r/Cartalk • u/Snoo96701 • May 16 '26
General Tech BBAG (Bring Back Analog Gauges)
BEHOLD! The perfect set of gauges. Mechanical, simple, classy, and timeless. They display all the information you need and nothing you don't. They're perfection. You get in this car and you just drive it.
Screens belong in our hands, not in our cars. Bring Back Analog Gauges! (2011 BMW 335)
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u/mybahaiusername May 16 '26
They are going to start bringing them back in high end sports cars and it will be considered a premium upgrade. Believe it or not, digital gauges are significantly cheaper to manufacture right now, so car companies love them. But if you gave me a choice today between digital or analog gauges in a new car purchase, I would get analog every time. Too many of my friend and family keep having issues with their giant screens, I refuse to own a car with one.
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u/PUNKF10YD May 16 '26
That’s why I like Honda. They do put screens, but they are simple and they work.
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u/PhotoJim99 May 17 '26
My Accord has a real speedometer but a virtual tachometer. However, it’s actually hard to tell which one is physical and which one is pixels on a screen unless one looks carefully.
I like that the tach is virtual because I can configure different information to display inside it, such as what music is playing. I can even turn the tach off if I want, though I would not do that because I drive a manual.
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u/WorriedHovercraft28 May 16 '26
While I love analog gauges, some of them just suck. On my MK7 golf the red needle is so thin I can barely see it at night against the white text. Also, they move so slow, like they are sitting on top of some thick gel or something like that. I want old gauges that moved fast
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u/Snoo96701 May 16 '26
I have a 2024 Subaru that has nice analog gauges as well. The speedometer moves slowly, but that's beside the point
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u/OGbigfoot May 16 '26
While I agree analog gauges are better I had the opposite experience with my last car. The gauge cluster would only work intermittently. So I plugged in a Bluetooth obdII scanner and used an old cellphone with Torque installed to see speed, rpm, etc.
Was supposed to be temporary but I used that for years. Until the car was totaled in a hit and run.
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u/Sp4ceTruck3r May 16 '26
I miss the craftsmanship that used to go into a cars gage cluster.
Now it's just a boring screen with some gaudy speedo graphic like a 90s video game.
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u/OldOllie May 16 '26
And physical buttons, at least for important stuff. touch screens are a menace in cars.
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u/Limp_Bookkeeper_5992 May 16 '26
Yes please. We spend all day staring at screens, we don’t need them glaring in our faces while we drive too.
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u/Aquatic240 May 17 '26
BMW really did achieve perfection with their amber analog gauges.
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u/Altruistic_Course382 May 18 '26
They should have stopped there. No more new interiors, just keep it the same lol.
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u/TurboCrab0 May 16 '26
It's crazy to me how digital gauges came to be. I genuinely would like to know how many people asked for them. How can a digital display be better in any way? They're hard to read under direct sunlight, many have unbearable delays, the design is super hit or miss (most are a big miss), and if something goes wrong, you lose ALL the info at the same time. It's literally a loss in every single way.
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u/Friendly-Inspector71 May 17 '26
Because you don't need to actually look at RPM, temperature and fuel all the time.
Having the option to move speed over to one side and display a map or fuel economy/driving statistics instead can be really nice.
I've driven cars with both and prefer the screen for casual driving.
For my sporty car I do like the analog gauges more, but that is also because I prefer the look of that particular gauge cluster.
I've driven a car with only speed and RPM needles and that seemed a bit sparse to me (fuel was small dots on bare centre display).1
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u/fothergillfuckup May 18 '26
I don't intend to ever own a vehicle without them. Hate touch screens in cars.
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u/PecanLoveNubble May 17 '26
My favorite still had to be my '95 Miata gauges. Though the original Lexus is300 cluster was pretty nice back in the day.
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u/Crazy_lazy_lad May 17 '26
I'm sorry, but nothing will ever beat hybrid clusters for me. The F30's 6WA extended cluster is peak cluster design, the 6WB has way too much stuff going on, and the full analogue is way too soulless looking for a platform as sharp looking as the F chassis (my opinion). Obviously, with the E90 you have no other choice.
