I mean, nearly all American cars between the late 50s and the late 70s/early 80s had this kind of speedometer. But then they completely vanished at some point and there’s no cars with this kind of speedometer anymore at all. The latest car with this kind of speedometer I can think of was the last generation Caprice (sold between 1990 and 1996) and after that, none. What happened?
by soladois
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13 Comments
hard to read, takes up alot of space
Cars got slightly narrower on average in the ’80s and ’90s, and there was greater emphasis on immediate readability, standardization, and parts sharing between makes and models. Having the numbers spread out at the sides and squeezed together in the center made it harder to tell exactly how fast you were going. Even more traditional cars like the B-body Caprice or Roadmaster switched to [round gauges.](http://images.gtcarlot.com/pictures/45619547.jpg)
The should bring this back but on digital clusters
I swore some of the Buicks of the mid/late-90s had this speedometer too.
Because having the least precision at highway speeds, where precision is the most important, is a pretty terrible idea.
We called it ‘burying the speedometer’ and did that often
The price of little reddish-orange needles went through the roof!
Cars got too narrow. Even my ’89 Caprice has a small square with a clock-hand dial. One of my favorite old school mechanical dashboards was in my mile-wide ’72 Cadillac DeVille. It went to 120 and I almost got it there but I ran out of runway.
My grandad’s Continental……. Ahhhh.. That and blinker /high beam indicator pods on the fenders..
Cool 30, 40, 50 years ago.. But so was disco and doo-wop (no insult intended to those who were/are fans, I’m 50 so I can’t talk crap). But now.. If I hear ABBA…… 🤮
Nostalgia purposes, cool..
Takes up half the gauge cluster. A lot of modern cars now have digital gauges and the speedometer just reads “63mph” instead of wasting all that space.
Compare it to an analog watch or digital watch. The digital watch face can eliminate hands and dials, and just have the actual time in larger font, improving readability. Same idea.
Because it’s old as shit
Progress.
They’re not very practical or accurate but honestly I do adore the look of sixties dash layouts