Help me make a decision here - Combo gage or stock Options

[Mikey914]

I acquired a pretty stock 1.7 that had been retrofitted with a 911 combo gauge. It looks well done. I did procure a correct gauge to replace it but now I'm thinking leave it.

What would you do?

I like the idea or originality too.
Pics to follow.

[RickS]

Had to update my signature to reflect my new esteemed poser status. Thanks Racer for the reminder. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Greg, I appreciate your thoughtful analysis on human decision making. In is interesting to note that about 45% of our population interacts with the world and process data in a purely black or white, on or off, good or bad manner. The other 40% see the world in a non-binary manner, where multiple factors from multiple sources are analyzed, of course colored by personal bias, prior to making a decision. Call this many shades of gray. The remainder do not neatly fall into either camp and may fall into, drug abuses, mental defectives or mentally ill.

Until the advent of digitally based dashboards, where display can be selected, automakers found it far more cost effective to use Idiot Lights (binary warning) than using full gauge clusters with all their complexity. 914s being the bargain basement entry into VW-Porsche received, as you know, fewer gauges with more idiot lights than its higher priced 911 brethren. It’s a cost thing. There is no right answer for everyone

When I see my alternator light on, I can cross reference with the analog readout to see if I am in deep do do, if the volts are reading <12 Volts and going down fast, rather than making a best case guess how much farther I can drive. When the light came on, I continued to drive the car for short distances for two weeks (battery on charger during evenings) while I closely monitored if I had <12V. It works for me but recognize it doesn’t work for everyone. As for oil temps, if I am running at 240* I know how far hot I am running and to back off, compared to 280* when I know I need to shut it down rather than just back off.

We could take your binary argument to the extreme and say, people don’t need all the information provided by a fuel gauge, just a light to come on to tell you have some finite range remaining. No light, no issue.

In grad school I enjoyed taking classes inhuman factors engineering and ergonomics as well as human behavioral analysis so these are favorite subject areas as you can unfortunately tell.