The new dashboard is a big mistake IMO

[CANTWN4LSN]

Actually have a 2021 3500HD Silverado and it has an aesthetically pleasing integrated and very functional dash that I wish they had copied for the Mustang rather than the stuck on tablet look.

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[Tonystark]

Repeating yourself doesn't change the fact that you're mistaken.

We'll see what we'll see.

Not repeating ... clarifying an opinion.

 

[Strokerswild]

Me! Me! Meeee! I can tell it.
This picture can not be from a new Ford Mustang dashboard because it has actual physical buttons for the AC and seat climatisation.

As it should.....you know, so you don't have to take your eyes off the road.

 

[DRB]

Back at the turn of the century, I was working but flat broke, and I needed a car. I leased the cheapest new car you could get at the time, and bought it outright a year or two later as my situation slowly improved.

That cheap car was everything I could have asked. I put three hundred thousand miles on it, it got 42 miles mpg highway, I had to replace the clutch once and that was it. Okay, interior trim fell off all the time. C'est la guerre.

Ten years later, I bought a Mustang.

The cheap car had manual windows, at a time when most cars already had power. But, you know, cheap car.

A few years from now, that's the kind of car where you'll find analog instrument clusters. Not a thing wrong with 'em.

 

[ay1820]

A few years from now, that's the kind of car where you'll find analog instrument clusters. Not a thing wrong with 'em.

Actually, analog clusters and physical buttons are more expensive to manufacture. Integrating everything into a single touchscreen saves a lot of money.

Like most new tech, digital dashboards are showing up in premium models first since the R&D costs are high, but I suspect that you will see lower end cars moving to all digital with a low cost do-all "screen" once that initial R&D expense has been covered.

I also suspect that higher end cars will end up moving back to more ergonomically pleasing controls and gauges in the not too distant future. Digital screens will still be a part of the premium dash, but only where it provides true advantage.

 

[DRB]

Actually, analog clusters and physical buttons are more expensive to manufacture. Integrating everything into a single touchscreen saves a lot of money.

Like most new tech, digital dashboards are showing up in premium models first since the R&D costs are high, but I suspect that you will see lower end cars moving to all digital with a low cost do-all "screen" once that initial R&D expense has been covered.

I also suspect that higher end cars will end up moving back to more ergonomically pleasing controls and gauges in the not too distant future. Digital screens will still be a part of the premium dash, but only where it provides true advantage.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. I should have said that digital will predominate in mass-production automobiles. Very high-end luxury vehicles and some supercars will feature elaborately designed and detailed analog gauges, I'm sure, Just Because.

The expense of manufacture and assembly was supposedly responsible for the wide discontinuance of old-style manual features like window levers, just as you point out in regard to instrument clusters. Power windows were once an option, a little upgrade over manual. But as the cost of sealed, plug-in units came down, the lesser expense of manufacturing the manual units was completely offset by the simplicity of a single assembly-line process for all cars rather than switching back and forth.

 

[bloominguez]

The expense of manufacture and assembly was supposedly responsible for the wide discontinuance of old-style manual features like window levers, just as you point out in regard to instrument clusters. Power windows were once an option, a little upgrade over manual. But as the cost of sealed, plug-in units came down, the lesser expense of manufacturing the manual units was completely offset by the simplicity of a single assembly-line process for all cars rather than switching back and forth.

Sadly, the same is true of manual transmissions. :(

 

[br_an]

Your hate for this car is flat out depressing. You can dislike something with out the vitriol. Yeah, I know its a Dutch thing. One of my best friends tends to do the same thing.

He's gonna eat those words, and look foolish when he does it.

 

[br_an]

An avocado is already a fruit. Technically, it's a berry.

 

[analogman]

Actually, analog clusters and physical buttons are more expensive to manufacture. Integrating everything into a single touchscreen saves a lot of money.

Like most new tech, digital dashboards are showing up in premium models first since the R&D costs are high, but I suspect that you will see lower end cars moving to all digital with a low cost do-all "screen" once that initial R&D expense has been covered.

I also suspect that higher end cars will end up moving back to more ergonomically pleasing controls and gauges in the not too distant future. Digital screens will still be a part of the premium dash, but only where it provides true advantage.

Bingo. It's all about the money. The reason for the digital dash is the same as why most companies do anything: it's cheaper, and to make more money.

To plagiarize myself from another thread (one of several on this topic) -

Several studies have shown that digital dashes in cars are more difficult to use, take more time than analog knobs and buttons, and are disliked by consumers:

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/0...y-are-worse-than-buttons-in-cars-study-finds/

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/23/opinion/touch-screens-cars.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/22/why-some-people-hate-touch-screens-in-cars.html

It's not rocket science. It takes longer and is more difficult to take your eyes off the road and peck at a screen to make something happen in a car, compared with being able to operate physical knobs and buttons by feel. In a smart phone a digital screen is progress, and likewise for a GPS mapping display. But for other operations it's less intuitive, and less safe. Traveling down the highway at 90 ft/sec, taking your eyes off the road for even a couple of seconds, a lot of distance is covered (a football field every 3 seconds) and a lot can happen in that time - like hitting something.

Even Jony Ive, the former Apple design chief responsible for the iPhone, iMac, iPad, and iPod, thinks more physical buttons should return to cars:

https://www.drive.com.au/news/former-apple-design-boss-physical-buttons-return-to-car-interiors/

There is only one reason the car companies are moving to screen interfaces: it's cheaper than physical knobs and buttons. It costs less to hot-glue a screen to the dash and program all the controls into software than to actually manufacture knobs and switches. My highest priority in buying a car is for a fun and safe driving experience, not to maximize the company's profits. If digital interfaces weren't cheaper, the companies wouldn't be putting them in. They're not doing it because it makes driving better, but to make more money for themselves. Plain and simple.

Ford can spin the marketing BS about the 'bold new immersive digital cockpit experience', but that's only because it sounds slicker than the truth - 'it's cheaper than knobs and buttons and we're all about the bottom line.'

 

[Spectre]

Those that don't care that it looks a lot like other dashboards also don't care about the classic integrity & pedigree of the Mustang. That is just sad.

Lazy gatekeeping post is lazy.

 

[because_murica]

Lazy gatekeeping post is lazy.

Dude is #big mad.

 

[because_murica]

Those that don't care that it looks a lot like other dashboards also don't care about the classic integrity & pedigree of the Mustang. That is just sad.

Dawg go home. You just outed yourself as the sourest grape in the bunch. What are you aiming to get out of all your pouting? Hope people don't buy the car?

 

[Ericc B]

Ford can spin the marketing BS about the 'bold new immersive digital cockpit experience', but that's only because it sounds slicker than the truth - 'it's cheaper than knobs and buttons and we're all about the bottom line.'

Amen

 

[Tonystark]

Dawg go home. You just outed yourself as the sourest grape in the bunch. What are you aiming to get out of all your pouting? Hope people don't buy the car?

Dawg??? Is that a word? My post is just an opinion for a classic car. I want it to be what it should be and always has been IMO. If opinions hurt your feelings then don't read the majority of opinions (many much worse that mine) on this forum concerning the dash board. Don't want to see you pout ... Dawg!

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