RIP anyone that drives a manual, tows, or goes off roading.
On a more serious note I’d imagine they stick around for diagnostics and inclement weather(forcing the car into a particular gear). Since the space is already there they generally have a bunch of other gauges and crap inside of them (all the warning lights that are usually off).
I mean, if you actually need an indicator, a shift light and a line of LEDs gets the job done better than a tach anyway, besides I’ve driven manuals that didn’t even have a tach from the factory, it used to be pretty common. I’m pretty sure they stick around now because they make the car feel more sporty.
About the only time I actually needed the tach specifically was… I actually legitimately can’t think of one, nearly everything is by sound/feel and the times I needed specifics, like when troubleshooting, I would use an obd tool / tuner to see the exact values and plot them.
I am not an off-road guy, but I drove a stick and towed heavy stuff forever. You don’t need the tach if you have experience or ears. If you can’t drive manual without a tach, you’re a shit driver frankly.
The only reason I’ve ever used a tach is for break-in on a vehicle or for hypermiling.
Edit: before I went electric in 2017 and haven’t looked back :)
I use it because on my bike I need to set the correct minimum RPM after cleaning my carbs. Also sometimes I want to go faster than I should in 6th, a quick glance at the tach tells me how much headroom before redline I’ve got.
I’ve dailyed six manual cars and two of them didn’t have a tach (both Fords?), and one of those was too old to even have a shift light. Honestly, even when I was new I barely looked at the tach when I had one anyway, and I didn’t really start to look at until I learned how to really get good at rev-matching for heal-toe and dropping gears. I just shift by ear and ass like 90% of the time.
Once you have experience yeah…I rarely look at the tach anymore. It’s the process of acquiring that experience that it’s still useful also stuff gets loud or your driver might be deaf. Just helped my sister do something and part of the reset procedure on her car was hold 2000 rpm for 60 seconds. They serve a purpose is all.
Oh yeah it’s worth having a tachometer, but I don’t know why you want one that takes up as much space as the speedometer on the gauge cluster. It seems gratuitous to me.
Basically nobody actually needs a tach taking up as much space as the speedometer.
No, I’m building a replacement unified speedo/tach for my motorcycle, the tach is huge and analog, speed is digital in the middle.
RIP anyone that drives a manual, tows, or goes off roading.
On a more serious note I’d imagine they stick around for diagnostics and inclement weather(forcing the car into a particular gear). Since the space is already there they generally have a bunch of other gauges and crap inside of them (all the warning lights that are usually off).
I mean, if you actually need an indicator, a shift light and a line of LEDs gets the job done better than a tach anyway, besides I’ve driven manuals that didn’t even have a tach from the factory, it used to be pretty common. I’m pretty sure they stick around now because they make the car feel more sporty.
About the only time I actually needed the tach specifically was… I actually legitimately can’t think of one, nearly everything is by sound/feel and the times I needed specifics, like when troubleshooting, I would use an obd tool / tuner to see the exact values and plot them.
Nah man, if you see your tach wobble, you know you’ve got a carb jet issue, or dirty injectors.
I am not an off-road guy, but I drove a stick and towed heavy stuff forever. You don’t need the tach if you have experience or ears. If you can’t drive manual without a tach, you’re a shit driver frankly.
The only reason I’ve ever used a tach is for break-in on a vehicle or for hypermiling.
Edit: before I went electric in 2017 and haven’t looked back :)
I use it because on my bike I need to set the correct minimum RPM after cleaning my carbs. Also sometimes I want to go faster than I should in 6th, a quick glance at the tach tells me how much headroom before redline I’ve got.
I’ve dailyed six manual cars and two of them didn’t have a tach (both Fords?), and one of those was too old to even have a shift light. Honestly, even when I was new I barely looked at the tach when I had one anyway, and I didn’t really start to look at until I learned how to really get good at rev-matching for heal-toe and dropping gears. I just shift by ear and ass like 90% of the time.
Once you have experience yeah…I rarely look at the tach anymore. It’s the process of acquiring that experience that it’s still useful also stuff gets loud or your driver might be deaf. Just helped my sister do something and part of the reset procedure on her car was hold 2000 rpm for 60 seconds. They serve a purpose is all.
Oh yeah it’s worth having a tachometer, but I don’t know why you want one that takes up as much space as the speedometer on the gauge cluster. It seems gratuitous to me.