With the winter solstice nearly upon us, the short days create more darkness in which to approach the Scion xB, helping its nifty illuminated door sills stand out (a $249 option if you want to pay to help advertise the brand). Our xB has a number of luminous options, but the standard digital speedo turns out to be the one of the few welcome and functional items.
The multi-market friendly, center-mounted gauges mounted high on the church-pew dash puts the digital speedo in a perfect spot for keeping an eye on your velocity. The digital fad that erupted in the eighties thankfully disappeared for a while as real gauges made a comeback. It didn't help that those early fluorescent setups, especially at night, tended to be more blinding than informative. They might find some purchase again if they're half as legible and well placed as the xB's.
Not that the xB, with its armored-car looks and foamy seats, inspires wild bursts of speed, but this speedometer's legibility and placement could serve as model for a new wave of LCD gauges. I'll still take a set of VDO clocks, but is it heresy to like this crisp and concise non-analog display?
Paul Seredynski, Executive Editor @ 31,071 miles
dougtheeng says:
10:21 AM, 12/ 8/08
This is where MINI has the best of both worlds....both analog and digital speedo's :)
compliance says:
10:33 AM, 12/ 8/08
I love the digital Speedo in my RX8
stingray454 says:
10:59 AM, 12/ 8/08
I just don't get it. American cars put digital speedos and digital gauges on their models decades ago, going back to the early 1980's, and the automotive journalists criticized them all to no end. When the Corvette still had some digital displays mixed with analog (digital speedo, analog tach, not unlike this xB's) going up to the mid-1990's, the journalists wouldn't shut up about the "horrible digital gauges."
Now the Japanese put the same half digital, half analog gauges in their cars, first with the Civic, and now with the xB, and not only is there no criticism for it, it's actually applauded by the journalists.
sealclubb3r says:
11:15 AM, 12/ 8/08
"I love the digital Speedo in my RX8"
Me too! It's really nice to have the tachometer and speedo all in the same cluster.
johnmarco says:
12:52 PM, 12/ 8/08
This is the first place I've read the location of the gauges is welcome. I would have thought it would be annoying to have them in the center of the car.
pengwin says:
02:24 PM, 12/ 8/08
yeah. the gauges are still in the wrong spot.
jahfakin says:
03:22 AM, 12/10/08
the only problem i had with the high mounted gauges in my Xb was when a cop pulled up to the side of me (unmarked car). Looked over at my speedo, slowed down and pulled behind me, and pulled me over for speeding. he asked if I knew how fast I was going and I couldn't lie.
other than that, I like how I can look at the gauges with minimum eye movement. you almost don't have to take your eyes off the road. on some cars, the gauges are so low that they are lost behind the steering wheel, especially if you have the wheel at that odd angle/height.
It really doesn't take getting use to, it more natural feeling than you would think.