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Post by stevein on Jul 9, 2020 22:05:55 GMT -5
Why do the auto makers insist on putting tachs on the current cars and trucks. Especially those with auto trannys. To me it is worthless. Even with stick shifts I seldom looked at them. Take them out and put in an oil pressure gauge and an ampmeter.
I am sure they have a reason but it sure escapes me.
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Post by duff on Jul 10, 2020 5:13:15 GMT -5
I have wondered that myself. My guess it is more about tradition. Can't tell you anytime I have used a tach on any vehicle.
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Post by firstwd on Jul 10, 2020 5:55:44 GMT -5
It's more about style. So many of the new drivers have been playing video games all their lives and that is what they are used to seeing. You can't do a 4000 rpm drive drop in a street race if you don't have a tach. Plus a bunch of vehicles have gone to the slap stick or auto stick so these kids can feel like they're doing something important. Give them the extra pedal and they're lost, but the up and down arrow on their automatic transmission sure is cool.
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Post by greghopper on Jul 10, 2020 6:59:23 GMT -5
Any Truck/car that can be manually shifted a tachometer is a good tool to have.... and about any new vehicle can be manually shifted.
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Post by esshup on Jul 10, 2020 10:25:15 GMT -5
LOL.
Tech - Technician, or a person that is trained to work on vehicles (among other things).
Tach - abbreviation for tachometer, that tells you the RPM of an engine.
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Post by Russ Koon on Jul 10, 2020 10:28:12 GMT -5
Seems like almost everything except maybe dump trucks now comes with a sunroof as well. Most of them seem to work pretty well, and those that leak or whistle in the wind are rare, but all of them reduce the headroom in the back seat.
They are a novelty that catches our interest a few times after the purchase, then is as forgotten as the tach that takes up so much of the instrument panel to give us info that we can do pretty much nothing with.
The main purpose of either item is to dazzle the shopper who sees it as something new and cool that would be fun to have, then turns out to be less fun after the purchase, but way before the payment book wears out.
Look at the bright side. We no longer have to use both hands to remove our keys from the ignition when we park the car as we did for several years in the seventies. Those little levers that we had to use to release the keys were always a pet peeve of mine. Only thing I could figure out they would accomplish was preventing a one-armed bandit from stealing our keys if we forgot them, unless he wanted to take the whole car 8^)
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Post by jbird on Jul 10, 2020 12:57:03 GMT -5
Today's automotive design...especially interiors....is done in focus groups and the like with specific targeted areas. Like was mentioned the "video game" feel is comfortable to many new drivers and the like as well. There is a reason things like the paddle shifters and the like came around.....it works the same way on video games. Very few new buyers also car about "feeling the car"....like many of us who dove big blocks and manual transmissions. They are now all about the comfort of it....also you have to remember that many vehicles are global platforms now....and manual transmissions are far more common in other regions of the world. This is where the addition of a tach is cheap to commonize globally even if it's not as used in some. It's all driven by cost. That is why we don;t have the gas cap standardized to only one side of the vehicle.
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Post by duff on Jul 10, 2020 13:48:23 GMT -5
I have driven many manual transmission vehicles and I was taught to listen and feel the vehicle to trigger a shift. Never cared about the rpm of the motor.
Right or wrong...just the way it was.
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Post by Ahawkeye on Jul 10, 2020 14:06:46 GMT -5
I'm with Duff, if i drve an 18 wheeler I might pay attention to it but even then I doubt I'd watch it too much.
