Noticed you used bump start. I grew up saying clutch start, in the midwest, you? Anyone else locale and preference?
In the south we say pop the clutch.
My 2014 Camry LE has a temp gauge rather than an āoops guess what your engine has already overheatedā idiot light. I truly prefer the gauge!
Also it has the first tach Iāve ever had in a car. For me, interesting but as Iāve always driven listening to the sound and paying attention to the feel of how my carās engine is running for shift points the tach isnāt a make or break item for me.
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Yup, Ohio born. You would also hear the term pop the clutchā¦ maybe because of the large number of folks that moved there from Kentucky and Tennesee.
My base model 05 Sierra has engine hours on the odometer. You can scroll through mileage, trip meter, and engine hours. Iāve never paid much attention to it though. I should divide it out and see what the average speed is over the life of the vehicle, but I wouldnāt really know what I was looking for. I guess any average over 50 mph would indicate mostly highway / not a lot of idling? I can only assume it was a fleet truck at some point in its life due to the way itās optioned (no carpet, no power windows or doors, no cruise control-but I added that). Too late now, I already own it lol.
Call me old school but I always like to know what my engine is doing. Itās true you donāt really need it, hell my friend had a Honda Civic with a manual stick shift and no tach back in high school and we managed to drive it just fine. But I still like to see if the auto tranny is engine braking on its own down a steep hill or revving to the moon unnecessarily for some strange reason. I once did a long distance trip with someone who drove almost the entire way without noticing she was in D3 in a 4 speed automatic, I think we got about 10 to the gallon on that trip. As far as dash space is concerned there are aftermarket gauges that can be added relatively cheaply but I just assume I donāt need the clutter and probably wonāt be paying much attention anyways. Coolant temperature gauge and idiot lights are probably enough for most people.
I donāt disagree that they are mostly useless these days. However, I do like having a temperature gauge and I would also like to see a real voltage meter again, as well as an oil pressure gauge. Those can be very helpful in warning you if something is starting to go wrong. Finally, I may be the only one who thinks that we should also have an hour meter in the instrument panel. After all, what is the real truth about how long the engine has actually run? I would love to know how may hours an engine has on it, especially since there is no indication how much real wear and tear there is on an engine. Think about those cars and trucks that are sitting there idling a lot. Wouldnāt you like to know the real truth about that? What else does an odometer tell you other than how many revolutions the tires have made? It would be much more useful to know the hours on an oil change.
hour meters are most useful for commercial vehicles
I donāt believe that most manufacturers will consider them a feature that most buyers of sedans, light trucks, suvs and minivans are interested in . . .
This may seem strange, but after having owned several cars with manual transmissions, I found I just shifted by the feel and sound of the engine. I still think tachometers are useful though.
Although I havenāt personally gone to an auto mall and checked out the dashboard information on every new car on the market, I suspect your assertion that āactually very very few newer cars DO have oil pressure , temp or volt or amp gauges.ā is not correct. My 2015 Jeep Cherokee and a number of other cars have a section of the instrument panel that is a scrollable screen and one screen that is configurable. For instance, my Jeep has 9 different screens, including a vehicle information screen that is scrollable for electronic gauges that show radiator temperature, oil pressure, oil temperature, etc. In addition, there is a configurable screen that I can configure to show 4 different gauges at the same time.
I like the tach because it is something to look at. I am deaf, I check engine performance, judging by the carās feel (vibrations). My '86 Subaru had the tach, and other gauges,
it was a fun dashboard. Do I prefer dummy lights? I like moving objects, but I wonāt miss the tach, if it were gone.
I have a manual shift car without a tachometer and honestly, I donāt miss it. The problem with shifting by the tach is that you have to know which torque curve the engine is on at the throttle opening you are using. A lot of people seem to think that the full throttle torque curve applies for all throttle openings.
You might notice that at 1000 rpm, thereās very little torque difference between 20% throttle and 100% throttle. If the acceleration levels out above a certain throttle opening, thatās your signal to downshift, however, if you arenāt accelerating, and can maintain speed with 10% or less throttle, running the engine at 1000 rpm is quite ok, in fact, downshifting would only make the engine less efficient.
Most cars didnāt have tachs back when most cars had manual transmissions. Go figgerā¦
When I use to attend many manufacturers schools in Atlanta Georgia we were told that gauges cost the manufacturerās lots of unnecessary warranty problems. Teacher would say that lights that donāt shine cause less problems than gauges. The instructor always told the class that the public dictate what manufacturers install in a cars.No two gauges ever worked the same.
I agree with you Iām not sure what it can mud genius but Iām with you I see no real use for this thing it definitely takes up a lot of room I drive a taxi for a living, and we have Chrysler Minivans and they have techcom words on them some of them donāt work and most of the time I never look at them. Thanks
BANJOE55 
Huh ? Might need to edit that to an understandable form.
Could you elaborate?
Whatās not understandable?
Mud Genius is the newest Jeep model!
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Only my last 2 vehicles were Automaticsā¦and I donāt see a need for a tach with a manual either. Learn to shift by sound and feel. Maybe a Race car driver could use oneā¦but not your average driver.
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I was just thinking the same thing. In the 1920s to mid 1960s tachometers were rare with the exception of sports/racing cars. Mostly āFurinā ones. The domestic average cars were 6 cylinder inline engines with 1V carbs. You could floor them in neutral and maybe touch 4,000 RPMs. As engine performance increased and they could be destroyed by exceeding RPM āredlineā tachometers became more popular. Our modern vehicles have electronic RPM limiters which work very well in most cases. Manual transmissions can still fall victim to mechanical excessive RPM as far as I know. For example you are descending a long 6% downgrade in 6th gear reaching 80mph and approaching slower traffic (I would be using brakes and engine braking in a lower gear to slow down). 6th gear to 4th at 80mph would be OK for my car. If I screwed up and shifted to 2nd not so much!!!