Why dont our new cars have duel speedometers?

Mint Sauce

Before we moved from MPH to KPH our cars speedometers were displayed in both, now all the new cars with analog displays only display in KPH. UK cars continue to have both.

Would have thought sharing a land mass with the UK would have been an arguement for continuing to to this.

MugMugs

Wasn't it an EU rule that if you had MPH you also had to have KPH?

Paulw

Because our laws and speeds are in Kph. The UK are still lagging behind with their measurements being non-metric.

Kristopherus

This is Ireland.:D. Then of course the reverse is true on the commercial side in the UK. Speedometer is kms only

theteal

irish-stew wrote: »

Before we moved from MPH to KPH our cars speedometers were displayed in both, now all the new cars with analog displays only display in KPH. UK cars continue to have both.

Would have thought sharing a land mass with the UK would have been an arguement for continuing to to this.

New cars? My last Irish car was a 05 Focus, it only had KM's on the speedo - it was a little awkward when I initially started splitting my time between the Belfast and Dublin

MugMugs

theteal wrote: »

irish-stew wrote: »

Before we moved from MPH to KPH our cars speedometers were displayed in both, now all the new cars with analog displays only display in KPH. UK cars continue to have both.

Would have thought sharing a land mass with the UK would have been an arguement for continuing to to this.

New cars? My last Irish car was a 05 Focus, it only had KM's on the speedo - it was a little awkward when I initially started splitting my time between the Belfast and Dublin

The change occurred on Jan 1 2005

jimmycrackcorm

I once got stopped by the PSNI for doing 54mph in a 50 zone. I got away with it by showing how I couldn't tell the mph on my km speedo

bazz26

KPH only new cars have been on sale here for the last 7 years. I don't understand what the big issue is being made about needing a speedo with both. I've owed Irish cars with kph only and UK imports with mph/kph, it takes about 10 mins to get used to either.

theteal

irish-stew wrote: »

Newer cars in ROI dont display MPH, and I'm simply wondering why considering the two facts I have mentioned.

manufacturers could give a dixie where we intend on driving and the additional ink involved in adding the extra digits is not cost effective????

MugMugs

bazz26 wrote: »

KPH only new cars have been on sale here for the last 7 years. I don't understand what the big issue is being made about needing a speedo with both. I've owed Irish cars with kph only and UK imports with mph/kph, it takes about 10 mins to get used to either.

I drive MPH and still read my speed at MPH. So much so, I actually dislike driving KPH cars and vans.

bazz26

MugMugs wrote: »

I drive MPH and still read my speed at MPH. So much so, I actually dislike driving KPH cars and vans.

People didn't like moving from the Punt to the Euro either but got used it quick enough. They might need to get used to the Punt again but that is for another forum. :pac:

vectra

irish-stew wrote: »

This is not a political debate. I'm asking as a driver, and many others like me who drive around this island, and sometimes we drive into another part of the Island that uses MPH. Newer cars in ROI dont display MPH, and I'm simply wondering why considering the two facts I have mentioned.

My car can display both 10-C car :pac:

corktina

can you not write on the MPH in tippex if its a serious problem for you?

Me? well I sort of know the MPH/km/h equivalents.

pippip

If you have a satnav set it to miles.

-Chris-

Pedantic off-topic posts deleted.

Move on.

Atlantic Dawn

The real question is do European spec left hand drive cars have miles included with the kph?

keithclancy

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

The real question is do European spec left hand drive cars have miles included with the kph?

No. I have one.

rebel.ranter

Tone fair there's only a few values you need to be concerned about converting:

- 30kph
- 50kph
- 80kph
- 100kph
- 120kph
Learn those off and you're done.

AugustusMinimus

In fairness, I cannot fathom why new cars don't have MPH inside KPH like vica versa on pre 2005 cars.

Wouldn't it just be that simple to do and would also aid people when in the UK ? It's just bloody common sense.