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Post by Woody Williams on Jul 10, 2020 15:15:31 GMT -5
I have driven many manual transmission vehicles and I was taught to listen and feel the vehicle to trigger a shift. Never cared about the rpm of the motor. Right or wrong...just the way it was. Flying by the seat of our pants... Back in my day the overwhelming majority of vehicles were stick shift and you just got the feel of it when a particular gear maxed out. |
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Post by schall53 on Jul 10, 2020 17:26:34 GMT -5
I'm with Duff, if i drve an 18 wheeler I might pay attention to it but even then I doubt I'd watch it too much. Back in the 70’s I drove over the road. Had a 318 Detroit, if you didn’t watch the tach close, you would never get a load moving. |
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Post by moose1am on Jul 10, 2020 17:43:12 GMT -5
Why do the auto makers insist on putting tachs on the current cars and trucks. Especially those with auto trannys. To me it is worthless. Even with stick shifts I seldom looked at them. Take them out and put in an oil pressure gauge and an ampmeter. I am sure they have a reason but it sure escapes me. I have a tach, oil pressure gauge and an amp meter on my truck. I remember back when we owned a Pontiac Grand Prix and it had a vaccume gauge on the center console. It was an automatic transmission too. My current vehicle is a 5 speed manual transmission and I used the tach a lot when I started driving it. But like you say after a while I can hear the revs of the engine and know when to shift gears without looking at the tach all the time. |
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Post by moose1am on Jul 10, 2020 17:48:32 GMT -5
I have driven many manual transmission vehicles and I was taught to listen and feel the vehicle to trigger a shift. Never cared about the rpm of the motor. Right or wrong...just the way it was. Flying by the seat of our pants... Back in my day the overwhelming majority of vehicles were stick shift and you just got the feel of it when a particular gear maxed out. Yea but Woody that was back in the 1950's wasn't it?  People with money back in those days could afford to buy a vehicle with an automatic transmission. We had a 1957 Pontic Fire Chief that had an automatic transmission. Later we owned a 1951 Plymouth with a 3 speed manual transmission on the steering column. That was what I learned to drive. All the other cars my parents owned where automatic transmissions. Now a lot of the muscle cars had manual transmissions. We were always told that the manual transmission was faster than an automatic. My first car was a Datsun 240Z and it was a four speed manual transmission. Maybe it was a 5 speed as it's been a while and I'm trying to remember what it had 50 years ago. Man it's hard to think that was 50 years ago. Where did the last 40 years go? |
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Post by moose1am on Jul 10, 2020 17:51:58 GMT -5
I'm with Duff, if i drve an 18 wheeler I might pay attention to it but even then I doubt I'd watch it too much. I use to drive a fire truck many moons ago. It was geared low and I had to watch the tach to tell when to switch gears when I first started driving it. I was hauling 2000 gal of water at 8 lbs/gal plus the weight of the truck itself. The captain sat in the passenger seat next to me and kept telling me to slow down. I was only going 20 to 30 mph. He was a truck driver and was well aware of the weight we were carrying and how long it takes to stop such a big truck. And he use to drive the truck before I started driving it. It's totally different when you are not behind the wheel and sitting in the passenger seat when you been used to being the one driving the truck. Back then I was more worried about where the different gears were located and how to push the clutch in while shifting gears. It had more than 4 gears IIRC. And the gear shift was on the floor. |
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Post by dbd870 on Jul 10, 2020 18:41:46 GMT -5
I have driven many manual transmission vehicles and I was taught to listen and feel the vehicle to trigger a shift. Never cared about the rpm of the motor. Right or wrong...just the way it was. This! |
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Post by firstwd on Jul 10, 2020 18:56:14 GMT -5
Manual transmission vehicles now have gone past the up shift "idiot" light and now have gear indicator and up or down shift arrows. Sad. Very sad.
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Post by Woody Williams on Jul 10, 2020 19:29:13 GMT -5
Flying by the seat of our pants... Back in my day the overwhelming majority of vehicles were stick shift and you just got the feel of it when a particular gear maxed out. Yea but Woody that was back in the 1950's wasn't it? People with money back in those days could afford to buy a vehicle with an automatic transmission. We had a 1957 Pontic Fire Chief that had an automatic transmission. Later we owned a 1951 Plymouth with a 3 speed manual transmission on the steering column. That was what I learned to drive. All the other cars my parents owned where automatic transmissions. Now a lot of the muscle cars had manual transmissions. We were always told that the manual transmission was faster than an automatic. My first car was a Datsun 240Z and it was a four speed manual transmission. Maybe it was a 5 speed as it's been a while and I'm trying to remember what it had 50 years ago. Man it's hard to think that was 50 years ago. Where did the last 40 years go? Gee, I guess I’m just wrong about what i remember.. .. Thanks for correcting me. .. |
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Post by bullseye69 on Jul 11, 2020 7:30:49 GMT -5
I guess I'm weird. I always pay attention to my tach to watch the trans shift and see what rpm's I'm at when cruise is on going up and down hills. I can't hear the motor in my truck much anymore gone hard of hearing and the new trucks are so quiet. Plus I may have the radio up a bit.
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Post by 36fan on Jul 13, 2020 14:58:40 GMT -5
I'm with bullseye. I use the tach on my truck quite a bit, especially when manually downshifting on steep hills. I've also used it when I taught my kids to drive with, telling them when they accelerate, the tach should rarely go above 2,000 RPM. If it does you are taking off too fast and wasting fuel.
As for manual transmissions, it's a feel you have to learn. If you are staring at the tach or waiting for the idiot light to tell you to shift, then you don't know how to drive a manual.
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People with money back in those days could afford to buy a vehicle with an automatic transmission. We had a 1957 Pontic Fire Chief that had an automatic transmission. Later we owned a 1951 Plymouth with a 3 speed manual transmission on the steering column. That was what I learned to drive. All the other cars my parents owned where automatic transmissions. Now a lot of the muscle cars had manual transmissions. We were always told that the manual transmission was faster than an automatic. My first car was a Datsun 240Z and it was a four speed manual transmission. Maybe it was a 5 speed as it's been a while and I'm trying to remember what it had 50 years ago. Man it's hard to think that was 50 years ago. Where did the last 40 years go?
