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A remarkably large number of US consumers definitely want fake information: as two brief examples, consider the way weather data in the US is reported (customer

A remarkably large number of US consumers definitely want fake information: as two brief examples, consider the way weather data in the US is reported (customers get angry if it rains on a “90 percent chance if clear skies” day and customers get angry if their car runs out if fuel when the guage hits “empty” Interestingly, German consumers want to inow the exact level of petroleum spirits in a tank and will get irritated if they are lied to.

perl4ever 8y ago
When I owned a German car, the speedometer read somewhat too high, compared to Japanese cars that were quite accurate. Also, on German cars I've driven, when they were stopped, the MPG gauge went to the maximum, rather than zero as would be correct. So I infer that German consumers want to be lied to about some things, just perhaps different things.
- adrianN 8y ago
  Are you sure they displayed mpg and not l/100km?
  - bayindirh 8y ago
    Dashboards are user or factory configurable. Our Ford Focus had a button to change between L/100KM and MPG. My friend's VW Bora's dashboard was OBDII configurable. The options were Japan/US/EU IIRC. Setting to US not only changed it to MPG scale, enabled the door-open beeps. :D
    - adrianN 8y ago
      Well, I wouldn't be surprised if the software internally always computed l/100km and the converted to mpg for display.
      - bayindirh 8y ago
        It's much more direct for car to measure consumption as L/100KM. However the conversion is done by the instrument cluster on the VW. We were connecting to the instrument cluster via CANBUS and changing the setting directly on it. Also the beeps were handled at the cluster, not at the central config. Car technology is weird...
- felixfbecker 8y ago
  The car manufacturers always make their speedometers show a little bit too much (like 10%) to make sure they never show too little (or they would get sued badly and get their cars taken of the streets). We _accept_ that the car companies do this for legal/security reasons, which is very different from _wanting_ them to do it. I would be angry if they did the same if the fuel indicator.
  - kortilla 8y ago
    No they don’t. I have a 2005 ford with a speedometer that matches GPS all of the way up to 85 mph (haven’t tested higher).
    - bayindirh 8y ago
      Maybe your car GPS is reporting higher? All cars I've driven were reporting %5-%10 more.
      - kortilla 8y ago
        It’s not a car gps. It’s a receiver on a phone. That can’t be wrong by that much or the position would be wrong.
    - TomMarius 8y ago
      I had a 1996 Ford Mondeo that showed 10% more. Then I had 2004 Ford Mondeo and it was 5% more. I sold that one and bought a 2008 Ford Mondeo and it is 5% more. My other car - 1998 Ford Fiesta - is 10% more. I also drove a 2011 Ford Mondeo and it showed more but I hadn't had it long enough to care to calculate how much exactly. I tested all the cars except the Fiesta up to 230 km/h and the 2008 one up to 260 km/h (it's the 2.5T). All the cars are/were German except for the Fiesta, that one is Czech.
      - kortilla 8y ago
        Maybe it’s something they do in Europe but not the US.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- bayindirh 8y ago
  In EU, there's an unspoken rule for cars to report speeds inflated by 5%. This is possibly based on an old research of SAAB which used a reverse logarithmic speedometer, giving feeling of exaggerated acceleration until 120-130 KM/h or so. Then the scale tightened so much that going significantly faster didn't move the speedometer that much. Also the needle hit top left quadrant much faster, hinting that you're going really fast. Also, EU uses L/100KM concept instead of MPG. When the speed is 0, most cars switch to L/h scale. Toyotas also show an infinity symbol when in MPG mode while the speed is 0.
  - bayindirh 8y ago
    For anyone interested below are some examples: 1- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Instrument_panel_Saab_9-5.JPG https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Instrume... 2- https://i.ytimg.com/vi/V0RyHPM0mBI/maxresdefault.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/V0RyHPM0mBI/maxresdefault.jpg I remember the numbers right, but it wasn't reverse logarithmic scale. It was a hard transition at 140KM/h.
- amyjess 8y ago
  Japanese customers, too. Back in the day, there was a gentleman's agreement among Japanese automakers to limit power output of JDM cars to 276 hp. In reality, Japanese performance cars were all spectacularly underrated. Your "276 hp" sports coupe is probably making 350 hp. It was more of a gentleman's agreement to lie about power figures than anything else.

