Digital petrol guages

Why would they do that when they can just make it difficult for you and then charge you for the missing fuel at £1.67 per litre

If you don't like it, you can buy their insurance policy where they bill you for the price of a full tank at a more reasonable rate and can return it with any amount of fuel in the tank.
 
Lum said:
Why would they do that when they can just make it difficult for you and then charge you for the missing fuel at £1.67 per litre

If you don't like it, you can buy their insurance policy where they bill you for the price of a full tank at a more reasonable rate and can return it with any amount of fuel in the tank.
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But they're making it difficult for everyone if they pick half full according to the gauge and that's why it's daft. I understand that it's beneficial for them to make it difficult for you or to charge you extra for fuel above and beyond what it costs at the pump but when they're making it harder for themselves as well...
 
I've hired a few vans recently and having come from different companies they've all had a part full tank. One was running on fumes and got me 500 yards before it started to cough outside the local filling station (got a £20 credit back for that when I mentioned it), the others had between a half and three quarters of a tank. I'm not using shonky-rent-a-van with a 10 year old rusty Transit either, they're big outfits with clever websites.
 
semi-pro waster said:
But they're making it difficult for everyone if they pick half full according to the gauge and that's why it's daft. I understand that it's beneficial for them to make it difficult for you or to charge you extra for fuel above and beyond what it costs at the pump but when they're making it harder for themselves as well...
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You think that when they charge you for 30 litres at £1.67 a litre they actually put any fuel in the car for the next person if it's still showing half a tank?
 
Lum said:
You think that when they charge you for 30 litres at £1.67 a litre they actually put any fuel in the car for the next person if it's still showing half a tank?
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I guess I am assuming they don't try to deliberately defraud people, maybe that's just my naivety.

If it's showing half a tank and that's how the company asked for it to be returned why are they also asking for money to fill it up again? If you mean the situations where someone prepays for 30L of fuel but returned it with half a tank showing - the company may well not choose to fill it up any further but there it was the choice of the person who prepaid because (from my limited experience) the company usually stipulates that this is non-refundable no matter how much fuel is needed.
 
Joshy said:
I don't see how an analogue temp gauge is easier to read than a digital one? At operating temp the bar simply sits in the middle of the readout scale. You can tell if your under/over heating with a simple glance.



What Mental arithmetic is involved with reading a few digits? :D
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Are you stupid?

2 4 8 12 13 14 17 20 25 28 30 vs a sweeping needle - which is easiest to get the same information (ie rate of change)? With a needle you don't need to "remember" previous values or anything like that as judging rate of change of a moving object is something that the human brain is naturally able to do extremely well. Processing numbers like that, not at all.
 
Am I stupid? I think you might want to ask yourself that question first, and think long and hard about the answer considering that it is you who is babbling on about not being able to read a two digit figure at a glance.

Its a personal preference thing. Don't go around hurling insults.
 
Joshy said:
Am I stupid? I think you might want to ask yourself that question first, and think long and hard about the answer considering that it is you who is babbling on about not being able to read a two digit figure at a glance.

Its a personal preference thing. Don't go around hurling insults.
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I'm not talking about reading a two digit figure at a glace :rolleyes: I am talking about trend analysis and if that requires any 'calculating' or not between the two types. If you want to know the rate of change of a digital display you need to be able to calculate the gap as fast as it is changing - you need a different kind of brain power to the natural ability to watch an object move.

I also didn't throw any insults, I asked you a question ;) :p

Also, a readout showing 70c or whatever on its own tells you nothing as to how safe or otherwise that temp might be. On an analogue gauge (that has been properly designed) you get all of that info at a glance - you don't need any prior knowledge at all.
 
DRZ said:
Are you stupid?

2 4 8 12 13 14 17 20 25 28 30 vs a sweeping needle - which is easiest to get the same information (ie rate of change)? With a needle you don't need to "remember" previous values or anything like that as judging rate of change of a moving object is something that the human brain is naturally able to do extremely well. Processing numbers like that, not at all.
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I think you're assuming digital = a number....

Which it doesnt.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
I think you're assuming digital = a number....

Which it doesnt.
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On a digital speedo, that's by and large exactly what they are.

