To make everyone happy, including myself, Mazda could consider making the RX-8 with both a digital and analog speedo as it is available in some Porsche models.

I personally dislike the digital speedo, but would not complain if there also was an analog speedo as well.

The cost and weight etc. of adding them both would and should not be prohibitive.

Whaddaya think??

Screw it, just make tach and speedo analog. Porsche wouldn't have to do that digital junk if they just made the space beween the numbers bigger.

I hate digital anything, I don't really care how good it is, it still doesn't work for me.

I prefer analog only, but willing to accept digital as a compromise to make sure that we get an analog speedo.

HRmm I wonder if any of you guys seen any show cars that had a digital dash? You know some people change their gaugues with adifferent color etc and diff lights. I dunno how to explain it thats the best I can explain it. But I wonder how they look I'll have to go take a look on google later prolly this weekend

It's not a matter of cost or weight, IMO, it's a matter of how much space you have to work with. Having both would not only be unnecessary, but would add complexity, take away space that could be used for something else, and be more of a distraction than help for some people.

You're not going to be able to please everybody's personal preferences, and trying to compromise normally makes a mess of things. It's normally better to make a choice and go with it.

---jps

Then, of course, let me have my analog speedy.

I prefer just analog speedo and analog tach. Digital has no place on a sports/performance car.

what if they shot the digital speedo onto the windshield as a heads up display?

Originally posted by zoom44
what if they shot the digital speedo onto the windshield as a heads up display?

I’m for that!!!

Actually, I've read on another post that the digital speedo may be gone. Hooray, I hope.

Originally posted by Donny Boy
Actually, I've read on another post that the digital speedo may be gone. Hooray, I hope.
Don't bet on that... I'm pretty sure that Mazda is sticking with the digital.

Either way though, I can't say that I care. I will adjust very quickly either way.

I like the digital speedo, although it mike make it hard to say,

"but officer I was only going about... well... er..."

;)

Originally posted by fuz
I like the digital speedo, although it mike make it hard to say,

"but officer I was only going about... well... er..."

;)
That's why you just blatantly lie :D

Besides here's a good excuse.. the cop says you were going 80 or something.. say "that impossible sir, I have my cruise control set...". I've gotten outta two tickets that way :)

The last thing I want to see in the RX-8 is a digital tach and speedo. Anything to keep the cost down...I am a student that goes to highschool, and I know that the looks and the engine alone will be more than expensive enough. Let's just try to keep it toned down a bit. There's nothing wrong with the analog, it's worked for the last 100 years, if it aint broke, don't fix it. That's another thing. Think of the cost if that digital readout got busted...that's a lot of dough...

Originally posted by ilovepotatos
...There's nothing wrong with the analog, it's worked for the last 100 years, if it aint broke, don't fix it... But if you can save alot of space with the digital speedo, then you can use that space for other things. ...Think of the cost if that digital readout got busted...that's a lot of dough... How is it going to be more expensive than the analog?

---jps

But if you can save alot of space with the digital speedo, then you can use that space for other things.
The miniscule amount of space you save with it is really not worth it, besides, they can always make the gauge window 5 cms bigger, to fit in those others you guys want.
How is it going to be more expensive than the analog?
I know plenty of cars that have the digital readouts that have broken down. The digital readouts aren't happy until they break! :p Hey man, it cost $1000 for my dad to get the digital readout fixed on his Aerostar. Instead, he just bought an analog. Only put him $200 dollars in the hole...not 1 Grand.

The miniscule amount of space you save with it is really not worth it, besides, they can always make the gauge window 5 cms bigger, to fit in those others you guys want.


The space savings *isn't* minimal, though. On the RX-8 interiors we've seen, the digital speedo is in the lower right corner of the tach; adding an analog speedo instead would be an entirely new dial in the gauge-pack. If you had to choose between an analog tach or an analog speedo, I'll take the analog tach.

Originally posted by ilovepotatos
The miniscule amount of space you save with it is really not worth it, besides, they can always make the gauge window 5 cms bigger, to fit in those others you guys want... Miniscule? :rolleyes: Take a look at the prototype gauges, and see how much room the 3 digit speedometer takes up compared to the whole tachometer. I don't think any one of the "I want an Analog speedo" folks would want it analog if it is only 1 inch in diameter.

---jps

Could you get a pic of this digital tach then? It sounds pretty snazzy!

There are plenty of shots in this thread (http://www.rx8forum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1022&pagenumber=2).

Remember, it's not a digital tach. It's an analog tach, and a digital speedo.

---jps

ty:D

I personally do not see the need for a digital speedo at all. Just save the cost of it all and simply give me the analog speedo alone. It seems a waste to have both.

