Centre Console
Posted: Fri 15 January, 2010 Filed under: Driving, Thoughts, Weirdness 5 Comments »One of the things that’s very odd (in my experience) with the Chevrolet Matiz I’m currently driving – but only ’til Monday, praise the Lord! – is the layout of the dashboard. The speedo, rev counter and fuel gauge aren’t in the normal place, but are instead slap-bang in the middle of the dash.
You get used to it quickly enough, but it’s still very odd initially to not have the dials in the normal place. In some ways it’s like when one of your mirrors is unavailable (whether it’s fallen off, been smashed off, or just that the car is so full of [whatever] that you can’t see out of the back window) in that you suddenly realise again how often you do check them. Until you get used to it, every time you look for the dial, it’s a little jolt ’til you remember where it actually is.
I’m not a great fan of having the dials in the centre of the dash. It’s not much different – not like you suddenly have to look somewhere completely different, or move your head/neck in order to see them or anything. But it doesn’t feel “right”. After however many years of having the dials in line with the steering wheel, having them in a different location just feels strange, and somehow “wrong”.
I think they are trying to recreate the feel of the original mini which had the dials in the centre. I’ve had one of those as a hire car too, they are nothing like a mini…
Quite reminded me of my first car, as Steve says, a Mini. When Minis were proper.
I just figured it was a cost-saving thing, so they don’t need to re-do the main bit of the dash for left/right-hand drive.
Toyota and Citroen do the same. It’s still weird.
The Picasso’s the same, right in the middle of the dash – only the display’s digital so you don’t even get a dial, just huge great big green numbers. Haven’t got completely used to it, after 4 years
Both this positioning, and dials with white backgrounds, would mean a manufacturer wouldn’t get a sale form me.