GTI Speedo is dated

[CraigW]

Wow, a four page thread on the instrument display - had to register to show my love! You guys are almost as OCD as the guys in the North American GT 86/BRZ forum FT86.com - we can argue for 10 pages about whether the twins should have a shark fin antenna or not!

Great forum, lurking as I'm going to be choosing between a Mk 7 PP GTI, Fiesta ST, and a BRZ next year (when the first 2 finally get across the pond).

No choice there Devon. GTI all the way 

Oh, Welcome to the forum

[ajmoir36]

Keep it simple and it will work for years to come, just wait for those fancy TFT's to throw a wobbly. I suppose there's only really two things can go wrong with a needle one. The needle falls off or the backing comes off. TFT screens, colours going, lines going, total failure, contrast going.....

[Bill_the_Bear]

Wow, a four page thread on the instrument display - had to register to show my love! You guys are almost as OCD as the guys in the North American GT 86/BRZ forum FT86.com - we can argue for 10 pages about whether the twins should have a shark fin antenna or not!

Great forum, lurking as I'm going to be choosing between a Mk 7 PP GTI, Fiesta ST, and a BRZ next year (when the first 2 finally get across the pond).

If you are getting one of those 3 I don't think there is any way you can go wrong.

[Mr Savage]

As much as I agree that the Kia dials do look "Good" and "Modern" and theres nothing really flash or fancy about the GTI dials, I do still think they serve there purpose fine. The problem with the TFT displays is they can just become over cluttered with information that you really don't need to know. It's not like your going to be sat there staring at how much torque you're currently using, I would personally rather be looking out the windscreen and enjoying the drive. There's nothing wrong with a simple, clean, dash.

I would rather VW put in the time, effort, research and money into the mechanics of the car (such as the engine, transmission and turbo) than mess around with making the dials look more modern. Kia's have always focussed more on technology.

I love the blue back-lighting on the MK5's, even if it was/is dated, much cooler than white in my opinion!

[Gene Hunt.]

Shame thay dont fit a ''small'' pod on the dash with a couple of gauges in like they did in the
W12 & the centre consol of the MK1 GTI.

[Snoopy]

I would rather VW put in the time, effort, research and money into the mechanics of the car (such as the engine, transmission and turbo) than mess around with making the dials look more modern. Kia's have always focussed more on technology.

I love the blue back-lighting on the MK5's, even if it was/is dated, much cooler than white in my opinion!

It would actually be nice if VW spent money on R&D and testing of mechanics of the car!

[Bill_the_Bear]

Why does it have to be either or?

[Golf7]

I have to say I couldn't disagree more with most of what is being said in this thread!

The Golf is classy. Understated. Refined. Class-less. It is the kind of car you can use to pop to the shops for a loaf of bread, or pull up at a black-tie do and get out of with your head held high. You are not screaming "look at me, I'm a flash bugger and I am doing well for myself". You are driving a car that every other family hatch back aspires to be and that has the practicality that other hot-hatches cannot offer. It's the perfect balance of practicality, performance, quality and price.

Why oh why oh why would anybody who has an ounce of class or taste want a dashboard that would do nothing more than cheapen the brand and cheapen the product?

Purely subjective I know, (and I'm probably not making any friends here!) but how anybody in their right mind could choose a Kia, Citroen, Peugeot, Ford, Vauxhall, Honda or pretty much any other brand above VW (or Audi, but that's when you start losing the 'flash bugger' argument) is beyond me.

If you want gimmicks, go to Kia (or Citroen, as they usually whack plenty of gadgets in their cars to mask how woefully bad they are!).


Only my opinion though!! 

[Running Man]

I have to say I couldn't disagree more with most of what is being said in this thread!

The Golf is classy. Understated. Refined. Class-less. It is the kind of car you can use to pop to the shops for a loaf of bread, or pull up at a black-tie do and get out of with your head held high. You are not screaming "look at me, I'm a flash bugger and I am doing well for myself". You are driving a car that every other family hatch back aspires to be and that has the practicality that other hot-hatches cannot offer. It's the perfect balance of practicality, performance, quality and price.

Why oh why oh why would anybody who has an ounce of class or taste want a dashboard that would do nothing more than cheapen the brand and cheapen the product?

Purely subjective I know, (and I'm probably not making any friends here!) but how anybody in their right mind could choose a Kia, Citroen, Peugeot, Ford, Vauxhall, Honda or pretty much any other brand above VW (or Audi, but that's when you start losing the 'flash bugger' argument) is beyond me.

If you want gimmicks, go to Kia (or Citroen, as they usually whack plenty of gadgets in their cars to mask how woefully bad they are!).


Only my opinion though!! 

100% agree with you, great response. 

The Golf is the Golf, to compare the latest fiesta for example is ridiculous.

The Fords I have owned were all ok but the latest batch and all the other average brands mentioned are cheap playstation looking nasty.

[Bill_the_Bear]

Why oh why oh why would anybody who has an ounce of class or taste want a dashboard that would do nothing more than cheapen the brand and cheapen the product?

Yes.  But (IMO) its the GTI/Golf that has the cheapest speedo with the littlest apparent effort or thought put into it of... well, any car I've ever been in.  So why do we want this speedo?  I'll say again, it uses some basic font, the numbers are random sizes, its unclear at a glance what speed you're even at because the needle COVERS the numbers and the tick marks are too far out (should be the other way around! in which case the numbers would probably not need to be different sizes).  Its a dog's breakfast where even 5 minutes of effort would result in something 100x better.  Its like they've never seen how a speedo should look.  And all that is assuming you stick with the cheap material dash as it is, I'm not even talking about a digital dash.

I think you've got the wrong end of the stick.  I'm not promoting Kia or any brand, that is merely an example.  I used an example of a cheaper car than a Golf because if I show you a Merc dash or a Jag you're just gonna say "yeah, but you pay 3x as much for those cars".  I don't let the Golf off the hook just because it does everything else well, its a £30k car and I expect a better dashboard.

Anyway, perhaps I'll redesign the speedo later on a post an example of what 5mins of design effort can do and therefore why the VW effort gets marks of 1/10 from me.