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Where Should the Clock Be Located On a Car's Dashboard?
And should it be analog or digital?
By Rain Noe - April 2, 2018
Those of you who own cars are undoubtedly familiar with your own. But because I'm a ZipCar member, I'm used to getting into a different vehicle each time I need a set of wheels. At the mercy of what's available, I rarely get the same vehicle twice.
I'm a very smart person with a degree in Industrial Design, so when getting into an unfamiliar car I can usually locate the steering wheel right away. But I often have to cast about for the clock. The clock is important for ZipCar drivers because you have to return the car at a pre-arranged time or you get charged a penalty.
The last car I owned was a 2001 Volkswagen Golf, for several years. That conditioned me to look for the clock here:
Enter a caption (optional)In contrast, more modern designs for car interiors have the clock towards the center of the dashboard. That makes better sense as both driver and passenger can see it. Here are the interiors for the last seven vehicles I've borrowed and where the clocks were:
Nissan Sentra
Enter a caption (optional)Honda Odyssey
Enter a caption (optional)Ford Escape
Enter a caption (optional)Honda Civic
Enter a caption (optional)Chevrolet Cruze
Enter a caption (optional)Honda Insight
Enter a caption (optional)Ford E-150 Cargo Van
Enter a caption (optional)As much as I like them at the center of the dash, I still cannot get my eyes to quickly land on them. The digital readouts often share real estate with other bits of information, and when glancing from the road to the dash, I often have to visually fumble to register "Ah, clock."
Kristen Lee, an editor at Jalopnik, made an interesting observation at the New York Auto Show: "Nearly all of [the cars I looked at] had big screens in their center consoles, which, fine. But the few that featured analog clocks stood out."
Among the handful of brands that did was Lexus, who has their analog clocks visually framed and placed dead-center in the dash:
Enter a caption (optional)
Enter a caption (optional)Now that's a clock I can get behind.
Car owners among you: Where is the clock on your dashboard? (If you're willing to post a pic in the comments so we can compare, that'd be great.) Where would you like it to be? And do you prefer analog or digital for time-telling?
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Rain Noe
Rain Noe is a writer and industrial designer based in New York City.
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Where Should the Clock Be Located On a Car's Dashboard?
Dashboard display should be a customizable flat panel display 6" tall by 2/3rds the width of the dash from the driver side to the center of the dash. The car has your preferences saved. When you get in you press a preset and your dash display is how you prefer it to be.
Behind the dash display can be a quasi-analog set of gauges that show all the basic vital stuff (speed, tach, temp, battery, tachometer...) in case the display cuts out or the driver prefers it.
I travel full time and have a different rental car every week with the same issue. My personal opinion is time and temperature should be somewhere in the middle of the dash near the top so they can be seen by passengers as well as the driver. I prefer digital for a quick read of the time but aesthetically prefer the look of an analog clock. My 2014 Sierra Denali has both a large simulated analog clock as well as digital right above it on the dash display. That and four cup holders for coffee within reach of the driver are why I bought it.
While not my actual car (too lazy to go outside) it is a 2017 Passat. There are actually 3 clocks. One is the large analog in the center dash. The other two are center console above steering wheel at top of center screen and the last is center top to the radio display. No shortage of knowing what time it is.
Loved the centre instrument cluster on my 07 Yaris, but the small clock in the bottom right wasn't the best. Although it did get into vision when checking speed/RPM.
Also, I much prefer analog clocks since you can get a sense of the time by just the shape, rather than having to read numbers.