Another thing that drives me crazy is the trip computer in Fords. It allows you to change between Mile per Gallon and Litres per 100km. However, if you go with Miles per Gallon, temperature is then automatically shown in Fahrenheit :rolleyes:

scoobymunster

What Ford have you? Between various relatives over the last decade I've drove a fair few Fiesta's/Focus/Mondeo/Kugas and haven't experienced that issue?

galwaytt

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

In fairness, I cannot fathom why new cars don't have MPH inside KPH like vica versa on pre 2005 cars. :

Because there's no need. Our distances are measured in kms, our speed limits are posted in km/h, and our units for fuel are litres.

Miles and mph have no function in this country.

Your summons, should you get one for speeding, will also be in km/h...

Big Nasty

Me, I'm old school and prefer miles and cubic inches!

In all fairness it's very easy to convert in your head, divide by 10 and multiply by 6.

Tails142

Here's one slightly off topic, but its been at the back of my mind for the past while.

If it's illegal to sell fruit and veg in pounds/ounces, and all signage has to be in metres/kilometres with speedos reading km/hr, then how is dominos pizza getting away with advertising its pizzas in inches?!?

Go to their website now, you'll see they're advertising a 9.5inch pizza deal http://www.dominos.ie/Campaign/PDFStoreMenus//27312%20Castleknock.pdf

vectra

MCMLXXV wrote: »

Me, I'm old school and prefer miles and cubic inches!

In all fairness it's very easy to convert in your head, divide by 10 and multiply by 6.

I always thought it was divide by 8 and multiply by 6

Mint Sauce

Understand peoples explantion that its not too difficult to roughly equate the speed limits if driving up north or in GB, able to do this my self, but still wouldn't want to be done for driving a few MPH over the limit if using just a KPH dial.

Looks like for now that if I do get a car with just a KPH dial, i'm gonna be using a satnav alot more, now if only that switched from KPH to MPH automatically when crossing the boarder.

vectra wrote: »

I always thought it was divide by 8 and multiply by 6

Always done /10 and x6 as well my self.

Big Nasty

vectra wrote: »

I always thought it was divide by 8 and multiply by 6

That's coz you're a donkey!

100kmph = 60mph (62 to be exact)

Divide 100(kmph) by 10 = 10, multiply by 6 = 60(mph). Still slightly off but close enough for daily driving.

If you did it your way at 100kmph you would theoretically be doing 75mph

galwaytt

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

galwaytt wrote: »

Because there's no need. Our distances are measured in kms, our speed limits are posted in km/h, and our units for fuel are litres.

Miles and mph have no function in this country.

Your summons, should you get one for speeding, will also be in km/h...

Because we have a land border with a territory that does use mph.

Irrelevant. Been to Canada, or the USA ? Grow up.

AugustusMinimus

galwaytt wrote: »

Irrelevant. Been to Canada, or the USA ? Grow up.

Why is it irrelevant ?

Yes, I have been to the USA, but I have not driven there. No, I have not been to Canada.

Why grow up ? What does growing up have to do with anything. Printing an mph scale within the kph scale would add a simple convenience while at the same time costing next to nothing extra.



On the a similar topic, should all trip computers not have the option to display fuel consumption in miles per gallon considering this country neither designates distance in miles or sells fuel in gallons ?

Theanswers

I agree, as I live quite close to the border.
It would be no harm to have MPH on the car as well as KPH.

Part of this island is MPH and therefore it should be displayed in all cars as they may be driving there. Costs nothing and is practical for thoes of us living near Northern Ireland.

There would be no need for it on mainland europe though, but here were MPH is used less than 20 minutes up the road, its should be on the cars.

Al Capwned

Divide by 8, mult by 5 gives you a fairly accurate approximation.



Anyway, Both my car and van have km only speedos.
But i still find myself thinking 120 = 75mph or 80 = 50 mph etc. even though it has no relevance or importance. People who grew up knowing nothing only miles, will, and do, find it very hard to change - especially the older generation.
Whereas, younger people who've never known anything but km/h and kph obviously dont have an issue.

Suppose i can understand now how sh1te it must have been changing to decimal currency for my parents generation.

-Chris-

More posts deleted/snipped. The next person who gets "politically geographic" with regards to territories either to the north, or on a land mass to our immediate east, will be banned for a week.

Final warning.

pajo1981

Theanswers wrote: »

Costs nothing and is practical for thoes of us living near Northern Ireland.

The would need to to create an extra instrument inlay exclusively for Ireland, which would be insane considering how small a market we are.