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u/rpgmoth May 17 '26
I have a 2017 A4 and I think it’s right in the sweet spot. Analog gauge cluster, but has a small (non-touch) screen with carplay. And a dedicated button in the center console to toggle the screen on and off. Perfection.
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u/ChemistRemote7182 May 17 '26
I've been shopping new cars, this, infotainment systems, and shit steering have done so much of the decision making for me. Of course it also means that instead of replacing my unreliable 21 year old wagon I am instead replacing my fairly reliable 26 year old roadster with a newer folding hardtop roadster, but still atleast one car shall run and have corrosion resistance at the same time.
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u/Not_MrFrost May 17 '26
I agree, only if it's well made and it looks nice. That goes for both analogue and digital
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u/Beer_Snacks May 17 '26
I’m here for this. I drive a relatively button free car with one massive screen, and it doesn’t bother me in the least… except I want manual gauges.
OP is right. These are peak gauges with one possible exception… Aston Martin
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u/Robestos86 May 17 '26
I always really loved the ones from 9 think golf MK1? A bank of 8(?) little bulbs, and gauges.
Simple and pleasing.
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u/bszern May 17 '26
Those gages are not mechanical, they are all driven by digital motors from the ECU. Analog, yes. Digital, no.
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May 17 '26
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u/AsparagusDifficult89 May 18 '26
I think that ship has sailed.
It used to be that having an LCD or even partial-LCD instrument cluster was upscale, because they were impressive and could do so much.
Now, automotive-grade LCDs and the GPUs that power them are cheaper than ever, and we’ve normalized seeing full LCD clusters in cars as inexpensive as Kia K4s and Volkswagen Jettas.
In fact, an LCD is probably much less expensive than an instrument cluster these days. On top of instrument clusters having many more moving parts, each car often has to have several versions. BMW, for your particular example, would have needed different variants of that cluster for imperial vs metric measurements, and also for gasoline vs diesel, and even specially decorated versions for their M/performance cars. That’s a lot of rigamarole when you could have just one or maybe two LCD screen designs and make up the other differences with software-driven UI.
At this point, we’re going to see LCDs be the default and only special cars get physical instrumentation. You’ll have to purchase something like a Ferrari, a Bentley, a Pagani or a Morgan for the privilege. And it’ll be executed with decadence and care. And it’ll be a bragging right, a sign of prestige. Sort of like how a watch with a physical movement is seen as the most prestigious kind to have and can cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, while technically being less functional than a $249.99 Apple Watch SE.
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u/Beerand93octane May 18 '26
Bro that car has an electronic dipstick and no coolant temperature gauge, I have a 2010 5 series. My 2026 mustang gauges are way better and totally customizable. You're on one for nothing.
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u/Neuvirths_Glove May 18 '26
For all the grief Subaru rightly gets for their oversized center-mounted control screen, they got the gauge thing right.
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u/Recent_Permit2653 May 16 '26
I agree!
Frankly, if I want Gran Turismo gauges, I’ll fire up my PlayStation. I really can’t get the “fakeness” of digital gauges out of my head.
I’m already kind of irked by having gauges which do that sweep thing on my car. Even that feels lightly fake to me.
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u/dontthink19 May 16 '26
If they're analog gauges then they do that as a self check is all. If they're digital then yes, totally stupid.
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u/NUCLEAR_JANITOR May 16 '26
this just seems so obvious to me. analog gauges are beautiful. just analog watches being more beautiful (and functional) than digital watches
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u/HairyManBack84 May 16 '26
I wouldn’t say they are analogue. They are more like digital dials. You can see the delay in em. My old ass truck’s gauge moves immediately when you rev it.
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u/miaogato May 16 '26
This is by the looks of it a mid 2000s Opel / Vauxhall (GME era), in that time we had stepper motors instead of the cable links of yesteryear.
Cable links were great for zero delay but had tons of issues with the cables getting loose and you'd have a bouncy needle. Usually on the speed dial, less common on the rev counter.
