2006 Mazda MX-5 vs. Solstice Gauges

Weird. I could not notice an advantage for either one. Good thing he told me which is superior.

I love that white on red. My '02 Miata has orange on orange, and that does make it a bit tougher to gauge your speed peripherably. Tunnel gauges bother me too; didn't like them on the Vibe (those didn't work well with sunglasses on; I hope these do).

The Solstice's appear to be almost as bad as the one's in the outgoing Nissan Altima, Carlisimo. The old Altima's always appeared to be skewed in the wrong direction.

It's interesting how much more attractive the new trend of having all of the instruments in their own circular dash opening can be (new? actually very retro- going back to when all the guages really WERE independent affairs I guess). But despite how much less attractive the flat-with-needles-and-numbers layout was on my 04 Silverado, I never had the issue I sometimes see with the newer vehicles where it felt like I was "looking through a tunnel" or where sitting slightly to one side or the other caused my view of one or more of the cluster to be impeded. While both of these cars have the "new style" to them, the Pontiac is clearly the worse offender with the deeper cowl around each instrument.
 
It's something I didn't like when I sat in a Ridgeline in a Honda showroom, and from the driver's seat photos, something the new Tundra appears to have bunged up. Both of those are much less offensive than this Solstice though. It's also one of my only real criticisms of the uplevel interior in my 07 Avalanche.

Red/orange needles + red/orange numerals and hash marks = ugh. More contrast please.

I don't like the latest styling trend of using deep bezels for gauges. Last time this was fashionable was in the early 1970's. In addition to making the gauges look distant and vague, the backlighting reflects on the inside of the bezel tunnel as shown in the Solstice's picture above, making it more difficult to read.
 
Unfortunately, more and more new cars are featuring these deep bezels. Most Nissans have them now, and the '08 Cadillac CTS has them too, and it's one of my few complaints about the car.
 
Who determined this is stylish anyhow? Probably the same idiot who determined women's sunglasses should now be twice as large as the face. I don't get it.

mazdas and Honda/Acuras always have fancy backlit gauges. Its one of their signature cues. The Soltice/Sky have pretty simple gauge designs with basic fonts.

In the daytime the Solstice's fuel gauge, because it's so "tunneled" and has no contrast between its small needle and the hash marks, is unreadable most of the time, especially with the top down.