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Morgan now it's on 15 rather than 14 inch rims and 205/60 reads 5% over. My Mercedes is accurate to 1MPH at 70, 1.5% over. (Both according to Waze and TomTom)


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Stephen
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Stefan, you may be right. If owners get "better" fuel consumption because of the optimistic speedo they are more likely to achieve the claimed figures of manufacturers.

Cheers


Philip

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Needs to Get Out More!
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Originally Posted by Philippo
Richard, I understand about the law but why such big over-reads. Speedos could certainly be more accurate, witness the 2cv. Also why stop in-built GPS devices showing true speed?

One of the reasons it's getting to me at the moment is that living in France I do a lot of driving on N & D roads that are most of the time limited to 80km/h (though some departments are 90km/h). Lots of drivers understandably are wary of all the speed cameras and so drive along at an indicated speed of just under 80km/h which, is often a true speed of a little over 70km/h. I'm all for safety but such low speeds on good N & A roads are crazy and in fact some times causes people to overtake dangerously because they find the low speed unacceptable.

Cheers

I agree Phillip but cannot explain why such large over reads are allowed. I've been aware for some time of the 0 to 10% over read allowance and clearly they shouldn't under read, but the extra 10km/h (6.25mph) I only discovered recently.

Regarding GPS speed displays, they do seem to have a variety of damping and averaging algorithms. I've noticed that commercial devices incorporating a GPS receiver do seem to display a higher speed figure than a raw GPS app on your phone for example. Could it be the manufacturers of such devices including those fitted to cars have a vested interest in ensuring you never get an under read displayed [Linked Image]


Richard

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I read today, that optimists on average live longer than pessimists, so perhaps it is good to have more optimistic things round you.

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That depends. I'm so depressed; brain the size of a planet.
snowlaugh

GPS measures effectively in a series of straight lines as I understand it. Speedo measure distance travelled. Rapid acceleration, braking & or bendy roads can throw my GPS speedo but it is bang on vs those flashing speed signs when the speed is constant.

I rely more on the revs as 2k revs = 20 in second , 30 in 3rd, 40 in 4th & 68 in top


JohnV6
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In some European countries you can ask the factory that your car must be so fast as the datasheed says...

And it all was fine until my speedo told me: 180+ with hood down. Wow.

Back home from the summer fast road trip the speedo shows 180+ and the gps high the ton.

Hmm. Only knowing the speedo the world was right. Now: hmm, she could be a little bit faster ;-)

René


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Thank you John for bringing in the gps measuring principle.
GPS itself is not hat accurate. It can have a 1.5m inaccuracy with a standard receiver.
It than measures straight lines in a frequency of 1 Hz.
So, when you travel a straight motorway and the algorithm calculates a couple of iterations before displaying speed, it is quite good.
On curvy roads...

So please do not overestimate the accuracy of gps speed.
On the other hand speedometers have improved a lot over the latest years;-) So it is often not possible to calculate an extra 10% as the Mercedes example shows.

Also the rev calculation depends on pressure as well as tyre wear.

If you travel exacly to the point - you should be on the safe side;-)


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Reminds me I really need to recalibrate both of mine, my Aero over-reads at least 10% maybe more, so its probably done at least 3k less than the clock shows! laugh2


Aero 8 GTN #11

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You can have a fairly accurate odometer with very optimistic speedometer.

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