Category: Articles & Commentaries

Discussions on topics of interest to drivers concerning things they may not understand about their vehicles as well as articles on the future of the auto industry.

Oldsmobile symbols page now color coded

Oldsmobile logoOldsmobile symbols page

Our Oldsmobile symbols page has now been aligned by color. We’ve have now transformed several pages, including our primary symbols page, to reflect a color ordering.

Oldsmobile as a manufacturer has been defunct since 2004. Nevertheless, we will keep the page for drivers of the cars who likely have few places to turn for help. We also have pages for Holden, Mercury, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Scion, all of whom have faded from the automotive scene.

As a testament to the growth of technology and the accompanying indicators, the Oldsmobile page holds less than 50 symbols. The majority of manufacturers now use as many as 100 and more.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

The Oldsmobile symbols page can be found here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/oldsmobile-symbols-page-now-color-coded/

Boy did we mess up our primary picture symbols page!

DashboardSymbols.comPrimary picture symbols page

Its repaired now, but we managed to completely screw up the transformation of our primary picture symbols page! A whole lot of original coding somehow stuck from its previous iteration.

It might be obvious to those viewing the page, which is here, that the symbols are arranged in tables. Well, somehow the old tables got embedded in to the new ones! They were a terrible mess that no one could possibly have navigated.

The bottom line is, we didn’t proof read the page until much later. We assumed we had done it properly. Lesson learned…

And if you have a Wordpress site as we do, and this works with other web development tools, the solution to unexpected coding embedded in a page is to copy everything into a text only file. All the formatting falls away — the formatting you don’t want as well as what you want. The page will need to be formatted again — properly — but its a relatively quick and simple fix.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

Again, the primary picture symbols page is found here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/boy-did-we-mess-up-our-primary-picture-symbols-page/

Our primary picture symbols page has been completely transformed

DashboardSymbols.comPrimary picture symbols page

We just completed the transformation of our primary picture symbols page. It now moves through picture symbols by color, red, yellow/amber/orange (depending on how a driver sees the color), on to green and blue and finally black and white and gray scale indicators.

We kept three other sub-groups on the page as well, including hybrid and electric vehicle indicators, diesel-powered vehicle symbols, and a segment on information displays and message centers. This last one is where the black and white and gray scale indicators now appear.

As we noted in a previous post, our main page, which hosts all the images that are not text, had become a difficult mess to get through and was organized by technology categories. However, this assumes a driver even knows what tech category the mystery light he or she is searching for belongs to!

This is a massive oversite on our part.

We are thus committed to re-ordering everything on the site by color. It will be a long slog, as there are about 50 pages that will need the work. But the work will get done, and we sincerely hope that it simplifies your experience.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

The primary picture symbols page is found here.

And know that we still recommend searching by manufacturer here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/our-primary-picture-symbols-page-has-been-completely-transformed/

Kia Niro EV first impressions

Kia Niro EV

The lease on my Polestar 2 recently expired, and I purchased a pre-owned 2022 Kia Niro EV outright (22,000 miles). Over the last few years a rather healthy used EV market has developed, which is great for the industry.

The Kia does not have the prestige of the Polestar but there were a number of reasons why I chose it. The primary one one was my experience driving a rented Hyundai Kona EV while the Polestar was down for body repair. The car, while quite small, was surprisingly capable and full of most of the same features as the Polestar. Hyundai has proven itself a capable EV maker, and Kia is a chip off the block.

There are some things I miss about the Polestar, the surround view camera being the biggest, but several things I don’t miss at all, the center nav stack being the largest. The Niro‘s is so much better thought out.

In the Polestar, if you wanted to switch from media to radio, you had to switch screens. That’s a physical button on the Kia. But its behavior in operation is standout. You can change a pre-set radio station on the steering wheel, which was the same as the Polestar. But unless you had memorized the stations while on the nav screen, to see the new station again required changing screens! In the Kia, the new station is displayed for a few seconds on the far side of the screen! Beautiful.

Plus it picks up the media from the phone without a hitch, while this was always a struggle for the Polestar. Further, the overall sound quality is superior in the Kia. The Polestar‘s front center speaker so dominated the output that I simply reverted to keeping the front speakers turned off.

A surprising advantage not given much attention is the Kia‘s efficiency. Its EPA range is 250 miles. However, it has consistently stayed at about 280 miles! That’s on the order of 4.4 miles per kW from its 64 kW battery, easily one of the highest available. We covered EV efficiency’s here.

I’m quite satisfied with the purchase.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/kia-niro-ev-first-impressions/

Primary picture symbols page to get a gray scale table

Primary picture symbols page

In order to fully transform our primary picture symbols page, we needed a table of gray scale indicators. Or more properly, black and white and gray scale indicators. The page currently uses tables of various categories of indicators that, due to shear numbers — over 800 entries — has become impossible to search for the average driver.

