Virtual cockpit v analogue dials thoughts please
- Thread starter John Pilkington
- Start date
In what sense? In terms of dials they're both going to show the same thing 
Plus side of virtual cockpit is the map in the centre which I believe many use as well as tweaking the size of the speed and rev dials themselves.
If you're question was more specific people may be able to provide better responses.
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Plus side of virtual cockpit is the map in the centre which I believe many use as well as tweaking the size of the speed and rev dials themselves.If you're question was more specific people may be able to provide better responses.
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Be interesting to see how reliable they are long term. They do look quite good and once you have worked out how to control what is displayed they do give you a lot of options.
A couple of my mates had modified GTEs back in 2002 ish when i was 16 / 17, the digital dash was something none of us had really seen in a car and plus at 16/17 just being around motors at that point and getting to hang around with my pals that had them was always good then you'd get talking to others and the 'have you seen so and so's GTE, its a quick car that it's also got one of those fancy digital dashes' haha - now it's just the norm.
I was going to add one to my A3 spec as on the configuration site it showed them as being £450, what it didn't tell you at the time is that you need a whole load of other options to go with it bumping the price up to around £1400 if i remember rightly, that push the car to more than my budget therefore i didn't bother.
Virtual cockpit is a decent bit of kit and i'm sure they'll be more reliable than in the older days.
Just for nostalgia
Virtual dash and a sunroof are the options I regret not spec’ing, to be fair the virtual dash was available as my S3 is a PFL. If I was buying now I wouldn’t be looking at an Audi without it.
Any component with no moving parts will be more reliable than one with.
BMW and in particular Mercedes have already taken over Audi on this in my opinion. The VC is nice but it doesnt really take advantage of the fact that it can basically show whatever the manufacturer wanted. When in the standard, non-map view it would be nice for them to have better utilised it like Merc do on their latest AMG models.
Personally, I prefer analogue dials on a car.
With VC they say you can change this and that. But in reality 95% of owners will set the screen they want (if they bother to change it from what it was when they collected the car) and then just leave it on the same screen for the time they own the car. Plus it's just another thing to go wrong in the future. Fine when the car is new and under warranty. But if it fails on the second or third owner, how much will it cost to put right?
Same as DCC. 90% of owners just leave it in Auto.
We now live in a society where a very small number of people that everything if configurable. When in reality, everything just get left in the default settings
With VC they say you can change this and that. But in reality 95% of owners will set the screen they want (if they bother to change it from what it was when they collected the car) and then just leave it on the same screen for the time they own the car. Plus it's just another thing to go wrong in the future. Fine when the car is new and under warranty. But if it fails on the second or third owner, how much will it cost to put right?
Same as DCC. 90% of owners just leave it in Auto.
We now live in a society where a very small number of people that everything if configurable. When in reality, everything just get left in the default settings
Don't be so harsh on yourself James, had you down as being a tad above average intelligence
Yeah you're right you need the technology pack to get VC in the A3/S3 which is a £1400 package. Makes it expensive as the pack comes with wireless charging and some other bits don't really care for.
I know in the S5 VC comes with matrix headlights and interior lighting which is a much more appealing offer.
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Agree with that but lets be honest.. it looks the nuts though.
Not a fan, I personally think at £1395 its a bit expensive for what it is when I spend most of the time looking at the road and only glancing at the dash. Only an opinion though and I'm a tight git.
I know you would like to think that but it's not necessarily true. There are plenty failure mechanisms that can cause issues with some thing as complicated as a virtual dash. How many older VAG cars have you seen with pixels missing out of the LCD centre displays. The technology in the centre dash display is similar to mobile phone / tablet displays and how many people have had issues with a display on either of these. The car is a pretty hostile place for complex electronics with very large temperature swings, vibration, electrical noise etc etc. I am not saying analogue instruments are not without their issues but the fact there are no moving parts is not a guarantee of reliability.
I do have some experience in this field having worked for Lucas Engine Management systems in the late 80's the main product line I worked on was for the XJ40 digital dash.
I used to diagnose all the warranty service returns on these and there were lots. Probably 75% were down to issues with the Vacuum flourescent displays either segments missing, dim, reading incorrectly etc etc.Maybe only 5% or less failures were down to the Veglia supplied analogue instruments. which were themselves electronic stepper motor drives .
You can see this one has an issue with the warning display where it says circuit 1 failure there are extra segments lit. That is probably due to the driver IC for that display or possibly contamination on the PCB causing leakage between the connections . Lucas were not known for the fantastic reliability of a lot of things they made but as cars get ever more complicated we are moving away from things that are easily repairable to something only a specialist could repair.
Hi guys,thanks to you all for comments regarding this subject.have been told off dealer if I change order to include vc it will put order back by 5 weeks.why the long Delay,regards
Most factories work on a just in time delivery system so they hold little stock. Parts get delivered as and when it’s needed and planned. Your build would have been planned weeks if not months in advance and parts for all the builds that week would have had parts orders out in advance. In theory your car will have to be slotted into another build week and their ordering system will make sure parts are delivered in time for your new build slots.
Virtual Cockpit /Technology package is the new A1 is £1600 bangers now that indeed is a rip off
Besides when l come to sell my own car the VC will add a little extra ££ but it will also improve its desireabilty to prospective buyers
Besides when l come to sell my own car the VC will add a little extra ££ but it will also improve its desireabilty to prospective buyers
Agreed, also becoming standard fit in newer Audi's as well. Makes analogue look rather plain and old fashioned anyway...