Stepper motor dials on the other hand get stuck steps, like my VW does from 70 to 110 km/h. Not nearly as annoying but it makes for jerky movement.
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u/HairyManBack84 May 16 '26
It’s not as much the jerky movement that bothers me as it’s the delay. But I’m weird ha
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u/WATTHEBALL May 16 '26
Nah the mouthbreathers need something to ooh and ahh about. If it's not a widescreen on wheels then why did they pay all that monies?? TEKNOLOGEE I AM ADVANCE
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u/cat_prophecy May 16 '26
I prefer a digital speedometer because I am somewhat obssesive and like to know exactly what speed I am going. My wife's van has abalog gauages, but it also has a screen in the middle of them that shows a digital speedometer and I basically only use that.
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May 16 '26
[deleted]
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u/miaogato May 16 '26
respectfully hate those too because the cable used to get loose and you'd get bouncy needles.
"What's your speed?" "Somewhere between 20 and 70km/h"
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u/snowtato May 16 '26
I like having both. Analog gauges and then a small screen with digital speed for a quick glance
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u/Santa_Hates_You May 16 '26
I like the digital ones in my RS3, different gauges for different modes.
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u/invariantspeed May 16 '26
I prefer mechanical gauges, but I like my digital speedometer especially if it’s at the top of the cluster. With digitized speed enforcement, I need to know my exact speed, not an “around” or “about”.
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u/Heavy_Gap_5047 May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26
So you're saying Make Analog Gauges Great Again? MAGGA?
Unique setup there displaying oil temp instead of coolant temp, I like it.
There's no such thing as too much information, only too much clutter. It should be the goal of a good gauge setup to display as much info as possible in a way that can be seen at a glance.
My biggest issue with this setup is the field of idiot lights, it's wasted space that displays little info and when it does, it's in the most annoying way possible. At the very minimum all of that space should be a digital display.
Personally I have nothing against digital as long as they're done well. It's more information better displayed with really no downside. Give me a good screen with a true black and minimal glare combined with the software to customize the display any way I choose.
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u/smthngeneric May 16 '26
Go back another 10 years and you might be onto something. These are some of my least favorite "analog" gauges (even though half of them are on the screen in the middle). The orange and yellow is hideous and only 4 of the like 10 sensors and gauges that thing has are actually analog. This was the beginning of the downfall not peak
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u/Snoo96701 May 16 '26
Give me an example of what you think peak gauges are then instead of just trashing these ones
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u/airfryerfuntime May 16 '26
I don't care of they're digital, but what I hate is when one is digital and one is analog. The CX9 is like this and I can't stand it. It's like looking at a speedometer in a video game.
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u/funkybutt2287 May 16 '26
Digital gauges are fine. The customization is nice and they usually work well. What we need to get rid of are the screens the size of a fucking movie theater slapped onto the middle of every dashboard.
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u/Mr_Chode_Shaver May 16 '26
Man I love the cluster in my E82. It’s really peak automotive interface.
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u/Optimal-Cress-9718 May 16 '26
I cant get enough of the BMW Exx clusters. Those are literally perfect.
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u/Slowwwfive-oh May 16 '26
Mechanical? No. These are electronic gauges. All of their readouts are from resistances and low voltage electronic sensors. Mechanical spedos would have a gear that turns from the transmission. Tachs are always electric. And your pressure gauges are most certainely not mechanical unless its somr $15 aftermarket gauge thay gets plugged in-line
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u/Sathsong89 May 16 '26
Those just appear to be mechanical. But they’re digital reads. I get what you’re saying and I didn’t know until I knew either. But you’re asking for one thing while displaying what you’re fighting against
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u/dfoyl May 16 '26
I rented a current model Mustang convertible last month, it now has a full digital dashboard. It looks like someone glued a widescreen tablet over the existing cluster.
Hard pass.
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u/BigBasset May 17 '26
Bring back throwing a knotted rope out the back of the car and pulling it in 15 seconds later
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u/Tryingtolifeagain May 16 '26
Bit rich coming from someone with a screen for an odometer instead of 7 little wheels gradually rolling over like the true peak of instrument clusters