This is down to the size of the digits, but so glacial is the normal rate of change in daily driving anyway that going by the numbers isn’t too much of a drag.
And with a mildly hybridised engine, an automatic gearbox, busy traffic and New York state’s typical upper speed limit of 55mph, it’s not like I’m paying the slightest bit of attention to the rev counter either.
Were the rotary dial bigger and the supposed speed limit a small red telltale needle, I think the display would be more useful. As I find myself nearing a speed limit from above or below, it would be better to have a needle showing how quickly I’m closing in on it, but the instrument has been relegated to minor or cancelled status.
And this is the case all over the car business. Of the new cars I’ve tested recently, only in a Caterham Seven and a Morgan Supersport have I been overtly aware of a speedo needle spinning around a dial – and the Morgan had a supplementary digital numeric display too.
Even in Porsches and Ferraris, where you would expect the needle to move quickly, you find numbers for the speed, alongside, thankfully still, dials for the revs.
I think there’s an inevitability about this. Two large numerals take up less space than even a small dial, and it’s not like one can do away with a digital screen entirely, because modern legislation requires that the driver is presented with ample – often too much – information.
