It took me about an hour.
I test drove a Toyota Echo, and got used to the centre cluster in about 30 seconds. I liked it because you could check your speed without taking your eyes completely off the road (the instruments were higher on the dash than the kind that are behind the steering wheel). I ended up buying a different car, though.
I didn’t particularly like what they did with the speedometer for the 2009 Civic.
The tachometer is front and center which I don’t like since I don’t rely on it much. The styling of that whole front area was one of the deciding factors against the Civic.
I don’t own one but having it in the middle is probably a better design IMO, for reasons listed above - it’s not really neccesary to have an uninterrupted view of the speedo all the time, the tach is far more important.
OTOH I don’t even know what the speed limit is most of the time and drive only with my boost gauge so…
JEEP has done that for years and only switced in the last decade or so I think.
http://www.film.queensu.ca/cj3B/Photos/Owners/May/May63Interior.JPG
I dunno - an hour or two. I don’t really understand what there is to get used to. There it is, that’s what it does… and lets drive. My eyes are on the road most of the time.
I didn’t like driving my father’s Yaris at all, for that reason. It’s also the reason I would never get one.
The next best thing to a display that doesn’t require you to take your eyes off the road, is one that requires you to take your eyes as far from the road view as you can without looking like Linda Blair in the Exorcist?:dubious:
Huh? I have to merely glance over at my speedometer now. When I drive a car with the speedometer in front of the steering wheel, I either have to crane my neck around it or under it, move my hands off the wheel, or both. How is that spinning my head around?
My Yaris hutchback has it there. It’s huge, very easy to see.
Actually, I should say “have” it there. I bought a Yaris, which my brother now drives (ownership has been shared from day one) and when I went to get a new car I scouted the market again but… the best choice was another Yaris.
Mom calls the speedometer “the Star Wars speed thing.”
I got used to my Scion quickly, like earlier posters. There is open space between the steering wheel and the windshield that is very convenient for placing a portable GPS device or a map or reminder or list or the like.
My 2002 Prius has an LED screen with the speedometer, odometer and fuel gauge in the center of the dashboard up under the windshield. It didn’t take me long at all to get used to it. It probably helps that the speedometer is digital instead of analog, and the numbers are big and bright, so you barely have to glance over to see your speed.
The first car I bought was a 1967 Mini with the giant central speedo and not much else. Never had to think about it, but plenty other models had the same, the Morris Minor, Austin A35, etc.