2012 c class speedo in kph

[russcannell]

Hi folks, Just taken delivery of a new c class. Delighted with the car except for one thing. The little digital speedo at the bottom of the instrument cluster seems to be reading in kph. Tried all the settings but no luck. Anyone know how to change it to read mph?

 

[@MARK]

It's supposed to do that.

I believe it's a legal requirement for a car to show kph as well as mph at all times.

 

[wilsodg]

Yep - plenty of other posts on this - it used to be possible to get it changed on Star but MB have disabled it. If you have a UK car then it will always display kph on that part of the display. Holds true for other cars too (Ford, VW etc.)

 

[nigel cross]

On mine it can be changed when stationary to read MPH, but it was originally a 'Picadilly Car'

 

[Frugal]

It's supposed to do that.

I believe it's a legal requirement for a car to show kph as well as mph at all times.

I too am irritated by the inability to change this Command feature and would have thought the bilingual dial on the analogue speedo would satisfy the legal requirement. I'd be very interested to see any offical MB statement on this point if anyone can point me in the right direction.

 

[jonnyMercUK]

I mentioned it to my dealer, apparently it is a legal requirement to show kph as well as mph

 

[nigel cross]

It's supposed to do that.

I believe it's a legal requirement for a car to show kph as well as mph at all times.

I cant believe that its a legal requirement to be shown at all times.
as my car has never failed an mot as it only gets switched to KPH when I go to France.
Why would you want to set it the UK as road signs are allways in MPH(thank goodness)

 

[whitenemesis]

I believe the requirement is the car must be capable of showing KPH ...

 

[o2drive]

I personally can't see the reason for displaying mph TWICE on the speedo

 

[davidsw]

Perhaps it is set to show KPH so we are ready when we are instructed by European masters to go metric on our road signs!!!

 

[@MARK]

I personally can't see the reason for displaying mph TWICE on the speedo

Plus you can set the centre of the dial to show the speed in mph or kph so in theory you could have the speed being shown 3 times

Other cars meet this requirement (which I think is down to the type approval) by having a second set of numbers on the dial rather than a separate display

 

[st13phil]

I believe the requirement is the car must be capable of showing KPH ...

I too have heard the "it's a legal requirement" bit, but that's my understanding too. When I (casually) researched this some time back, the requirement was for the vehicle to be cable of displaying speed in kph and mph, but I couldn't find any regulation that demanded that this be simultaneous.

My wife had a 2008 MINI Cooper S and that had an mph only analogue speedo supplemented by a digital display that could be set to either mph or kph, so I concluded that either every BMW MINI produced and sold is illegal, or the line spouted by MB dealers is bs...

 

[cliveyboy8]

I really cannot see what the problem is here. The kph display is about 5mm high, it hardly overpowers other info.

On the later W204's it cannot be deleted, it is there for a reason as others have already stated. Whether we agree with that decision is neither here nor there.

There was mention of the "bilingual" analogue dial. I assume by this they mean the speedometer. I have yet to see a W204 with kph markings on the speedometer. They are mph only.

Do people spend too long looking at the instrument panel when they should be looking at the road?

 

[Rory]

I find it a bit irritating on my car but then I use it to keep my speed at 120kph (75mph) so as to avoid the possibility of speeding tickets. For some reason exceeding 120kph on the cluster computer stands out more than going past 75mph on the speedo.

 

[russcannell]

I too have heard the "it's a legal requirement" bit, but that's my understanding too. When I (casually) researched this some time back, the requirement was for the vehicle to be cable of displaying speed in kph and mph, but I couldn't find any regulation that demanded that this be simultaneous.

My wife had a 2008 MINI Cooper S and that had an mph only analogue speedo supplemented by a digital display that could be set to either mph or kph, so I concluded that either every BMW MINI produced and sold is illegal, or the line spouted by MB dealers is bs...

Hmm ... So presumably our European cousins are looking at mph on their instrument clusters .... They must be as equally chuffed as I am..!!!

 

[whitenemesis]

I really cannot see what the problem is here. The kph display is about 5mm high, it hardly overpowers other info.

On the later W204's it cannot be deleted, it is there for a reason as others have already stated. Whether we agree with that decision is neither here nor there.

There was mention of the "bilingual" analogue dial. I assume by this they mean the speedometer. I have yet to see a W204 with kph markings on the speedometer. They are mph only.

Do people spend too long looking at the instrument panel when they should be looking at the road?

I had this coded out because on the 203 the outside temp shares this line of display. Now I can choose to display kph or choose to show the outside temp, which I find more useful than knowing I'm doing 67kph....

 

[Rory]

....more useful than knowing I'm doing 67kph....

You see - that would tell I'm 3kph over 40mph.

 

[chrisbin]

I had this coded out because on the 203 the outside temp shares this line of display. Now I can choose to display kph or choose to show the outside temp, which I find more useful than knowing I'm doing 67kph....

Now that is what irritates me....you cannot choose to have the outside temp showing as part of the fixed display, only as part of the mileage one....well as far as I can see.....???

 

[Mr E]

This is one of those areas where the regulations do seem somewhat unclear. According to the UK regs (as laid out in The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 and The Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989) the speedo has to be capable of showing MPH and KPH either simultaneously or via means of a single switch. However, these regs also say that the speedo device has to comply with the appropriate EU regulations too - UNECE Regulation No.39 says that for vehicles on sale "in any country where imperial units are used, the speedometer shall also be marked in mph (miles per hour)" (underlining is mine).

Given that the EU can hand out much stiffer penalties to manufacturers for breach of compliance than the UK, my team would advise any OEM that "also" implies simultaneous display of KPH and MPH.

Not all OEMs would seem to agree with this, and I have no record of any manufacturer being held in breach of UNECE 39. However, the penalty is against the OEM and not the end user, and so the OEM will normally take the least-risky option. The UK regs also would seem to work against a menu-based choice for this (as it's not a single switch) but, again, the onus to comply falls on the OEM and not the vehicle owner.

It's not an MOT failure as I don't think speedo function is included in the test.

 

[Deleted member 65149]

Hmm ... So presumably our European cousins are looking at mph on their instrument clusters .... They must be as equally chuffed as I am..!!!

No they're not: