Impressed with the upcoming Honda Fit

[ScottB]

My neighbor let me drive his new Lexus IS350 this weekend.
It has a feature (among many) that lets you set a speed at which time an orange ring lights up the diameter of the speedo, tell you you've got to your point of being uncomfortably fast.
Seems simple enough, but it's really useful for those times you drone-along the freeways...
The inside of that car is simply beautiful, and functional.
No wonder they sell like hotcakes.

Scott

 

[Tosh]

If you had driven it a little brisker, you would have also discovered the orange light ring around the tach as you approached redline.
Sorry, but a car that doesn't have fold down rear seats doesn't qualify as 'functional' to me. Still very nice car.

 

[brianl703]

The Saab93 has a feature that chimes at a pre-set speed.

It defaults to 55MPH

It wasn't turned off on the one I was test driving.

Time exposure or not, things that don't need to be illuminated are. Maybe Honda took design cues from aftermarket car stereo manufacturers...

 

[javacontour]

quote:

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Originally posted by brianl703:

quote:

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For approximately 20 years

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So that means what? They changed the figures in 1984? 1985? 1986? What is "approximately 20 years"?

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If you want to know, look it up. I went to the trouble of typing in the information I had.

I suggest: http://www.google.com
or perhaps: http://www.epa.gov

 

[javacontour]

I felt generous it took 3 minutes to find this...

http://www.epa.gov/fueleconomy/420f06009.htm#background

 

[brianl703]

That document, which was created in January 2006, did not exist when I looked for this information.

I thank you for finding it. The EPA ratings were changed in 1984.

 

[Jeepster_nut]

Honda's backlit gauges are dimmable via a small knob located on the speedometer cluster. You can choose 3 different lighting levels.On my '04 Civic you can turn the lighting completely off by this knob.The gauges also dim when the lights are turned on.With the lights on you can still change the light levels if you wish.

 

[brianl703]

I'd certainly hope so. I've never seen any car that didn't have dimmable gauges (with infinite amounts of adjustment between off and full bright).

 

[ScottB]

Hard to imagine Honda would think of a dimmer...

Scott

 

[vad]

The full "Car and Driver" article.

 

[Jeepster_nut]

quote:

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Originally posted by ScottB:
Hard to imagine Honda would think of a dimmer...

Scott

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Look on page 5 of this thread. There were references to Saab's having a dimmer for safety. I was mentioning that Saab weren't the only ones that have dimmable backlit gauges and that the Honda gauges aren't a safety hazard.

 

[427Z06]

quote:

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Originally posted by brianl703:
The Saab93 has a feature that chimes at a pre-set speed.

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The 1969 Buick Skylark had the same feature. Adjustable with a knob on the dashboard.

 

[brianl703]

quote:

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There were references to Saab's having a dimmer for safety

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It's more than just a dimmer. If you want, it actually turns off all dashboard lighting except for the speedometer. (This is in addition to the normal dimmer all cars have, and of course you can just leave all the lighting on and select your desired brightness with the dimmer).

What if there's a problem and you can't see one of the gauges because it's dimmed? No problem, it will automatically turn the lighting on for the gauge that is indicating a problem.

I think it should be easy to see how this is a total opposite approach to what Honda does with the Fit (and most of their other cars, from what I've seen).

 

[brianl703]

quote:

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The 1969 Buick Skylark had the same feature. Adjustable with a knob on the dashboard.

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Yes, but would it chime if driven more than 1 mile with the turn signal on?

 

[Jeepster_nut]

quote:

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Originally posted by brianl703:

quote:

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There were references to Saab's having a dimmer for safety

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It's more than just a dimmer. If you want, it actually turns off all dashboard lighting except for the speedometer. (This is in addition to the normal dimmer all cars have, and of course you can just leave all the lighting on and select your desired brightness with the dimmer).

What if there's a problem and you can't see one of the gauges because it's dimmed? No problem, it will automatically turn the lighting on for the gauge that is indicating a problem.

I think it should be easy to see how this is a total opposite approach to what Honda does with the Fit (and most of their other cars, from what I've seen).

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I see now.
At least Honda isn't putting their ignition switch in the center console...

 

[brianl703]

At least in a frontal collision in a Saab you won't get your kneecap busted on the key.

 

[Jeepster_nut]

[ April 21, 2006, 02:03 PM: Message edited by: Jeepster_nut ]

 

[brianl703]

IIHS and EuroNCAP have both tested the 9-3 and it did very well. State Farm gives it a 40% vehicle safety discount, which is the highest they give.

 

[427Z06]

quote:

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Originally posted by brianl703:

quote:

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The 1969 Buick Skylark had the same feature. Adjustable with a knob on the dashboard.

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Yes, but would it chime if driven more than 1 mile with the turn signal on?

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No, but you have to remember that the Microprocessor wasn't invented until 1971. Buick had to use three Mongolian Gerbils in the dashboard just to get that one feature to work.

 

[brianl703]

I think they probably could've made something work with vacuum tubes. It would just have taken up most of the trunk and backseat...