I like the kph only inlays - nice and clean and no backward imperial units.

vectra

MCMLXXV wrote: »

That's coz you're a donkey!

100kmph = 60mph (62 to be exact)

Divide 100(kmph) by 10 = 10, multiply by 6 = 60(mph). Still slightly off but close enough for daily driving.

If you did it your way at 100kmph you would theoretically be doing 75mph

Hit the wrong key there. That was Divide by 8 and multiply by 5
100/8 *5 = 62.5 which is closer than your method ..!! Donkey to you :P

Jimmy Bottlehead

I can change mine from kmph to mph, have to say it does make life a lot easier. That's a digital speedo though - a little mph beside the kmph on analog speedos should be in effect really.

coylemj

I think the point made by the OP is valid. They printed both scales on earlier cars and you have to assume that it was done for the convenience of Irish drivers bringing their cars to France so that they could watch their speed in kph.

The fact that our cars now only show kph shows that no consideration has been given to people from the south going to NI or GB and there are far more of those than there are Irish taking cars to France.

Cost is surely not a consideration, you're talking about a fraction of a penny per dial. As to calculating 'on the go', I prefer to use my limited brain power to analyze what's happening on the road in front of me and not doing mental arithmetic with the number on the speedo.

-Chris-

What it probably comes down to is that the car manufacturers have set their cars up for the larger markets, and aren't concerned about our particular situation.

We get what the UK gets, or we get what Europe gets. I doubt they're going to design and spec special dials for us.

Big Nasty

coylemj wrote: »

I think the point made by the OP is valid. They printed both scales on earlier cars and you have to assume that it was done for the convenience of Irish drivers bringing their cars to France so that they could watch their speed in kph.

The fact that our cars now only show kph shows that no consideration has been given to people from the south going to NI or GB and there are far more of those than there are Irish taking cars to France.

Cost is surely not a consideration, you're talking about a fraction of a penny per dial. As to calculating 'on the go', I prefer to use my limited brain power to analyze what's happening on the road in front of me and not doing mental arithmetic with the number on the speedo.

But who's bringing the horse to France!?! o.O

heate

Does anybody really think that the conversion is that difficult!
Anyone who has driven pre 2005 (changeover year I think) will know what mph to kph is.
And if in doubt take the speed of those around you and the type of road as a guide.
It's not that bloody difficult

Guy:Incognito

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

In fairness, I cannot fathom why new cars don't have MPH inside KPH like vica versa on pre 2005 cars.

Wouldn't it just be that simple to do and would also aid people when in the UK ? It's just bloody common sense.

Lets take Germany and France for example. The people there have had km and km only for as long as I know (I've been travellign to visting family for 30 years , so lets assume I was old enough to realise for 25 of those) . They have no iterest in having miles on their clocks. The makers in these countries make hundreds of hundreds of thousands of cars a year. Ireland tiny percentage of that barely registers. Why would they bother about the tiny percentage of that tiny percentage that will travel to the UK with those cars and not be able to do the maths?

Chimaera

I've seen Canadian market cars with dual display where the primary display is km/h and the secondary one is mph. That said, I don't know if that's common over there.

TBH, I've no problem with km/h only speedos. Anyone travelling to the North who has issues with the limits up there, just convert the main limits to km/h and put a little note on your dash with them. IIRC there were stickers available here during 2005 with that conversion on them.

FWIW, the main UK limits and their metric equivalents are:
30 mph - 48 km/h
40 mph - 64 km/h
50 mph - 80 km/h
60 mph - 96 km/h
70 mph - 113 km/h

Going slightly O/T: to the poster wondering about pizzas being sold in imperial sizes - they are not being sold per unit size i.e. the cost of the pizza is not per inch diameter - it's a unit cost for a particular sized pizza so they are free to describe it however they wish. The laws on weights and measures apply where a commodity is being sold per unit size.

Amusing anecdote on this (again O/T): I was buying some tiles the other day: my room measurements were in metres, and the tiles were measured in centimetres, yet the shop assistant insisted on converting the sizes into square yards to calculate quantities and prices!! Come on people, we're metric now, get used to it!!

coylemj

-Chris- wrote: »

What it probably comes down to is that the car manufacturers have set their cars up for the larger markets, and aren't concerned about our particular situation.

