To start, I know that cars can go faster than typical speed limits because if you went on a freeway at 100km/h with a car that had the same top speed, you would essentially be pushing it to the limit constantly, which is not really good for the car.
My question is why do cars have their speedometers marked way higher than they can actually go? For example, my dad’s 2017 Toyota Yaris marks up to 220km/h but it could probably go no more than 150km/h tops, so could they not just mark the speedometer up to 150km/h because it’s not really going to go above that?
EDIT: FYI I live in Australia
In: Engineering
I used to be a product manager for a major automotive company. The reason now is purely for show.
Even now with digital dashes that simulate analog instruments, you’ll see sports sedans go up to 200mph or family vehicles show 160 – a number neither would be able to hit.
Even for cars that still have analog dashes, they are all unique and custom made for each model and on the backend actually digital/electronic. Sso it’s not a part commonality or accuracy issue at all – it’s purely to achieve the desired look that the product manager is going for.
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