Well here's a warning to fellow RX drivers.

I pulled into the local car wash to give the Rx a rinse on my way home tonight as I was only going to be a minute I left the motor on as I washed the car. After leaving the car wash I soon saw the flashing lights in the rear view mirror. I pulled over and turned the motor off and said, Hello Officer what seems to be the problem? He answered , "Look at your dash" I did and couldn't see anything odd but he repeated the request, in the end I had it explained to me that as I had driven from the car wash without my headlights on and obviously not looked at the dash since as I would have noticed my lights were not on. Fortunately I was able to then start the car and show him that the dash lights up even with the lights off , although it does change to a different colour when the lights are on, after the random? breath test was passed he let me off with a warning so it didn't turn out to be too expensive a car rinse.
I think I will be checking for the nightime red dash to match my red face in the future

 

The dash lights up without the lights on? How so???

Andrew

 

Holy Crap! Talk about a close call.
Good thing the officer was in a good mood. :p


It's always lit up.

During the day it's backlit with white and the red needle.

This kind of surprised me when I first got in one but it's a near feature.

At night is when it turns to blue back lighting with the red needle. (you can manually switch it back to white if you like)

 

Cant say as I have noticed anything other than when I have my lights on??

Andrew

 

They are usually pretty good in Australia - just don't annoy them in Melbourne..

Our guys have one big advantage that makes them less jumpy and stressed than yours - Australians don't carry guns..

 

use the brightness adjustment **** near the DSC button. it will give you the other colours at night.

the blue is much easier on your eyes at night.

 

Ah Blue but it wont match my red face then ....... :D

 

Hmmm... Red and blue - that would be a purple face... :D

 

the funky dash can be confusing at times.
so i have red and blue when headlight is on, so i know the difference :D

 

I always turn my lights on, day or night, so thats maybe why I havent noticed.

Personally I have mine on orange.

Andrew

 

Your spinning me out. I'm pretty sure i drive the same type of car as yours.

But not a day has gone by where I've seen orange?

Help me!

 

I am in Malaysia at the moment so cant go and check, I may be confusing with my old SP20, but cant you switch the dash to illiuminate orange (or red if you really want)? SHows even more how little attention I pay.

Andrew

 

The lights control switch next to the DSC button gives you two options: bright all the time, no matter if the lights are on or off (I use this mode at twilight), and normal mode when the dash switches to red when the lights are on. Anyhow, the green "lights on" light in the right hand binnacle is easy to see day or night, bright or not. I've only noticed the blue lights when I've switched off the car and pulled out the key.

 

I leave them on bright all the time.

German marques came up with the orange/red dash lighting years ago. The argument was that orange/red lighting made it easier to see your surroundings because the dilation of your pupil was not narrowed by the glare of white light from the dash (bit like not shining a torch in people's eyes at night) - this is why such orange/red instrument lighting was used in jet fighters, etc. I've also done plenty of long distance offshore yacht racing and can attest to the benefits of reduced glare from instruments to your night vision.

But I remember reading some time ago an analysis that the benefits of orange/red dash lighting in cars is largely negated by the optic effect of oncoming headlights. The bloke went into it in some detail and convinced me. He reckoned orange/red was beneficial if you were driving on separated freeway (where you usually only see red tailights) or lonely roads where oncoming cars are few but in typical urban driving there is no benefit.

So although some people swear by the concept of orange/red night lighting (and there is no doubt the theory behind it is correct), as a matter of practicality you do not get any benefit in most driving conditions.