Oh, the 1980s! Ties were narrow, shoulder pads were wide, airplanes had smoking sections, chest hair was sexy, Thirtysomething wasn't a parody of itself, and Christopher Walken was a Bond villain. But for all the quirks of the Reagan Years, little about them was more loathsome to the minds of decent men than the electronic instrument cluster. The unfortunate consequence of when technology advanced faster than good taste, almost every manufacturer dabbled in the digital, and some of their designs stuck around far longer than they should have. Thanks to YouTube, we take a look at twelve examples that remind us why we're glad the 1980s are nearly two decades behind us...
My mom had a 86 Buick Riviera with that computer. It was the coolest thing in the world. I remember going on kindergarden field trips and the ids my mom were car pooling were like wow! That thing had a graphical equilizer I don't remember that. I remember the thing was Y2K compliant.
I had one as my first car and that car was so pimp, I had by far one of the coolest rides in HS.
The digital information center was so effin cool back in the mid-late 90s when digital screens were reserved to high end luxo barges and exotics, my car had one, wOOt!
Great memories with that car and lots of virginities were lost in there too.
In one of the latest C&D 10 Best comparisons, the editors praised the Speedometer display from the Civic. They abhored the tacky digital readouts from the past, but the one charasmatic feature in the Civic's digital display made them love it. The dramatic detail was the extra 'tips' at the edge of the digits. A '2' would have a curved arch at the top right, whereas a '4', where the top right would cut off, was not curved and was squared.
This organic lettering made looking at your speed pleasing rather than constantly staring at spartan readouts one would normally see on a microwave.
The Volkswagen "Digifiz" cluster is the holy grail of modifications for Mk.2 Volkswagen owners. Not technically available in the United States but imported through the burgeoning grey market, only a handful of cars were equipped with this numeric display "back in the day." Today, enthusiasts scramble to import as many of the units as they can. And they'd better hurry, because the clusters stop working after 300,000 miles.
Wes, you didn't tell me that. Kilometers? At least at the rate my car moves, it'll last indefinitely.
I found an error , the Maxima digital dash wasn't available from 1989-1994 , only 1989-1990 .And its damn rare I want one with it I enjoyed my 1987 Maximas dash which was similar to the one in the Z31 300Z
Was that called for? Those of us that still remember the 80s wish we didn't, so why remind it?
My dad had a LeBaron with the same dashboard as the Daytona. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, and it's the only one of them that I dont' find utterly disgusting up to now.
2008 Chevrolet Chevy C2 - 1.6 liters of pure fire breathing dyno-juice burning fury! 1998 Kawasaki ER-5 - Oldie but goodie! 2005 Yamaha XT660R - The beast, and Euro-3 at that!
As scary as the dash in the Corvette is, the dash on KITT in the first couple seasons of Knight Rider didn't offer much more. Most of you kids are too young to remember when a commercial like that would've been acceptable. Those were back in the days when midi was...I can't say it, but lets just say that lots of people liked it.
Eugene Leafty Fungi produce 13% of all the CO2 in the atmosphere, my motorcycle produces over 100 gallons of H2O per year.
The Nissan one is the only one with an actual objective, because the tach not only relays rpm, but also throttle position and boost. If you just floored it at you'll see the bars go up to about 75% ... when the turbo spooled you'd then see the top bars light up to indicate that you're actually making full power at that RPM. Not particularly useful, but it worked fairly well for what it was designed to do.
It's style man. Style is everything. Style is not to be confused with class. A Mercedes Benz is class because it represents money; however, chilly dogs have absolutely no class but a great deal of style. And punk rock, new wave, whatever you have, reggae, rastafari, haircuts, what have you are all different kinds of styles. None of them, however, have any class. I got class. -David Lee Roth
That Corvette commercial makes me want to go out right now and buy one.....pure genius.
The 80's were awesome, my mom had an 88 Chysler LeBaron with the digital dash and I used to just stare at the tach go up and down, esp. when she got it up into the red bars. My stepmom had an 80's Nissan Maxima with digital and talking, I thought it was the pinnacle of automotive technology at the time......I miss being a kid in the 80's.
Now I spend my days in ever increasingly complicated ways...~mewithoutYou
Today, enthusiasts scramble to import as many of the units as they can. And they'd better hurry, because the clusters stop working after 300,000 miles.
Actually, if you have the second gen. Digifiz, you can adjust the mileage on the EEPROM using a special tool.
Honestly, I loved the dash on the Corvette. My father used to have a C4, and I loved all the little switches for the different readouts. But then again, I was a little nerd when I was young too.
While that page isn't working too great for me (I'm guessing its embedded YouTube?), so forgive me if this is hidden in there. I scanned through, and was shocked to see the Vector W8 not listed. It came out in 1989, so it should still qualify for the 80s. I absolutely love their MIL-SPEC inspired gauges.
Quote, originally posted by muffintop »
I wonder what kind of G's a car like that would pull if it was actually free falling off a cliff.
It came out in 1989, so it should still qualify for the 80s. I absolutely love their MIL-SPEC inspired gauges.[/img]
The early ones also had MIL-SPEC circuit breakers instead of regular fuses.
Great article . Hard to believe that Vette commercial was once considered awesomely high-tech.
Fox News: “The sky is green.” ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN: “Is the sky green? Our team of experts investigates.” Local news: “Is the sky green? We hit the street to find out what YOU think!” Online media/blogosphere: “It is well known that Al Gore and Dick Cheney conspired in 1998 to turn the sky red.”
A former co-worker of mine used to have a time capsule 1986 Nissan 300ZX complete with the digital dash and talking security alarm. It was funny listening to it literally barking orders at the wind because of the over-sensitive proximity sensor "YOU ARE TOO CLOSE TO THE VEHICLE, PLEASE STEP BACK!".
Quote, originally posted by VarianceVQ »
An all-electric Italian car.
There's not a "DO NOT WANT" image big or strong enough to express my "DO NOT WANT".
Given the way most people maintain cars today the only digital readout necessary would be a blinking icon that says (as your car comes to a steaming halt in a thunderstorm), "I'm expired - We're done".
Was that called for? Those of us that still remember the 80s wish we didn't, so why remind it?
......
Awww, c'mon !
They weren't that bad. At the time they were pretty cool.
I see that my old '88 Cutlass Int'l Series made the Honorable Mention at ~2:13 !
With its oh-so-cool digidash and dozens & dozens of identical little square buttons everywhere, it looked like the (then modern) space shuttle control panel!
Ahhhh....<Ren Hoek voice>Memories.....</>
For every 10 miles of road, there's 20 miles of ditches.... '00 GLS VR6 CoolWhite/Blk /Lux '70 Ghia 1.8 (Only a memory now...)
I had an 86 LeBaron (in the pre 87 models, the B was capitalized, so you knew it was cool) that had digital and the worst thing was the fuel guage. Since I was a college freshment at the time, I tried to make the little money I had last and stretch each dollar. For that reason, I would try to make each tank last as long as possible, but with the bars you never wanted to let it get too far down because the last bar doesn't dim, it just blinks out. It would be like having your guage read a 1/4 of a tank then just drop to empty.
(side note- Worst car ever, the door actually fell off when I tried to open it once. Fell right on my foot. Add to that you didn't need a key to open the door, or to start it. It also had bad struts and shocks with soft springs, which is why I now hate soft suspension. Thanks for bringing up those memories jackballs! )
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I enjoyed my 1987 Maximas dash which was similar to the one in the Z31 300Z 