Didn't Mazda learn from the negative magazine reports about the Honda S2000's digital dash?? It sucks!!

I have to say, the digital speedo is the way to go. It works very well on my motorcycle. You can tell in an instant exactly how fast you are going (although the speedo error of 9% sux).

An analog tach is very important. Your eye needs to see how fast the needle is sweeping over the arc to guage how long until you have to shift.

The Mercedes C200 Kompressor I rented in Germany had both analog and digital readout for speed. It was very convient.

I say wait till it comes out, drive the car and then judge what is going on.

Embrace change.

Ciao,

Don

the digital speedo is available for easi readout and of course for mere looks... :eek: IMO, there is nothing wrong with having both... but i would personally like it the old fashion way... =)

i use to have a toyota corona as well as honda prelude... those digital speedo are expensive to replace!!! back to basic... less cost if ever need replacement... hehehe :p

That's exactly what I said! :rolleyes: The digital gauges are way too expenisve to replace. Particularily because they use electricity, well I'll explain it. My dad can pretty much fix anything that goes wrong on any of our cars. However, he cannot fix electrical problems. They are too complicated, and tampering with them will merely cause more harm than good!

Originally posted by ilovepotatos
That's exactly what I said! :rolleyes: The digital gauges are way too expenisve to replace. Particularily because they use electricity, well I'll explain it. My dad can pretty much fix anything that goes wrong on any of our cars. However, he cannot fix electrical problems. They are too complicated, and tampering with them will merely cause more harm than good!

These days even analog speedo's are electrical... (if not electronic)... most modern cars that sweeping needle is driven off a digital "speed pulse" that comes from a shaft encoder... in some cars it's even sent over a "Data Bus"... before it gets converted back into a mechanical readout... it's a brave new world, eh!

How come whenever I say something, I get my ass kicked??? lol
Hey, you guys know way more than what I do, so take what I say with a grain of salt!

Originally posted by ilovepotatos
How come whenever I say something, I get my ass kicked??? lol
Hey, you guys know way more than what I do, so take what I say with a grain of salt!
Don't worry, when I was at 48 posts I was pretty wet behind the ears concerning all this car stuff...

550+ posts later, I'm much better along than I once was, and I have a wealth of knowledge about the RX-8 nobody else does.. I often find myself telling my friends (who don't really care) but I feel happy telling them :)

Originally posted by ilovepotatos
How come whenever I say something, I get my ass kicked??? lol
Hey, you guys know way more than what I do, so take what I say with a grain of salt!

LOL, that was never my intention... your opinion is just as valid as anyone else on here, but if it's a matter of fact, I find it hard not to correct people.

If we're gonna come to the conclusion that one method or the other is better, I prefer that we do it based on fact!... and obviously things have changed a lot recently.

Originally posted by Hercules
...550+ posts later, I'm much better along than I once was, and I have a wealth of knowledge about the RX-8 nobody else does... :rolleyes: Give me a break...

---jps

Originally posted by Sputnik
:rolleyes: Give me a break...

---jps
WHAT???

.....

560+... :rolleyes:

Do I smell a rumble going on??? Yup. It's that unmistakeable smell of ass/glue/old socks

What's a rumble?? I thought rotaries went HMMMMMMM??

The cluster grew on me suddenly :D

http://www.rx8forum.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=13029

I'm suddenly inclined to agree. ;)

The RX-8 does indeed have great lookin gauges from that picture..

*drool*

I don't mind the digital speedo any more, I think I can get used to it.. I just hope there's a 'progress' bar of sorts, so I can see where I am in the spectrum :D

Yeah, what herc said...

Originally posted by Hercules
The RX-8 does indeed have great lookin gauges from that picture..

*drool*

I don't mind the digital speedo any more, I think I can get used to it.. I just hope there's a 'progress' bar of sorts, so I can see where I am in the spectrum :D ]

Speaking from experience... you will get used to it really quickly... and it won't be long before you wonder why you ever were worried.

I personally think that, if it works, I'll love it. It's just that, I'm not going to really be able to afford this car as it is, Mazda better make everything reliable, or else this thing isn't going to be sitting in my driveway.
The 35 grand I'll spend on this thing used will be PLENTY!

... yeah I like it, but I only wish there wasn't "idiot" warning lights, but some kind of gage or digital sliding bar graphic... instead :D

If anyone wants to see a little larger version of the new dash cluster without all of that black frame --- please see below attachment :)

Sorry, I don't have a web/ftp site so I can paste this image inrto the thread ... :(

http://www.rx8forum.com/attachment.php?postid=13250

Well, what do you know ... ;)

I still wish it had a high resolution LCD display for warning readouts instead of the typical undecipherable icons. :(

I wish I had a 5 million hp ferrari, with all the gizmos a man could ever need.
Look, we want to keep the price down. Mazda said they want to keep this car at about 45 grand CAN. They won't be able to do that for very long if they all get LCD displays and navigation systems for that price. What if I get 20" wheels? Maybe a 12 speaker sound system? Guys, come on. It's mazda. What is mazda all about? Affordable performance. We're not driving ferraris here, we're driving quality japanese cars. Just be thankful they're affordable.