The new table is now ready and we will next work to transform the page.

Since the advent of message centers in instrument panels, most manufacturers use the space for trouble and accessory indicators as well as various text messages for drivers. In black and white and gray scale, these indicators are useful to show systems on standby or as active with nothing to report.

We hadn’t appreciated just how many we had created over the years.

We’ve always had a table for red indicators, another for yellow/amber/orange indicators and another combining green and blue offerings. And while we had been making the gray scale counterparts, we had simply used them within the categories we are moving away from. The new table was an eye opening experience.

We started with with what we thought was a generous 25 rows. When we were done, we had 89 rows and a full 150+ entries copied over from their categories!

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

You can see our primary picture symbols page here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/primary-picture-symbols-page-to-get-a-gray-scale-table/

Jeep symbols page now color coded

JJeep logoeep symbols page

One of our most visited pages, the Jeep symbols page, is now the third to be aligned by color. We started what is big change on the site with Infiniti, finished the family adding Nissan, and will move through the pages visited the most.

This page features over 100 entries, one of the most heavily populated pages. The number made the change a tough one, but slogged through. A surprisingly large number of green and blue indicators can be seen in the page.

Jeep has begun some electrification, adding to the overall number. Note that we do try to order them by order of importance within the color groups.

Cars are changing, and among those changes is the growing number of symbols and indicators that will invariably show up on your dashboard or instrument panel. Every year, new features are added to vehicles, each of which is accompanied by a new symbol or symbols and likely a new acronym.

At DashboardSymbols.com, our aim is to help you understand what is happening to your vehicle at the first sign of trouble – a new warning light illuminated on your instrument panel. Its all here on this website. Our first intention is to bring the latest technologies down to earth and understandable for everyday drivers.

The Jeep symbols page can be found here.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/jeep-symbols-page-now-color-coded/

How long does it take to charge an electric car?

EV logoHow long does it take to charge

Two weeks ago I changed my ride. And since I have been asked several times how long does it take to charge? Yes, its still an electric vehicle (EV) — I hope to never again put gasoline into a car!

Anyway, the question surprised me each time, as there is little difference one car to the next in the practical, every day sense. But it finally gelled in my mind as lack of information — still — in the general public. So, here’s an attempt to add to what, in truth, is a wealth of information on line.

The everyday

I’m going to divide this into two groups, and the first one is the day to day alluded to earlier. There are two key aspects to this part of the equation: 1) how far do you drive daily and 2) can you charge at home?

  • On an everyday basis, an EV can be charged with a standard wall plug, 110/120 volt. Here if you’re starting at fully discharged, it will take several days to fully charge (please stop short of 100% — see here for why).
  • A 220/240 volt plug can be used. In this case, from fully discharged (also, don’t do this!!) to 90% (for the life of the battery) will take about 8 hours. Overnight!

Home chargerHere’s where the distance driven every day is important, and in truth, few of us pay any attention to this. Most EVs today will go 250 miles, but you’ll want to save some on either end, so assume 220. If your commute is 30 miles round trip, you can go a week on a single charge and a 220/240 volt outlet or Level 2 home charger is ideal!

However, if you drive only 10 miles a day, shuttling kids to school, picking up groceries, etc., you can plug your car into a 110/120 volt outlet, which is Level 1 charging every night and never run out of “gas”!

This is the biggest deviation from driving a gas powered car — you can’t simply pull into a service station and fill up in a few minutes. But its truly not difficult to manage in the day-to-day.

Long distance driving

Here’s where the rubber meets the road. If you’re constantly behind the wheel, be it for business or pleasure, you need the Level 3 charging stations that, while still being built out, are actually easy to find. And, let’s face it, Tesla has the broadest network.

Level 3 stations pour power into an EV fast enough to get your tank 80% full in 20-30 minutes, depending on the vehicle. The charge rate drops off dramatically after 80%, so its more efficient time-wise to stop charging and get back on the road. Again, see more on that here.

What you need to know is the range of an EV you may wish to get into, and how fast it will accept a charge. The car is in control — a Chevy Bolt will not charge faster the the 50 kW it can accept, even at a 150 kW charger! But the vast majority of available EVs charge at up to 150 kW.

So that’s it for now, not that I’ve answered every possible question that can come up. Hopefully this has been helpful to you, even as I wrote as much to reconnect myself to the proper answer when I’m asked again, as I inevitably will be.

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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.

These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.

Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be litera

Permanent link to this article: https://dashboardsymbols.com/2024/10/how-long-does-it-take-to-charge-an-electric-car/