perl4ever 8y ago

When I owned a German car, the speedometer read somewhat too high, compared to Japanese cars that were quite accurate. Also, on German cars I've driven, when they were stopped, the MPG gauge went to the maximum, rather than zero as would be correct. So I infer that German consumers want to be lied to about some things, just perhaps different things.

adrianN 8y ago
Are you sure they displayed mpg and not l/100km?
- bayindirh 8y ago
  Dashboards are user or factory configurable. Our Ford Focus had a button to change between L/100KM and MPG. My friend's VW Bora's dashboard was OBDII configurable. The options were Japan/US/EU IIRC. Setting to US not only changed it to MPG scale, enabled the door-open beeps. :D
  - adrianN 8y ago
    Well, I wouldn't be surprised if the software internally always computed l/100km and the converted to mpg for display.
    - bayindirh 8y ago
      It's much more direct for car to measure consumption as L/100KM. However the conversion is done by the instrument cluster on the VW. We were connecting to the instrument cluster via CANBUS and changing the setting directly on it. Also the beeps were handled at the cluster, not at the central config. Car technology is weird...
felixfbecker 8y ago
The car manufacturers always make their speedometers show a little bit too much (like 10%) to make sure they never show too little (or they would get sued badly and get their cars taken of the streets). We _accept_ that the car companies do this for legal/security reasons, which is very different from _wanting_ them to do it. I would be angry if they did the same if the fuel indicator.
- kortilla 8y ago
  No they don’t. I have a 2005 ford with a speedometer that matches GPS all of the way up to 85 mph (haven’t tested higher).
  - bayindirh 8y ago
    Maybe your car GPS is reporting higher? All cars I've driven were reporting %5-%10 more.
    - kortilla 8y ago
      It’s not a car gps. It’s a receiver on a phone. That can’t be wrong by that much or the position would be wrong.
  - TomMarius 8y ago
    I had a 1996 Ford Mondeo that showed 10% more. Then I had 2004 Ford Mondeo and it was 5% more. I sold that one and bought a 2008 Ford Mondeo and it is 5% more. My other car - 1998 Ford Fiesta - is 10% more. I also drove a 2011 Ford Mondeo and it showed more but I hadn't had it long enough to care to calculate how much exactly. I tested all the cars except the Fiesta up to 230 km/h and the 2008 one up to 260 km/h (it's the 2.5T). All the cars are/were German except for the Fiesta, that one is Czech.
    - kortilla 8y ago
      Maybe it’s something they do in Europe but not the US.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
bayindirh 8y ago
In EU, there's an unspoken rule for cars to report speeds inflated by 5%. This is possibly based on an old research of SAAB which used a reverse logarithmic speedometer, giving feeling of exaggerated acceleration until 120-130 KM/h or so. Then the scale tightened so much that going significantly faster didn't move the speedometer that much. Also the needle hit top left quadrant much faster, hinting that you're going really fast. Also, EU uses L/100KM concept instead of MPG. When the speed is 0, most cars switch to L/h scale. Toyotas also show an infinity symbol when in MPG mode while the speed is 0.
- bayindirh 8y ago
  For anyone interested below are some examples: 1- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Instrument_panel_Saab_9-5.JPG https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Instrume... 2- https://i.ytimg.com/vi/V0RyHPM0mBI/maxresdefault.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/V0RyHPM0mBI/maxresdefault.jpg I remember the numbers right, but it wasn't reverse logarithmic scale. It was a hard transition at 140KM/h.
amyjess 8y ago
Japanese customers, too. Back in the day, there was a gentleman's agreement among Japanese automakers to limit power output of JDM cars to 276 hp. In reality, Japanese performance cars were all spectacularly underrated. Your "276 hp" sports coupe is probably making 350 hp. It was more of a gentleman's agreement to lie about power figures than anything else.