A thread titled “Guys who love analog speedometers” on 5ch’s message board took off. While new cars in recent years are increasingly moving to LCD-panel digital gauges, posters in the thread lined up to share their love for the smooth feel of a needle rising, and their fondness for the analog dials of classic cars — the digital panel on the first-generation Soarer 2800GT, the Fairlady Z, the Hakosuka Skyline. At the same time, practical worries about going digital came up too, like “only the odometer should stay analog” and “if the LCD breaks, the whole display just dies,” splitting the thread between analog loyalists and digital fans.
What people said
1AnonymousSep 20, 2026 08:30
The way the needle sweeps up is just irresistible
2AnonymousSep 20, 2026 08:32
These days you can actually pick from several gauge display patterns on the screen,
but I keep mine set to the old-school twin-dial look
3AnonymousSep 20, 2026 08:35
A fake-analog display is one thing, but just watching digital numbers climb isn't the same
4AnonymousSep 20, 2026 08:35
Lately pure digital's fading out — LCD-style analog-look gauges are the mainstream now
5AnonymousSep 20, 2026 08:52
Speedometer? lol lol
A tach alone is enough, lol lol
6AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:01
A real man rides with the first-gen Soarer 2800GT's digital meter and graphic tach, come on
7AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:06
Does an automatic even need a tach?
8AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:13
These days both cars and bikes have LCD gauges
it feels like a video game, I don't like it
though old digital panels like the Soarer's were cool
9AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:13
The gauge on my old British bike is a chronometric type
it ticks up like a clock, tick-tick-tick
it's great
11AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:16
Re: #9
That sounds nice
10AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:14
Wait, cars aren't analog anymore? I haven't driven one in 20 years
12AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:16
11,000 rpm
20AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:40
Re: #12
That's the Group A engine that got swapped into Takumi's AE86 later on, right? (an Initial D reference)
13AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:27
I'm someone poisoned by Leiji Matsumoto-style mechanical design — the more needles and tick marks a gauge has, the better
14AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:29
Installed an aftermarket triple gauge for boost, oil temp, and oil pressure, and I grin like an idiot every day
15AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:31
Other than the odometer, there's not really much point in showing anything digitally
16AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:33
Who was the idiot that came up with the lame center-mounted gauge cluster in the first place, citing 'visibility' or whatever?
18AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:37
The Probox has the needle type
so does the Town Ace
19AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:40
LCD screens degrade over time from sunlight and heat, and they feel as bland as a computer monitor.
I want a real, physical gauge, old-school style.
Everything's LCD screens these days and I'm sick of it
21AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:41
A dashboard packed with needle gauges and instruments
looks properly mechanical, I love that
22AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:43
1970s sports car dashboards are the coolest
the ones with a whole row of analog gauges lined up
24AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:46
A cockpit lined with analog gauges is a man's workplace — pure romance
25AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:47
What's with the smartphone-looking gauges on bikes these days?
26AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:48
On that note, the first-gen Fairlady Z's gauge design was truly excellent
27AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:48
I get it's to stop odometer rollback fraud,
but even the odometer is better analog
28AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:48
What scares me is if the display cracks or breaks somehow, the whole readout disappears and there's nothing you can do about it
30AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:50
Re: #28
Automakers want people to buy new cars anyway
once a car gets old they probably plan to fail it at inspection and stop supplying parts
29AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:49
I actually kind of liked the Mira e:s's digital panel,
but with this latest update it went back to analog
31AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:52
I'm the type who wants to keep a well-designed car and drive it carefully for decades, so a screen-type gauge is a dealbreaker for me
I don't think I'll ever own that kind of car
32AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:54
Re: #31
Either way, modern cars are packed with electronics and plastic parts,
so I doubt you could keep one running for decades the way you can with a simple old car like the Hakosuka
33AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:55
To begin with, there's no modern car with a design good enough that you'd want to keep it for decades
34AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:56
There's an LCD panel that switches between different gauge layouts with a button on the steering wheel
normally I keep mine set to an analog clock face
maybe a tach is better for the highway though?
35AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:57
It's strange that luxury watches are analog while luxury car gauges are digital
43AnonymousSep 20, 2026 10:07
Re: #35
There are luxury cars with an analog clock in them too, you know
36AnonymousSep 20, 2026 09:57
I actually kind of like the gauges on the Lexus F Sport
40AnonymousSep 20, 2026 10:03
The speedometer on my kei truck, which I've driven for 15 years, gets unstable in the rain — sometimes it just sticks at zero, other times the needle goes haywire
44AnonymousSep 20, 2026 10:08
Re: #40
That wouldn't pass inspection, surely
47AnonymousSep 20, 2026 10:10
The Figaro's still popular probably because the interior design is classic and cute
53AnonymousSep 20, 2026 10:13
Re: #47
Those white-faced gauges are great
64AnonymousSep 20, 2026 10:21
These days every car on the road looks like a matchbox, and they're all black or white
Calbee's chip bags going black-and-white made news, but honestly the whole world's gone monotone
66AnonymousSep 20, 2026 10:22
Re: #64
Well, white and black fetch the highest trade-in prices
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Since the 2010s, automotive gauge clusters have increasingly shifted to fully digital displays using LCD or OLED screens. The main reasons are fewer parts and greater freedom in what can be displayed, along with growing demand — especially with the spread of EVs — for readouts like remaining range. What split opinion in the thread was the mixing of practical concerns, like visibility and durability, with purely emotional preferences, like enjoying the feel of a needle sweeping upward. Many posters brought up the styling of classic cars such as the first-generation Soarer, the Fairlady Z, and the Hakosuka Skyline, suggesting that what people long for isn’t necessarily practicality but the design of that era itself. One post claimed that automakers deliberately withhold parts to push people into buying new cars, but that’s speculation from within the thread, with no supporting evidence offered.
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