I was on the fence before getting it. I now have VC, and I wouldn't go back. I am worried about how i will feel in a few years time, when the new model comes out and the current model becomes old, laggy and lacks the tech that will inevitably come out in yrs ahead. I also worry about the re-sell value of the car when it looks outdated and isnt as nice as the newer models VC. but i guess this applies to the analoge dials too, however at least they will have "classic" status!!
That's it. Everyone now want's the latest tech. So having VC on your A3 now, will look old and outdated in 5 years time, once the new VC versions come out. Same as phones and Apple watches. Cost a fortune to buy new, but worthless second hand as the tech is old and slow.
Not saying the car will be worthless, but the analogue dialled car might actually be more desirable, as dials don't get slower and crash with age.
Analogue for me please.........
Graphics always age and in the future if anything went wrong with them they will be throw away and replace with new. I have some older bikes with early 2000s digital displays that still work just fine (harsher environment than any car) but they look like from a different planet! My favourite view is a digital number within an analogue looking rev counter.
Cynically I think manufacturers are stalling on engineering enhancements so are looking for other forms of justifying price increases. Configuration in theory is great (little like drive modes) but in reality most people most of the time just leave as is or set once and forget.
Graphics always age and in the future if anything went wrong with them they will be throw away and replace with new. I have some older bikes with early 2000s digital displays that still work just fine (harsher environment than any car) but they look like from a different planet! My favourite view is a digital number within an analogue looking rev counter.
Cynically I think manufacturers are stalling on engineering enhancements so are looking for other forms of justifying price increases. Configuration in theory is great (little like drive modes) but in reality most people most of the time just leave as is or set once and forget.
Unfortunately choice is getting taken away from the consumer. Manufacturers are just telling us what we are having. In 6 years time if the VC starts playing up, they won't care, as chances are the person who bought new has already moved on and bought another new car. And the poor guy stuck with a crashing old tech VC will keep the dealers in profit by needing to shell out loads for repairs. The biggest problem will be, if the manufacturers don't keep the old tech to reboot the system in 20 years time. Then what?
Gen 2 VC is already out an on the Q3, A1 and so on.... Not much has changed, graphics are the same, but the colours are different. We are already seeing the current VC becoming obsolete as it wont run Google Earth from 2020 or 21 but the new Gen 2 VC will.....
We are already at the stage where you can tell the car where you want to go and it will take you there..........how long before anything relating to now is completely obsolete! I reckon within 10years I will use my app to get a car come get me (or use my nicely charged up one sitting outside), tell it where I want to go, set the cabin temperature and off it goes. Uber wasn't so far away from that a while back.
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This VC thread is just like every VC thread ie against it or for it and the ones that are against it. .. Are the ones that have older cars ie Not applicable and others that couldnt wouldn't afford it simples,it's the fooking dogs danglies Fact
Since we are categorising, don't forget to add in the obnoxious who can't/wont consider any other peoples views....
Maybe wouldn’t go that far.
Is it cool.... yes
Is it novelty.. yes
Is it more a gimmick... yes
Is it worth £1500+.... hell no
Could I live without it.. probably yes
Like most it will be set on one screen and rarely change in ownership. Think the last time I changed the view on mine was when I was stuck in traffic bored and tried to see what different options and stuff I could get up on screen.
Got V.C in my SQ5 & i do like it, lots of features etc. But in truth it would not stop me buying a car if it didn't have it. Most dash consols these days have some sort of digital feature anyway?.
Dont think I have ever read a post on this forum that Jassy hasnt commented on, this one however did make me laugh
No novelty or gimmick involved l still get a buzz from it 16 months later
Would not be wanting one of those fangled new automatic gearboxes on one of my cars, what going to happen when they go wrong or one of those fuel injection system things for that matter or automatic lights and wipers, they’ll all go wrong and cost us £1000’s to get repaired
Just saying
Just saying
Our washing machine has a fancy LCD touch screen, plays tunes when you start it and it ends. Has a million washing options but we only ever use about 3 of them and at the end of the day it's a washing machine. It's more about how well it cleans clothes than the fancy trimmings that are fitted.Things like the virtual dash are nice but most people will only ever use 20% of the various options / functionality and if it's fitted in a car that's dull to drive, unresponsive and not involving then to me it would make no difference.
I recently drove several new models on the Stafford Audi dealer day that Sandra arranged. Great chance to try out some of the latest models, they all had a VC dash, The Q7, SQ5, A6 all with similar features and toys. Then drove the new A1 also with a VC Stronic gearbox and interior trim inline with the styling of the more expensive models.
I went to pull out of the parking bay and stalled it. The car has a manual handbrake. I never noticed when I got in and TBH didn't expect it.
I just would have thought that they would have fitted an electric rear handbrake in the car. But then that would cost more money, probably not a lot but in this class of car and at it's price point it would have been nice.
At least the systems are reasonably easy to use and quite intuitive, without having to read a manual for 20 minutes I could get in and out of these various cars and be able to drive them.
I recently drove several new models on the Stafford Audi dealer day that Sandra arranged. Great chance to try out some of the latest models, they all had a VC dash, The Q7, SQ5, A6 all with similar features and toys. Then drove the new A1 also with a VC Stronic gearbox and interior trim inline with the styling of the more expensive models.
I went to pull out of the parking bay and stalled it. The car has a manual handbrake
. I never noticed when I got in and TBH didn't expect it.I just would have thought that they would have fitted an electric rear handbrake in the car. But then that would cost more money, probably not a lot but in this class of car and at it's price point it would have been nice.
At least the systems are reasonably easy to use and quite intuitive, without having to read a manual for 20 minutes I could get in and out of these various cars and be able to drive them.
For me the VC is a must have option along with privacy glass and the pan roof. Every time I see an S3 without the VC I think it looks a little dated, although the analogue dials are nice looking.
