Every car I have ever owned has had a tachometer but I never look at them. I can understand why we might need one in a stick shift but do we need them in our automatic transmission cars? Seems like they could delete them and pass the savings on to the customer.
aha, I am shocked, simply shocked! Just like Western Union takes me back to the good old days of my youth, having a tach in my car caters to the illusion I am still a young stud with a valid need for one. Heck, my luxury car even has a nitro-oxide switch under the dash to further bolster the illusion that I ready to race for pinks out on the two-lane. 
A tachometer? I was under the impression that that was a device to measure speed on trucks. Don’t you mean a rev-meter? Or is that the same?
Well, anyway. I drive a manual, so yeah, it comes in handy. Then again, my former car didn’t have one, and I managed just fine. You can just about tell when the engine will blow 
Rev-meter, tachometer, all the same principle. Simply a gauge to measure the engine speed in RPM.
And for the record, I like to have it available. I sometimes use my truck for towing heavy loads up these here rocky mountains, and I will occasionally gear in accordance with what the RPMs look like.
Need one? It’s a fucking must!
I’m a huge fan of almost everything automotive. In fact, no matter what kind of car I drive it’s almost always Quick, Silver and european engineered…
If I had it my way, in addition to the RPM guage I’d also have an altimiter, pitch, lean and yaw meters, oil and exhaust temp meters, air temp meters, turbo pressure meter, tire pressure meter… you name it. I want my dash to be lit up like a 747 cockpit!
I drive a '96 Neon manual transmission and it doesn’t have one! I just have to listen to the engine to know when to shift. Makes you wonder who the dink is that designed that car. I guess he figured drivers new to stick shifts, deaf or hard of hearing people would just know when to shift by looking how fast they were going or started smelling smoke.
But I guess if you know what you’re listening for, you can tell when to shift without a tachometer, making them unnecessary as long as you can hear well enough. I don’t see a point to them in automatics, unless you see it revving really high and it hasn’t shifted on its own yet so you know there’s a problem with the car.
Can somebody explain this to me? Does it mean to bet your car’s pink slip on a race? Is this common? It would seem the guy with the fastest car would soon have a fleet of GTOs in his backyard.
It’s cheaper that way. if you make an auto and manual of the same car it’s just cheaper to leave the tach in place on the auto then to try and come up with a whole new dash or something to place there instead. my old 86 mustang auto had one.
Yep, that’s what it means. Probably more legend than fact, as I don’t know anyone who actually raced for pinks. I do know a lot of people who raced out on the two-lane highways, but that was usually just for bragging rights, occassionally for money.
I just used it as a metaphor for the glory days of muscle cars where a tach was mandatory equipment.
BTW, there is a great early '70s movie called Two-Lane Blacktop starring the singer James Taylor and the late Dennis Wilson, drummer of the Beach Boys driving a '57 Chevy in which they race for pinks against Warren Oates driving a GTO.
My first two cars were automatics and had tachs. My current one is a five speed manual and does not. GO figure. Instead it has a dummy light in the shape of an arrow pointing upwards. I ignore it, because if I shifted when it lit I’d have even less accelleration than I do now. I wish I did have a tach.
Birdman, the upshift light it set to give you the best gas mileage, not the fastest acceleration.
–Tim
I’ve had automatics and sticks that came with and without the tach. Never really made much sense why they pick some and not others.
As for listening for the shift point, don’t tell me that’s how you actually do it, do ya? I always shifted by the feel of it, as opposed to listening for it. I’ve driven cars semi-professionally in Drag Racing and Road Course Racing and the one thing i never payed any attention to was the tach. If fact, i almost always had them removed. My crew chiefs were never happy about that and always asked “how the hell will you know when to shift?”. They would break out the computer that records your shift points and were always amazed that i shifted at the correct time no matter what.
I had an automatic Taurus … no tach. The transmission quit getting fifth gear, which I might have picked up on with a tach. Instead, I kept running 85 mph with the radio blasting till it burned up. I don’t have that car anymore. Now I drive my old Jeep. Gauges for everything. I don’t need the tach to shift, and I always know what gear I’ve put myself in, but I like it anyway.
For those of us who are non-semi or any other kind of professinal drivers, who buy a stick shift after driving an automatic for 4 years, that’s exactly how I knew when to shift for the first week or so until I got the feel for the new car. But my point was what about deaf people and people learning to drive a stick for the first time? How do they know when to shift without a tachometer if they’ve never driven one before?
Speaking as someone who’s dream it is to be a stunt car driver, I’ve ALWAYS, since I first started with a stick, just known when to shift. If you’re in tune with the car, you can just feel it.
–Tim
No, you don’t NEED a tach, but as a certifiable car fanatic, I hate driving cars without 'em.
I guess the superfluous tach IS better than than the ignorance-is-bliss “instrument” cluster from the 1984 Fords, wherein the only readouts were the speed and the fuel gages, the BRAKE warning light, the Battery Discharging light, and EVERYTHING ELSE was represented by the “ENGINE” light.
jrd
Well, I have a Nissan Altima (automatic) and it has a tach and I like it there. It’s nice to be able to see how hard the engine is running and even if I don’t need it, I feel better having one additional bit of information about my engine’s performance. My girlfriend’s car lacks one and it always irritates me a little to look at the dash and see nothing but how fast I’m going.
Paraphrased from a Four-Wheeler Magazine quiz:
In an older vehicle that actually has gauges for all these, which is it most important to keep an eye on?
A.) tach
B.) amp/volt meter
C.) oil pressure
D.) speedometer
E.) engine temperature
Answer to come after a few of y’all guess at it.
I’ve always found them useless, even in stick shifts.
Strictly for people who don’t drive enough to know their car’s feel.