Does anyone else dislike digital odometers?

[Pop_Rivit]

The don't bother me in the least. While I look at the speedometer a couple times a minute, I don't pay attention to the odometer. I may actually look at it one or twice a week.

Originally Posted By: javacontour
The tenths come in when you are following directions. I.E. go 4/10th of a mile and turn right. Every digital odometer I've seen does not display 10th's with the overall mileage. Now many mechanical odometers are the same, but they typically have a trip odometer that is visible simultaneously. Digital odometers make you choose, so you have to select the trip odometer if you need to see your distance traveled in tenths of a mile.


Have people actually gotten that lazy that they can't push the little button and change it to a trip odometer if they need to see the tenths?

Personally, if I have directions that include tenths of a mile, it's not hard to figure it in my head as I'm driving. At 60 5/10ths takes 30 seconds. At 30 5/10ths takes 60 seconds, the rest is all just simple math that anyone should be able to do in their head as they're driving.

 

[Kruse]

My '88 Cougar had a digital speedometer/odometer. After it hit 199,999 miles it rolled over to 100,000 miles. There was nothing wrong with the odometer except that the far left digit was never meant to register anything higher than a "1". C'mon Ford, didn't you think that they would ever achieve higher mileage than 200,000?
I would rather have a mechanical odometer, but I guess it's cheaper for them to build digital.

 

[VNTS]

Actually people pull them for the Body control modules are integrated into the cluster and some of these rebuilt go for 400$.

Many need to be programed so it does not matter, they use their DRB to set em up.

There are a lot of modules in cars worth grabbing as spares.

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Originally Posted By: VNTS
I dont like them only because when I go yarding and I cant tell how many miles are on the car/SUV/truck I am about to pilfer unless I can find an oil change sticker or registration. Starting to see a lot of the early 200x stuff showing up in the local wreckers. Most have the digital odometers.


Same here. My only real complaint about electronic odos is that I can't read them in the junkyard.

One thing I have noticed in Pull-A-Part is a lot of ripped out gauge clusters. It's not the yard doing it, since other vehicles will have them intact, but it seems like a common thing for people to take from a variety of vehicles. I doubt they are buying them to hang on their wall, so odds are those clusters are ending up in vehicles. Probably good for a used car dealer who wants to turn a mileage exempt 250K mile Expedition into a 150K mile Expedition so they can add a little more to the weekly payment.

 

[JHZR2]

I like the continuous scroll.

 

[artificialist]

Either way is good for me as long as it works.
During the 1980s, many cars had problems with digital displays that were inspired by Tron and Knight Rider, however, nearly every analog odometer I have seen has problems displaying high mileage numbers. Modern digital displays are okay with me.

The 1985-1988 Nissan Maxima with the digital speedometer option had an analog odometer. I guess they saw how many times a digital odometer would have an error back then.

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Personally, if I have directions that include tenths of a mile, it's not hard to figure it in my head as I'm driving. At 60 5/10ths takes 30 seconds. At 30 5/10ths takes 60 seconds, the rest is all just simple math that anyone should be able to do in their head as they're driving.


That makes little sense unless you are on a highway where you usualy don't need to keep track of distance to see the location. How is it any easier to watch a stop watch or count off seconds than to glance at an odometer (that would be continuously scrolling if it were a proper analog trip odometer)? Besides a lot of times when you are trying to find a location it's in congested stop and go driving and you're not maintaining an exact constant speed.

 

[Vikas]

Use your GPS! Unless you are waiting for analog GPS to be available on the market

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
Now many mechanical odometers are the same, but they typically have a trip odometer that is visible simultaneously. Digital odometers make you choose, so you have to select the trip odometer if you need to see your distance traveled in tenths of a mile.

Our current cars display both odo and trip simultaneously. But yeah, I've had a few rentals that didn't.

 

[KrisZ]

I don't mind digital odometers. I don't constantly check how many miles are on the car, but since my Mazda has those tunnel gauges, the display doesn’t wash out during sunny days so I can see the odo all the time. The focus has a pretty strong backlight for the odo when the lights are off and I haven't noticed any problems with reading the numbers yet.

I agree that tempering with digital odometers is that much easier to do and is much harder to detect it, but I never trust the odo reading alone in any case. I always pay close attention to interior bits like HVAC switches, power window switches, carpets on the driver’s side, the condition of the driver’s seat and the steering wheel to see if the condition of those items matches the mileage reading.

 

[Bamaro]

Other than not being able to see the mileage when walking through a used car lot I dont really care. Just dont give me a digital speedometer.

 

[The_Jeff]

Don't LCD odometers cause issues with polarized sunglasses?

 

[97f150]

Its not so much the odometer itself as it is the glass over the gauge cluster. It creates a rainbow affect, depending on the light and glare situation can wash it out in rainbow colors but usually you can read right through them.

I never really thought about it but I had to think for a minute on my last car that had a mechanical odometer. That would be my 97 F150 that the gears broke on and even after I changed the whole gauge cluster the new one broke about a year later. Nah, I like digital.

 

[javacontour]

Yes they have!

It doesn't really bother me, but I tend to know people, so this is definitely a First World Problem.

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
The don't bother me in the least. While I look at the speedometer a couple times a minute, I don't pay attention to the odometer. I may actually look at it one or twice a week.

Originally Posted By: javacontour
The tenths come in when you are following directions. I.E. go 4/10th of a mile and turn right. Every digital odometer I've seen does not display 10th's with the overall mileage. Now many mechanical odometers are the same, but they typically have a trip odometer that is visible simultaneously. Digital odometers make you choose, so you have to select the trip odometer if you need to see your distance traveled in tenths of a mile.


Have people actually gotten that lazy that they can't push the little button and change it to a trip odometer if they need to see the tenths?

Personally, if I have directions that include tenths of a mile, it's not hard to figure it in my head as I'm driving. At 60 5/10ths takes 30 seconds. At 30 5/10ths takes 60 seconds, the rest is all just simple math that anyone should be able to do in their head as they're driving.

 

[HerrStig]

There's hope, I have a new bike helmet on which the clear face shield does NOT cause problems with my Brown Three polarized sun glasses. BTW sunglass lens tints DO have a scientific basis to them.

 

[spackard]

The sensation of an analog odometer rolling over from 99999.9 to 00000.0, or 099999.9 to 100000.0 then 199999.9 to 200000.0 has not been replicated in the digital realm. Period.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: spackard
The sensation of an analog odometer rolling over from 99999.9 to 00000.0, or 099999.9 to 100000.0 then 199999.9 to 200000.0 has not been replicated in the digital realm. Period.

With the newest dashboards that are basically large LCD monitors, the scrolling movement of digits could be programmed in, alas I'm not sure that any manufacturer would actually bother.

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: spackard
The sensation of an analog odometer rolling over from 99999.9 to 00000.0, or 099999.9 to 100000.0 then 199999.9 to 200000.0 has not been replicated in the digital realm. Period.


+1. It's kind of like the difference between having a Rolex analog versus a cheap Casio digital watch

.

 

[zzyzzx]

I also hate not knowing how many miles junkyard parts have on them.

 

[Kiwi_ME]

A good compromise would be if electronic paper (e.g. eReader) technology was used for the odometer display so that it would hold the last image without needing power. It would need the same external illumination as the other instruments for nighttime use.

 

[Silverado12]

The digital speedos aren't foolproof. There are some you can get from ebay that the seller will program whatever mileage you want. They send a paper to fill out verifying you're telling the truth, but if someone was dishonest, it can be easily done. Some cars have the mileage in the ecm, so that would be harder to defeat.