What is the point of a rev counter (tachometer / RPM gauge whateva ya call it) in a modern automatic passenger vehicle ?

Drove a hire car the other day, which was an auto, and the rev counter was the biggest dial on the dash. Bigger than all the other instruments put together and ten times bigger than the water temperature gauge. There was no oil temp gauge.

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Carantoc said..
What is the point of a rev counter (tachometer / RPM gauge whateva ya call it) in a modern automatic passenger vehicle ?

Drove a hire car the other day, which was an auto, and the rev counter was the biggest dial on the dash. Bigger than all the other instruments put together and ten times bigger than the water temperature gauge. There was no oil temp gauge.

There is a war going on in Israel and you are complaining about the size of the tachometer in the instrument panel in a car you hired the other day.

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myscreenname said..

Carantoc said..
What is the point of a rev counter (tachometer / RPM gauge whateva ya call it) in a modern automatic passenger vehicle ?

Drove a hire car the other day, which was an auto, and the rev counter was the biggest dial on the dash. Bigger than all the other instruments put together and ten times bigger than the water temperature gauge. There was no oil temp gauge.

There is a war going on in Israel and you are complaining about the size of the tachometer in the instrument panel in a car you hired the other day.

Hmm, perspective, that's a valid point. The Speedo should always be bigger than the tacho, and while we're at it, the volume should always be the biggest knob on the radio. Pun intended.

Hmm, makes perfect sense having a tachometer in a manual, still sorta makes sense in an auto so you can monitor the revs it's doing. But not sure why they'd make it the biggest/ most noticeable dial in either.

I would argue that it depends on the car - granted, probably no reason for it to be larger than the speedo.
Many 'modern' autos have a manual shift option. I can shift my diesel golf 'manually', although not sure why you would?
My daughter has a ZR Celica, auto with 'manual' shift function - at least it's a little more 'sporty' than the Golf.

I enjoy the tacho on my commodore, it's the only way I can tell when it changes gear.
Doesn't get into #9 until the 100 is up. sits on 1.2 krpm.
Still not sure what gear it drops down to when I plant it though.

I agree that for an appliance car that is not designed to provide driving enjoyment and is just designed to provide transport efficiently, the tacho should be small and unobtrusive if it needs one at all. I personally am a car enthusiast and have several cars that are far from applicance cars. They are fairly poor at providing convenient transport, but they provide lots of entertainment to the driver when they do. They all have engines designed for performance that work best near maximum RPM. I would not want any of these cars without a large and easily readable tacho.

Id like to know the revs of my battery car even if the only shifting is forward and reverse.

The new Ioniq has a selection of fake engine noises and even hesitation for fake gear changes.

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bobajob said..
Id like to know the revs of my battery car even if the only shifting is forward and reverse.

It might be interesting thing to know. But not sure how useful that is.


I'd assume that current draw would be more useful information. You could then temper your driving technique towards maximising range and battery life.

With electric cars it should (I am thinking??) also be possible to get a display of the difference between battery draw down power and work expended power. That may also help to determine how to drive efficiently.

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Carantoc said..

bobajob said..
Id like to know the revs of my battery car even if the only shifting is forward and reverse.

It might be interesting thing to know. But not sure how useful that is.


I'd assume that current draw would be more useful information. You could then temper your driving technique towards maximising range and battery life.

With electric cars it should (I am thinking??) also be possible to get a display of the difference between battery draw down power and work expended power. That may also help to determine how to drive efficiently.

Thanks, the car is full of useful and useless tech I suppose like most cars these days, so amongst the " not so useful" features I would still like a tacho, and be able to change the speedo to analogue. ( showing a bit of age I suppose )

I have a tacho in my crowl mobile. It also has overdrive engaged/disengaged by a toggle button. The only way I can tell for sure whether its on or off is by watching the tacho as I press the button.