Digital Spedo & Driving Test

dglancy

I am doing a driving test in a few weeks and my car has a digital speedometer that shows the speed in km/h.

Because one km/h is a fairly slow speed the speedometer is almost constantly changing. For example, it's very easy to be driving between 30 km/h - 35 km/h.

Does anybody think that it will be a disadvantage for me during a driving test that the car shows the speed so accurately? It's pretty hard to hold speed at say 50 km/h without touching 52 km/h - which would be breaking the law.

Any ideas?

bp_me

No ideas, but once you don't go too far over it shouldn't be a problem. Anymore than 5/6 km over might be though. I really cant say for definite.

seamus

I wouldn't worry about it. He won't do you for hovering on the speed limit. It's physically impossible to continually maintain an exact speed in a vehicle (without some sort of electronic help obviously).

Do your best to hover on the limit and you'll be fine. Don't go too slow "just in case", you'll be penalised for poor progress.

Boggle

Yeah - like Seamus said, keep it the "high" side of 30 and you'll be fine. They won't kill you for going slightly above the limit on occasion(+2/3 kph...) As long as your well in control.

bp_me

I just remembered something very sensible...lol...anyway all car speedos are calibrated to read under what you are doing, so at 52/53 you are likely doing 50.

Alun

Don't you mean "read over what you are doing" ?

bp_me

Yeah....woops....wasnt thinking clearly earlier obviously

astec123

Anyway the law allows (not sure if which one it is here) 5/10% tollerance with regards to the speed limit so if you hit 52 you will be fine. Also if that is the speedo in the car then it may have a speed limiter so see if you can calibrate it to limit you to 50 therefore saving you worring over details like speed so much. An odd few cars do have this feature.

Seth Brundle

Just to be a bit pedantic. The law does not allow +/- 10%.
Legally the speed limit is the specified limit, not the limit +/- 10%.
Gardai may use some discretion when out shooting fish in a barrell but at the same time this is just at the gardas discretion and each garda will be different. If discretion is used this will be due to a number of factors including speedo inaccuracies.
As for the tester, all they can assume is that your speedo is correct. If you tell them it is slightly off then they could claim that the car is not roadworthy (if they can refuse to sit in a car that smells of fags then this is possible!).

dglancy

The car does have a "feature" which will chime when the car hits specified speeds (ex: 30 km/h, 50 km/h, 60 km/h, 100 km/h).

I've never used it 'cause if you are driving between a constantly changing speed of "29-31 km/h" the bloody thing won't fu*king stop beeping.

Should I be paranoid and consider using it ? Hard to know, but I think it would only draw the testers mind to the speed.

I could also turn the digital speedo to MPH which don't change as fast and are much easier to keep to a steady speed but I'm just so used to km/h that I don't think in MPH anymore! A bit like the punt and the euro for me, as well.

I'll post to this tread how I get on with damn french digital speedo after I do my test on Aug 15th next.

John R

It is safe to say that an audio warning that basically shouts "breaking the speed limit" would be a very bad idea.

Obsessive speedo watching is a bad idea also, concentrate on driving safely and observing the road and you are much more likely to pass then if you religiously stick to the speed limit and divert your attention from your driving.
I know that I exceeded the limit by about 5mph several times during my car test and the same for my bus test without getting any faults.
Unless you get a speed limit nazi as a tester as long as you keep to a reasonable speed for the road and conditions a small excess should not be a problem. If you do notice you speed has crept up a bit too much at some stage do not make a big reaction as if you have made a mistake, just gently ease off.