A $25k audi has a small high rez in dash LCD for readouts. I don't think it's unreasonable to put one in.

You can buy an Audi for 25? Why am I getting Mazda??? Which Audi is that?
Is that new?

Originally posted by ilovepotatos
You can buy an Audi for 25? Why am I getting Mazda??? Which Audi is that?
Is that new?
With that Audi you'll get AWD, and a nice curb weight at around 3500 lbs :D

Enjoy it.

Which Model is it??? Argh! Is that new?

*cough* The new A4 1.8T *cough*

Just look at the interior 360. The screen is right there.

Audi (FWD) starts at ~25k, BMW starts at ~28k; both have a good number of items standard. (The quattro starts at ~27k) Don't tell me you didn't know... :rolleyes:

Herc is right though. The new audi is really heavy. It drives great, but is far more tuned to restrained sport than all out sport. The BMW drives much better being RWD, but the interior is just a tad below par to the new Audi.

In any case I want more sport, less luxury, hence my intrest in the RX-8.

To be more exact, the A4 auto is 3627 lbs, the manual is 3583 lbs.

HEAVY HEAVY HEAVY.

Not to mention, the weight distribution is like 63/37! So much for a tossable car... but ti is a nice car in its own right, but as per handling it won't compete with the 3 series not becuase of weight, but because of balance.

That's the 3.0A4 w/ quattro. The 1.8T is about 100 lighter on MT/AT, and the BMW 325i and 330i is yet 100 lighter still on the same MT/AT weights.

200lbs might not seem much, but as you turn, the G force adds a multiplicative factor that makes even a small weight increase a large penalty.

The weight distribution of course, affects the base handling properties. Nose heavy will want to understeer, and the FWD/AWD layout of the Audi is no help either. The front tires and brakes on a front heavy car will also take quite a bit of abuse from trying to keep that weight in check, particularly from braking. (all the weight shifts to the already heavy front, overloading the front brakes and tires)

The excellent suspension on the A4 however, manages to minimize the effect of understeer on turning, so it feels relatively nimbe, but there is no way to escape the pitfalls of extra weight. The car is definetly more sporty than your average sedan, but it's not as good as others in the sport sedan category.

Originally posted by fuz
That's the 3.0A4 w/ quattro. The 1.8T is about 100 lighter on MT/AT, and the BMW 325i and 330i is yet 100 lighter still on the same MT/AT weights.

200lbs might not seem much, but as you turn, the G force adds a multiplicative factor that makes even a small weight increase a large penalty.

The weight distribution of course, affects the base handling properties. Nose heavy will want to understeer, and the FWD/AWD layout of the Audi is no help either. The front tires and brakes on a front heavy car will also take quite a bit of abuse from trying to keep that weight in check, particularly from braking. (all the weight shifts to the already heavy front, overloading the front brakes and tires)

The excellent suspension on the A4 however, manages to minimize the effect of understeer on turning, so it feels relatively nimbe, but there is no way to escape the pitfalls of extra weight. The car is definetly more sporty than your average sedan, but it's not as good as others in the sport sedan category. *nod*, it's the lack of tossability of the car that I didn't like.. the A4 is a solid well built and good looking car.

But like the 3 series, they are a dime a dozen on the roads nowadays...

Dime a dozen does not begin to describe the sheer numbers of 3-ers around where I live. Just north of Si Valley in the east bay area of CA, where you can not go on a 5 minute trip without seeing about as many BMWs. You'd get the impression that 10% of vehicles here are of German decent. :eek:

Good concentration of miatas and FC/FD RX-7s too. It's a madhouse I tell you! A MADHOUSE! :D

every other person has a 3 series beemer... just in our parking lot, there must be 20 3 series beemers total... not that many audi's for lexus.. thought the 350Z are starting to pop up..

I just realized that it is hard to see how fast youre going if youre accerating fast because a digital speedo will flicker through the numbers, whereas in an analog, you can just see where the relative position of the needle is.

Originally posted by MazdaMan182
I just realized that it is hard to see how fast youre going if youre accerating fast because a digital speedo will flicker through the numbers, whereas in an analog, you can just see where the relative position of the needle is.

Next time you're driving fast... (And I don't mean down the freeway)... when you finish... ask yourself honestly... did you look at the speedo...

