Speedometer: Necessary or No?

[Aubrey]

Would you consider a car viable if the speedometer didn't work & couldn't be fixed for a reasonable cost? It's not *completely* dead, accd to dh. It's off by a percentage--say 15mph at 60 & less at lower speeds. As in, not a consistent # that would be easy to translate.

 

TIA!

 

I forgot to mention dh's proposed solution. He wants to "pace it" w/ our other car & remark the speedometer. He says he'd take the plastic cover off, cover up the old speedometer, & remark the speeds on the fresh...I don't know...cardboard?

 

That still seems stressful to me. Am I being unreasonable? As far as cost, due to the nature of the problem, it would be roughly the equivalent of replacing the transmission to fix the speedometer.

 

And, fwiw, dh & I are cruise control drivers. We drive the speed limit (in the slow lane) almost w/out exception. It's been *so* peaceful to drive that way since making that decision. BUT, Tx being as big as it is & all, you can't drive that way by guaging the cars around you. Most of them are going 10-20 mph OVER the speed limit.

 

And w/out cruise? oy vey. I drive fast. I think my feet get bored. :D

[MicheleB]

Personally, I wouldn't. But I'm not a good judge at how fast or slow I am going and some people are.

 

However, in my state (maybe many others?), a broken speedometer would keep the car from passing state inspection as far as I know.

 

You could probably get a groove with it, KWIM? After a while I think you'd probably get a feel for what your "real" speed is vs. what the speedometer says. (For *me*, though, it'd be too stressful. ;) )

[Tracey in TX]

I'm a bona fide lead foot, so I'd end up in jail for unintentional speeding. Fixing the speedometer might be a cheaper solution. Either that or follow the nearest school bus (which drives slow as molasses).

[Pam Wilhelm]

The speedometers haven't worked on our old BMW's for almost as long as we've had them (maybe 5-8 years). ......of course, hubby used to be a BMW Tech... :lol: We never got a speeding ticket while driving them. Now our primary mode of transportation is a Pontiac Van and everything works well, thank goodness.

[Aubrey]

I just moved this over to the OP to make sure y'all see it.

[Brindee]

 

I'm a bona fide lead foot, so I'd end up in jail for unintentional speeding. Fixing the speedometer might be a cheaper solution. Either that or follow the nearest school bus (which drives slow as molasses).

My answer to a T!! (Wow, how'd you DO that Tracey?!)

[Parrothead]

It wouldn't be a problem for me because I never look at the thing anyway. I go fast until I can't go fast any more either due to traffic or conditions.

[girligirlmom]

My portable GPS can serve as a speedometer, as long as the satellite connection doesn't fail! But I'd have to be out of the map mode and go into the trip mode and I prefer the map mode since I like the visual.

 

You could learn to count seconds from a certain spot to figure out how fast you are going, but you'd have to know how far it is. For example, if you have telephone poles a set distance apart down a highway, you can figure out your speed by knowing how long (time) it takes you to pass from one to the other, or every 10th one. But who knows this or want to figure it out, and then only drive those routes!

 

Sounds like a royal pain! Certainly you can review with your dc about measuring your speed. Here's a link/quote:

 

http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/insti/lesson1.htmlLesson 1: Describing Motion with Words

 

There are a multitude of words used to describe the motion of objects. Such words include distance, displacement, speed, velocity, acceleration, momentum, energy, etc. In this lesson, we will investigate the meaning of the words speed and acceleration.

 

The speed of a moving object refers to "the rate at which an object covers a given distance." Speed is a measure of the distance traveled in a given period of time; it is sometimes refered to as the distance per time ratio. Suppose that during your trip to school, you traveled a distance of 5 miles and the trip lasted 0.2 hours (12 minutes). The speed of your car could be determined as

 

 

 

 

 

On the average, your car was moving with a speed of 25 miles per hour. During your trip, there may have been times that you were stopped and other times that your "speed"-ometer was reading 50 miles per hour; yet on the average you were moving with a speed of 25 miles per hour.

 

 

 

 

For us it's a broken gas gauge on our 1999 Chevy Venture. Our other car is a 1995.:lol: Our solution:

 

We know how large the tank is - 25 gallons but we pretend it is 20 so we never run out.

We actually have a digital gauge that tells us how much gas it thinks we used - but we know it's off by a gallon or two and we are not sure if this is due to idling or what so we fill at 17 or 18 gallons.

We know how many miles we should be able to drive on a full tank so when we hit 300 we start wondering when we will be by our favorite gas station and at 350 we buy no matter what.

 

So the problem the other day was that the gas pump quit before it was full. We live in NJ so we are not allowed to pump our own gas. We asked the guy to try again and again it quit too soon. So we left and knew we had to fill up within a day or two since our solution relies on always filling up at the pump.

 

It's a micromanaging pain in the behind, but I'm used to it. Once we get a newer van in the next year or so, I'm sure it will take a while to realize I don't have to constantly check the mileage and estimated usage, just the tank level.

 

Christina

[Aubrey]

For us it's a broken gas gauge on our 1999 Chevy Venture. Our other car is a 1995.:lol: Our solution:

 

We know how large the tank is - 25 gallons but we pretend it is 20 so we never run out.

We actually have a digital gauge that tells us how much gas it thinks we used - but we know it's off by a gallon or two and we are not sure if this is due to idling or what so we fill at 17 or 18 gallons.

We know how many miles we should be able to drive on a full tank so when we hit 300 we start wondering when we will be by our favorite gas station and at 350 we buy no matter what.

 

So the problem the other day was that the gas pump quit before it was full. We live in NJ so we are not allowed to pump our own gas. We asked the guy to try again and again it quit too soon. So we left and knew we had to fill up within a day or two since our solution relies on always filling up at the pump.

 

It's a micromanaging pain in the behind, but I'm used to it. Once we get a newer van in the next year or so, I'm sure it will take a while to realize I don't have to constantly check the mileage and estimated usage, just the tank level.

 

Christina

 

LOL--we've got this problem on the same vehicle! We're still waiting to find out if they can fix that one.

[Aubrey]

bump

[EKS]

I had a car for a few years with a nonfunctional speedometer. It had a manual transmission so it was pretty easy to tell what speed I was going at speeds below 50 mph. Higher than that, I would just go the speed of traffic (slower traffic).

[HomeOnTheRanch]

Is it linked to the odometer also? Something to consider...the engine may have more miles on it than you think. The speedometer & odometer quit working on our VW Jetta. We drove it around like that for several months until DH got a speeding ticket. He was clocked going 42 in a 35, not too outrageous. It was a speed trap, so he may have gotten the ticket anyway (DH was taught to ALWAYS read EVERYTHING before signing. It drove the officer nuts that DH wouldn't just sign the thing so he could get back to pulling over folks). We did get it fixed after that.

[Tammyla]

Maybe you can calculate your speed by keeping the windows down and judging how much your hair is blowing. :D fyi, The police do not like the...Sorry officer, my speedometer is broken excuse or the I was following him.:auto: I would have a ticket for sure.