We get what the UK gets, or we get what Europe gets. I doubt they're going to design and spec special dials for us.

Actually we get neither, we are the only country in Europe with righthand drive and speed limits in kph so there is no excuse. Every car made for the Irish market has a unique configuration, it would cost next to nothing to fit dual speedos on Irish cars.

Miscreant

coylemj wrote: »

Actually we get neither, we are the only country in Europe with righthand drive and speed limits in kph so there is no excuse. Every car made for the Irish market has a unique configuration, it would cost next to nothing to fit dual speedos on Irish cars.

I would have thought that we are not that unique really. We may be a right hand drive market however the speedometer insert for the dashboard is the same in a left hand drive market as far as KMs are concerned. My Volvo is an early 2004 model and was special ordered with KM clocks by it's first owner because he knew the change was coming down the line here (the car is an original Irish car). I imagine that when Volvo were building the car they just went to the Speedometer parts bin they have for left hookers and put that into the car instead as the mounting points and so on would be the same.

As mentioned before, the car market here in Ireland is too small for manufacturers to think about putting the MPH speeds on the speedometer along with the KPH.

If you are worried about going across the border into NI or driving in Wales, Scotland or England and have a SAT Nav then set it to MPH and keep an eye on it. I do the opposite of this on my motorcycle, the clocks are in MPH and it is not easy to see the KPH reading so I set my SAT Nav to KPH and problem solved.... Not a single speeding ticket as I know my correct speed at all times.

The Machine

In relation to dual speedometers, does anyone know if the digital speedo on a Civic (2006-2011 model) can be manually converted from mph to kph? Thinking of bringing one in from UK.....

n900guy

irish-stew wrote: »

Before we moved from MPH to KPH our cars speedometers were displayed in both, now all the new cars with analog displays only display in KPH. UK cars continue to have both.

Would have thought sharing a land mass with the UK would have been an arguement for continuing to to this.

I would have thought that the small country of Northern Ireland would have switched to KPH due to sharing a land mass with it's larger neighbour the Republic of Ireland.

the culture of deference

We have a small 02 car and the digital speedo can do MPH and kmh

CiniO

45 posts thread about units, and I think only 3 or 4 posters used the unit notation correctly.
It's km/h.
Not KPH, kmh, kmph, km/hr, etc.

coylemj

CiniO wrote: »

45 posts thread about units, and I think only 3 or 4 posters used the unit notation correctly.
It's km/h.
Not KPH, kmh, kmph, km/hr, etc.

Says who?

When we used miles nobody ever referred to m/h (we used MPH) or m/g (MPG) - where's the problem with kph?

CiniO

coylemj wrote: »

Says who?

When we used miles nobody ever referred to m/h (we used MPH) or m/g (MPG) - where's the problem with kph?

For the beginning:
Wikipedia

The kilometre per hour (American English: kilometer per hour) is a unit of speed, expressing the number of kilometres travelled in one hour. The unit symbol is km/h or km·h−1
(...)
The colloquial abbreviations "kph" and "kmph" are sometimes also used in English-speaking countries, in analogy to "miles per hour" (mph), even though the official recommendation from the BIPM is to use "km/h".
(...)
n all cases, EU directives require the use of "km/h" in official documents in these languages.[4] Similarly, US law requires the use of either "km/h" or "KM/H", but not "KPH" on speedometers

US Metric Assosiation

The symbol for a compound unit that is a quotient of two units is indicated by a solidus or by a negative exponent.

• RIGHT: km/h or km·h-1 (for kilometers per hour)
• WRONG: kmph or kph (do not use p as a symbol for "per".)
• BUT: It is correct to say or write "kilometers per hour".

If you want I can keep on searching other sources.

TestTransmission

CiniO wrote: »

If you want I can keep on searching other sources.

Please don't

CiniO

TestTransmission wrote: »

Please don't

Just the link to EU metric directive which after being read throughly should not leave any doubts.
EOT for me

Al Capwned

jesus christ.....

everyone knows what a poster means when they say kph, kmph, km/h, clicks per hour...

A lot to be worried about... :rolleyes: