right down when in the country.
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A friend bought a 2.8 Jag back in the seventies. The car was a bit of a dog and well underpowered, but the thing that stands out in my memory was all the illuminated switches on the dash. It gave an aura of refinement and luxury in an era when most cars had dull and uninspiring dash layouts.
Got to disagree with imagos on the digital clock, though. I hate them, much prefer an anologue where you can tell the time at a glance witout having to pause for a mental conversion during the pm. Easier to set too, I always overshoot with the minutes on a digital and have to go round again.
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"having to pause for a mental conversion during the pm"
Most have the facility to show a 12hr display during setup.
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"having to pause for a mental conversion during the pm" Most have the facility to show a 12hr display during setup.
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Thats another thing with digitals - You need the instruction manual to set them up. I only want to know the time, for god's sake.
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I think I shall have to design a sundial for cars - DD can market it along with his wiper blades for visors.
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Just bright enough to read the dials. No more, no less.
Kevin...
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My new Citroen C8 is the first car I have ever owned (in 25 years of car ownership) with the dials in the centre of the dash. Am still experimenting with the right intensity of green glow to suit me. The current setting is nither too bright nor too dim ...
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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If you own a Ford and have digital clock it's easy to convert from 24h to 12h format, just press hour and minute buttons together and hey presto!
I'm of course referring to the oval analogue clocks as fitted to Ka, Mondeo etc. They're just so badly designed and unreadable at night. My favourite clock is the one fitted to Maseratis, you know the one that Ford copied.
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