Not always. Some strange people keep their cars. Who'da thunk?
Not always. Some strange people keep their cars. Who'da thunk?
1%ers
As someone who has owned almost exclusively ~20 year old cars, I think of these things.
Plus my girl bought an E46 new and has had to replace several expensive things, the latest of which is an LCD screen for the nav unit. At only 40k miles. Blech.
I feel like more of the auto electronics are now in the software. That screen will just be a screen.
Doesn't mean Audi won't rape and pillage you at replacement time, but they'd do that with regular gauges, too.
On an E46, I'm pretty sure it's age and not miles that killed the NAV screen. Isn't that pre-iDrive? I'd replace it with something aftermarket at this point anyway.
Regular gauges rarely need replacing, IME. LCDs tend not to last as long. What will be the repair/exchange policy for dashes with stuck pixels?
The E46 Nav screen itself (bare) can be sourced for not tons of money, it'll just take a few hours to replace. It is pre i-Drive.
Anyway, I'm not totally against screen dash displays like this. But there is a downside.
Vent temp display is a clever idea.
My Ducati has 2 digital displays.
A pic (by someone else)
Ok they aren't up to doing maps, but still quite good at displaying lots of different info.
And readable under different amounts of light.
A bit harder on a bike where the dash is more exposed and can get direct sun.
Not sure if nav-map in the dash is a good use. Say compared to some heads-up solution.
But this does look like an area that will have some cool advances.
Funny to see the universal symbol for an engine on a bike that doesn't have an engine remotely looking like that.
Nulla Tenaci Invia Est Via
It should look like V or L
Well my BMW E30 needed new gauges (and it's a common issue with those) and I've had issues with the gauges in all of my 80s Mazdas. So sooner or later, yeah, they go bad.
The big concern I'd have is the problem the CTS-V had - in freezing temps, the LCD for the combined HVAC/Nav/etc. couldn't display anything, or would be sluggish & display artifacts. It wasn't until the cabin got to 40 degrees or so the screen was worth anything. I'd say it's likely this problem has been addressed since '03 (when that Delphi unit began production), but based on that experience, it'd still be a concern.
The gauges in the E30 were TERRIBLE. As you say, it's a common problem. But clearly it's not universal - the shit gauges in the Suburban aren't prone to issues, and I've never even heard of gauge problems on a c900. I think BMW just screwed the pooch on their design for analog gauges. Still, in theory, solid state *should* be more reliable than electromechanical - but I think the latter is probably more *durable* than the former. I'll bet you could dunk E30 gauges in water and they'd still work. Doubt the TT's TFT would.
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