Simple Gauges With a Twist - 2015 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk Long-Term Road Test

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Simple Gauges With a Twist - 2015 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk Long-Term Road Test

A simple gauge cluster that can still deliver plenty of information gives our 2015 Jeep Renegade the utilitarian feel you would expect.

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milleman

All good except for my pet peeve of a 160mph speedometer on a vehicle that probably can't reach 120, and I wouldn't want to be in it if it could. Specifically, it smooshes in an extra 40mph of gauge space that would make for much easier at-a-glance viewing of your actual speed at expected velocities (0-90mph) with a 120mph max marking.

kyfdx

milleman said:

All good except for my pet peeve of a 160mph speedometer on a vehicle that probably can't reach 120, and I wouldn't want to be in it if it could. Specifically, it smooshes in an extra 40mph of gauge space that would make for much easier at-a-glance viewing of your actual speed at expected velocities (0-90mph) with a 120mph max marking.

It's for when you are driving back down from the top of Pike's Peak..

mr_bots

milleman said:

All good except for my pet peeve of a 160mph speedometer on a vehicle that probably can't reach 120, and I wouldn't want to be in it if it could. Specifically, it smooshes in an extra 40mph of gauge space that would make for much easier at-a-glance viewing of your actual speed at expected velocities (0-90mph) with a 120mph max marking.

With a few flicks of the steering wheel buttons through the menu, that "MPH" under the dial switches to "km/h," and that 160 becomes 160km/h or ~100MPH.

prndlol

You see that little imperfection in the stitched piece about a third of the way from the left side under the instrument panel? That would drive me nuts and would keep pushing at it at red lights trying to make it go away.

emajor

Damn skippy, milleman. The 160 mph speedometer is one of the stupidest me-too fads out there, especially on a modestly powered box like this. WHAT. IS. THE. POINT?

That horror-flick blood splatter redline marker is rather bizarre as well.

any1there

"That horror-flick blood splatter redline..." -- Talk about an active imagination, and making something out of nothing (including the 160 mph, highly-legible speedo). With 1,677 miles on this Fiat/Jeep, I'd rather know about defects and the 9-speed trans-of-ill-repute.

gslippy

These gauges are much better than what Dodge or Fiat are doing, although the 500X is an improvement over the 500. FCA seems to keep experimenting with the look of their gauges over the past few years. I'd like to see some corporate industrial design take hold.

500X: http://www.fiatusa.com/assets/images/2016/vehicles/500x/trekking/gallery/interior/interior-01.jpg
500: https://forums.finalgear.com/attachments/general-automotive/random-thoughts-automotive-edition/9728d1367285705-12_fiat500_gaugecluster.jpg
Dart: http://image.automobilemag.com/f/49103208+w1000+h667+q80+re0/2013-dodge-dart-sxt-gauges.jpg
200: http://www.web2carz.com/images/mmy/201403/2015-chrysler-200_gauges_1395262646_700x467.jpg

The look and readability of gauges is a big deal to me. Something that hurts my eyes (like the Dart's) could be enough to keep me from buying.

emajor

any1there,
Blood/mud, tomato/tomahto. It's still weird. Anyhow, the 160mph speedo is an intentional design flaw with no rational justification. The font and tick marks are legible, but if the usable range were not compressed onto only 1/2 of the speedometer, it would be even more legible. Vehicles like this probably can't even hit 110, why do they extend it to 160?

It's equivalent to equipping it with a 12,000 rpm tachometer.

allthingshonda

I agree with the insane 160mph speedo. Why not put a more reasonable number the vehicle is capable of reaching. Toyota used to max the speedo of their trucks to 110 mph. If the governors were disabled they could maybe reach 110 before hitting a aerodynamic wall. Now the new Tacoma's speedo goes to 140. Why? This makes as much sense as putting a tow/haul button in a Corvette.