My Speedometer is Lying; Is Your's?

will be interesting to hear dealers reply.

 

gps via torque pro is showing the car is going anywhere between 1 and 1.7 mph slower that what the speedo is showing.

it's dead on when at a stop light, though

LOL.

joel

 

2 mph high is very typical although my 2004 Highlander was dead on. My Prius 3 was about 2 mph high and my PiP is about 1.5 mph high.

 

Actually, there's a 7kmph* tolerance by law when speeding for exactly this purpose: to account for the speed reading differences. No need for Toyota to add another 10% to actual speed in my opinion.

* 5kmph for speed limits below 50kmph, 7kmph for speed limits from 50kmph and above.

 

Our work trucks, 2013 F250 diesel are optimistic as well. On 2 different gps 60 mph on the speedo is really 58mph on the gps, one Magellan one Garmin

Fone ?

 

Is that tolerance specific to your country, or is it it universal throughout the EU?

Regardless of your opinion, the U.N. trade regulation for the EU market, posted to several past threads here, allows no tolerance to under-read. For very many years, the normal European industry practice has been include a fairly significant over-read as a safety margin. That particular trade regulation does not cover any countries in the North / Central / South American markets, and the normal industry practice here has been to include a smaller over-read bias.

If there was such a question, it was settled by the product liability lawyers who shook down Honda and Subaru for 'warranty fraud'. Any car company that now puts a deliberate over-read in their odometers is just dangling red meat in front of those same lawyers.

I had two vehicle covered by those class action lawsuit settlements. Both actually had fairly accurate odometers, within 0.5%, not the alleged several percent high. Both my Prii (2010 and 2012) odometers were/are biased about 0.2% low, despite speedometers reading a few percent high. But thanks to those past lawsuits, my new Subaru odometer reads nearly 2% low, despite a speedometer reading about the same amount high as the Prius.

 

2010 Prius, 195x65x15 Michelin Energy Saver tires AS, all inflated to 44 psi, max sidewall pressure. Speedometer off by 1 mph. If stated speed is 30 mph radar indicated 29 mph. Odometer on the other hand is understating by about .3 miles per 100 miles driven according to Oregon ODOT mile markers on Interstate Hwy 5. 100 miles state mile markers, odometer reads 99.7 approx. miles.

 

The speed limits over the EU are more or less standardized. The tolerance however is not:
Speed limits by country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I am very well aware of this trade regulation... I just can't help myself to get over it each time some new thread here reminds me of it.

I have a Harley with kmph speedo that is dead-accurate. Boy is that fun taking a glimpse of the speedo to get a true speed reading in a second. Don't know how H-D passed the EU regulations. Shushhhhh!

 

As long as it is not underreading, it is legal. Having it extremely close without going under is much easier and cheaper in today's digital world than in the analog world of a generation or two ago. But the industry norms were set a long time ago.

 

In Europe is compulsory for the speedometer to lie. Average error is 4-5%.
The maximum allowed error is 10% + 4 km/h. Toyota Europe choose to be near the max and is 10% at any speed.

 

My 2005 is 2 mph slow compared to the gauge. 70 = 68 actual

Because of this it also adds a 2 extra miles to the odometer per 100 miles driven. I drive a weekly 284 mile Gps route. My trip will always show 289. A previous car I drove the same route with would show 282.


Dennis

 

The speed reported on the speedometer being off by a particular amount does not imply that the odometer is off by the same amount. In the old mechanical days, this was a reasonable assumption, but with everything being computer-generated these days, there is no particular connection. Various people have reported that the OBD-II speed data tends to be accurate, whereas the number on the speed display is off. Of course, the odometer report may be off too (as compared to a GPS measurement), but just pointing out that there is no particular connection to the speedometer reading in modern cars.

 

My speedometer show 5km/h less at 50km/h, 10 km/h less at 80km/h, 13 km/h less at 105 km/h.. i think that is to much!
And as you said with the OBD, i can also confirm that. I found out that my car know the "true" speed, but the software change the true speed. But i was really wondering if it should take of so much of the true speed??

 

This 10% deviation (showing 10% higher than actual speed) in Europe is on purpose, due to certain European directives. My car has exactly the same. It has been discussed before here on PC.

What I do not know is from which year on this has been applied. If in a second reading I read your post literally, it seems that your deviation is opposite: showing about 10% less than actual speed (which is dangerous). Are you sure about that?

 

Old thread, new observation on the new(ish) Gen 4 two... It seems that my speedo is 2-3.5 mph high. This observation is from roadside radar units (deposited to get us in line!) and taking a phone reading using Waze app.

Also, additionally, I was cruising along with cruise set at 80 on the interstate on Saturday when I zipped over a rise to a state police cruiser facing me. "Oh, shyte!" release the cruise quickly and let it decelerate. As I drove passed I looked in the rear view mirror and the 'blues' were on. I figured I was toast... but kept watching and s/he didn't pull out to stop me. I'm guessing s/he may have given me a visual warning, and the speedo discrepancy probably saved me too. I was going slower than I thought I was S/he gave me me 12 mph allowance. Phew!