[Somerville99*]

I love my 2017 Base Soul but the lack of oil pressure and voltage gauges bothers me. I would gladly trade the tachometer for either of them. A tachometer on a car with an automatic transmission seems pretty useless to me. I've found both gauges to be useful in the past. Idiot lights are a topic for another thread!

 

[Shaggy Wierdo]

I would use them if they were there but their abscense did not bother me when I purchased any of the cars nor does it bother me now. I check my oil often enough because I don't trust the idiot light nor, from past exerpience, the gauge. As for the voltage, I worked around too many electrical and electronic devices to use a gauge as the first indication of malfunction, only as a trouble shooting aid once a malfunction is suspected. I think it is propably a personal choice and either approach would be adequate.

 

[GeoSoul]

I agree Somerville, but it's been a trend to leave them out for decades.

I remember my dad's old vehicles had all those informative gauges. I bet Kia would be replacing fewer engines if there were an oil pressure gauge, instead of a "it's too late" dummy light

 

[XxHaimBondxX]

Easy fix, $10 bluetooth obd2 scanner and a Torque app.

 

[conwelpic]

doesn't bother me, they've been out of vehicles for so long I can't remember my last vehicle that actually had them. I think when they did have them, most people had no idea how to read them correctly or understand there meaning.

 

[yagawood]

doesn't bother me, they've been out of vehicles for so long I can't remember my last vehicle that actually had them. I think when they did have them, most people had no idea how to read them correctly or understand there meaning.

^^^^ This.

The last car I had with an actual functional oil pressure gauge was my '93 (NA) Miata. The normal fluctuations in oil pressure due to temperature variations and RPMs caused many Miata owners ignorant of oil pressure variance to believe there was an engine issue when there wasn't. Because of this, when Mazda upgraded the Miata from a 1.6L to 1.8L starting with the '94 (NB) model, they replaced the oil pressure gauge (0-90 PSI) with an idiot gauge (L-H) that didn't fluctuate and was static when oil pressures were in the normal range. Many NB Miata enthusiasts have retrofitted their idiot oil pressure gauge with the NA gauge and associated hardware.

I now have a '15 MT Soul, so I appreciate the tach, but would love a true oil pressure gauge -- especially given all the recent engine failures. Since I don't have that, I just regularly check the oil level as a precautionary measure.

 

[Blue02]

Do you have a link to what you are using? Do you have an aftermarket stereo?

Easy fix, $10 bluetooth obd2 scanner and a Torque app.

 

[XxHaimBondxX]

Do you have a link to what you are using? Do you have an aftermarket stereo?

I hear these are very good: https://www.amazon.com/BAFX-Products-Bluetooth-Diagnostic-Scanner/dp/B005NLQAHS

but I cheaped out and bought one for $8 like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BY2CK32/ref=sspa_dk_detail_4?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01BY2CK32

Then downloaded a free Torque app from android store. There is also a paid plugin for Kia vehicles, that will give you more detailed info about the car.

 

[jdmartin]

I'd rather have the tach for sure, even in an automatic. Most "gauges" today are nothing more than fancy idiot lights - they don't measure anything. They just provide a visual go/no go sensation, meaning it's just telling you that oil pressure is above some set point in the circuitry. Same with voltmeters.

Now, if you're talking about going back to the good old days, then yes, I'd rather have gauges. My old Miata (almost a classic now!) has real gauges. It also has a real throttle connection, and all kinds of neat classic stuff. But those days are gone. Everything today is electronic. I like the setup in my new Ram - it has an info screen setting that will tell me the exact transmission temperature, oil temp, oil pressure, voltage, etc. Not on a gauge, but listed on a screen.

 

[The Sradiator]

Last O.P.G. I had was on my 70 Nova SS.
Plastic oil line running from engine bay to back of gauge.
Now That's an oil pressure gauge!

 

[dynamo]

I'd love to have the gauges, but I don't think I've ever had a car with a voltmeter instead of ammeter (did have a truck with a voltmeter). Oil pressure, yeah, but that went away when the manufacturers found idiot lights were cheaper.

A voltmeter would be easy to add. You can get an LED meter postpaid from China for less than a buck at aliexpress or ebay. One that plugs into the acc power jack might be a buck more; for a while I had a digital compass/thermometer that also showed volts. Still have that somewhere, but with GPS and the instrument cluster thermometer, it seemed like a waste of dash space.