Peripheral vision, baby. Needle sweep is a good thing. Rapidly scrolling numbers = bad. ;)

Originally posted by Toadman
Peripheral vision, baby. Needle sweep is a good thing. Rapidly scrolling numbers = bad. ;)

I prefer to read the speed from other indicators... engine sound, what gear etc... plus obviously the blur factor from the outside... LOL.

LOL, and wind noise. ;) But I wouldn't mind a digital readout that "locks in" a speed upon LIDAR or radar acquisition as a preview to the upcoming conversation with a Constable of the law, but that's an entirely different thread. :D

Originally posted by Toadman
LOL, and wind noise. ;) But I wouldn't mind a digital readout that "locks in" a speed upon LIDAR or radar acquisition as a preview to the upcoming conversation with a Constable of the law, but that's an entirely different thread. :D

Surely ECM would be a better option... LOL. I have some ideas on that front.. but it probably wouldn't be appropriate to discuss that here.

I like the IS300 dash board.. those look sweeeeeeet

Originally posted by TheSaCK
I like the IS300 dash board.. those look sweeeeeeet Blech those look ugly :(

An analog and digital speedo, a la Porsche Boxster, would be great.
I know its fairly poor, but I think everyone will get the idea. Who really wouldn't rather see something like this?
http://www.rx8forum.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=15123

Originally posted by mx32mpsrx8
An analog and digital speedo, a la Porsche Boxster, would be great.
I know its fairly poor, but I think everyone will get the idea. Who really wouldn't rather see something like this?
http://www.rx8forum.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=15123 I'm down though I think we need the lines :)

UGH .. i hate porche dashes... it be kinda cool if they had the RPM in the center like the ferraris and have the miles/km off to the side.

I still think the lexus is300 chrono style is the coolest.. i just hope they have all the buttons in easy to reach positions. I hate looking and reaching for buttons..YES I AM A LAZY AMERICAN =(

I like the analog speedo, how hard can it be to put in the proper speedo?? C'mon Mazda, get with it.

Having earlier said I prefer analog speedo to digital, I must say this is the best (partly) digital dash I've ever seen (the real one, not the editied one with the 'Porsche-like' speedo to the right).

The Edmunds review stated that the optitronic guages are white with the headlights off and red with the headlights on - I think optitronic (a la Lexus LS430, GS430 etc) are fantastic, anyone else agree?

I like the gauges of the RX-8 as-is. They're big, legible, and at night will light up into a crimson red which will kick a** against a black background. As far as the person who likes the chrono style of the IS-300? Yuck. That is the most trendy gauge cluster I have ever seen. I remember looking at the "Lexus Test Drive" on the speed channel months ago and a Lexus representative said, " The gauges of the IS-300 are race inspired." Race inspired? What race car do you know of I inspired those gauges? I don't know of any race car that has chrono-style gauges. I fell off of the sofa laughing at that comment. What inspired those gauges are my Swatch and Guess watches. On a side note--- I am dissappointed that Mazda won't offer a mini-disc player as at least an option...I'm a mini-disc fanatic, and also I don't think they are going to offer a nav. system either. I like to travel and a nav. system would be nizzzzeeee. Once I got a taste of nav., I can't go back.

Originally posted by 1.3 liter

...also I don't think they are going to offer a nav. system either. I like to travel and a nav. system would be nizzzzeeee. Once I got a taste of nav., I can't go back.

I have you agree with you on that point.

I initially had no desire whatsoever to put a nav. in the rx8. That was until a recent trip to southern California where it was installed in the rental car. Now I want one assuming that it is not over priced.

I thought last we heard from boowana (who seems to be the authority as he is usually right and is so confident in his information) was that there would be a nav and sunroof option. I think it was from a mid october post, which is recent enough for me to still have hope...

Originally posted by pmacwill


I thought last we heard from boowana (who seems to be the authority as he is usually right and is so confident in his information) was that there would be a nav and sunroof option. I think it was from a mid october post, which is recent enough for me to still have hope...


I just hope that he is right on this one.

I will be seriously disapointed if there is no NAV or if there is no Sunroof...

I'd also like to be able to get nav as an option (I know that we've seen pics with the new red RX-8 with a sunroof, so I'm happy about that) ... but isn't there some kind of problem with ordering a nav system on the mazda 6 in the states - I thought that it isn't being offered here ...?

I remember seeing a nav. in the pre-production Mazda 6 and was hopeful that Mazda would offer one, but was dissappointed when it wasn't offered in the production Mazda 6. That made me think that the RX-8 wouldn't have one either. It's funny that Mazda doesn't offer a nav. in any of it's vehicles, but Lexus offers them in ALL of theirs. Go figure.

Maybe we need to do a write-in/e-mail campaign to get Mazda to include a nav system as an option! ;)