I know what you mean but depending on granularity there might be a case to suggest that a digital readout (of bars indicating fuel level rather than a number readout indicating litres) might as well be analogue but that isn't in the spirit of what was being discussed here...
 
Mine is digital (ford focus) but works from 0-254 IIRC and then the needle is moved to one of the 255 positions it can be in.

If you look at just the right time you will see it 'jerk' one notch.

It's a digital gauge with an 'analogue readout'. The gauge can only be in a finite number of positions between E and F though, hence digital.
 
DRZ said:
Are you stupid?

2 4 8 12 13 14 17 20 25 28 30 vs a sweeping needle - which is easiest to get the same information (ie rate of change)? With a needle you don't need to "remember" previous values or anything like that as judging rate of change of a moving object is something that the human brain is naturally able to do extremely well. Processing numbers like that, not at all.
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If your comparing the digital gauge from a 1989 Vauxhall Astra maybe. My digital gauge doesn't jump around at all it counts up/down as it should at the speed it should. If I compare mine to the analogue gauge from a Triumph herald it would probably reverse the situation you described. Im not trying to have a go at you here but from what you've said your dislike of digital gauges seems to be due to having seen some awful ones and not an actual problem with the technology.

It is true that most people who jump straight into a car with a digital gauge have trouble judging rate of change/etc but that's true of somebody seeing the analogue speedo for the first time too, as you get used to it the brain will learn and it will become second nature, like driving a car thats in KM, after a while the mental KM/Mi conversion becomes automatic.

At the end of the day if it really was impossible to judge speed changes/etc properly using a digital speedo then F1 cars wouldn't use digital speedos would they?
 
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Well, I found out the other day how many Litres was left when the light started blinking.

Left my dad's place with 3 bars (out of 8) on the gauge. But after 20miles journey home it was blinking in the last 2 miles home and when i drove it to the petrol station the next morning I filled it with 36.46L. So it had about 6L in the tank left when it started blinking. Which means, at least now I know, when the light comes on I have more than a gallon of petrol left and at around 40mpg, thats a hell of a long way to the nearest petrol station.

So it is at least consistent with 1bar left, 1/8th of 42L is 6L.
 
ubersonic said:
If your comparing the digital gauge from a 1989 Vauxhall Astra maybe.
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Sort of ironic that the digital gauge you are supporting was available at the very latest in 1989 (I know for a fact that the 1989 JDM 3.0GT Limited had the digidash. I'm pretty sure I've seen it in even earlier 2ltr TT cars but I'm not certain) but I do agree with your points.

Yes, the digital speedo on the Soarer does skip out some numbers, but only on properly hard acceleration and never in massive amounts. It updates itself more than quick enough to provide a close enough indication of speed at a glance. If you're staring at the speedo on hard acceleration then you will notice missing numbers, but what **** stares at the speedo when giving it some rather than watching where they are actually going? :confused:

Let's have another example. You open up the throttle for some time keeping your eyes on the road (where they should be!), you then back off of the throttle a bit and want to check precisely how fast you are actually going. On a analogue scale you've got to find the needle (you are doing an unknown speed so you do have to an extent look), then correlate its position to the large indicating numbers on the dial, then you're got to then match precisely where the needle is in between the indicating numbers and the in between markers for 10/5 mile an hour increasements. Someone tell me how that is significantly easier to find the precise speed than glancing down and looking at the figure in digit form?
 
Relentless81 said:
Are you getting 40MPG out of that 1.8 Raymond? I wasnt sure if I believed the figures
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According to the trip computer I actually had 49.6mpg from the petrol station to my dad's straight after brimming it! But i was driving like a granny at 50mph all the way (due to traffic).

Although the Trip is a bit optimistic I think, it said i got 40mpg EXACTLY last tank of petrol but when i filled it up, using RoadTrip app i got 38.79mpg.



ok, I lied, it isn't 40mpg but close enough :p
 
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Still a lot better than mine, its costing me a fortune and considering selling it but really dont want too plus the fact I could do be a bit more conservative in my driving
 
Just reminded me to check my mpg of my last fillup in the VTS, £70/135.9/410 miles = 36.2mpg.

Not bad for a old school revvy 2 litre peugeot 167bhp engine in a heavyish car!
 
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