transce

The original owner of my car, when he purchased it, bought nearly every single option that was available. If you look at the options sheet for my year, it looks like he went down the list checking every single box, except three: wheels, sound, and (gasp) HUD. Of the three, the only one I ever missed was the HUD. It was there in the first Vette I ever drove and it was part of what made me fall in love with the car. I had strongly considered doing or finding someone who could do the aftermarket install of the OEM HUD, but the complexity of the operation and geography of install locations made getting it installed extremely difficult.

So along comes the ADD Heads Up Display Speedometer which I found on Amazon one day. With a price of $145 shipped and a bright and colorful display, I figured what the hell, let's give this baby a try.


INSTALLATION

You will need

• ADD HUD unit
  ADD HUD unit
  ($140)
  
• ADD replacement cable ($20)
  
• Sticky pad
  Sticky pad
  ($5)
  
• Soft, thin plastic ruler ($1)**

** You need the replacement cable because the HUD has an ugly on/off switch on the stock cable very close the to the HUD unit. It makes it look like an aftermarket part; the straight cable provides a less conspicuous look and is less cluttered.


Steps

• Remove the A pillar trim.
• Run the wires from the top of the dash down into the footwell of the driver's compartment.
• Place the sticky pad on the dash and position the HUD.
• Plug in the ODB2 plug and HUD cables.
• Using the ruler, feed the cable off the HUD into the crack along the top of the dash so it is out of sight.
• Bundle the excess cable and tuck it inside the paneling in the footwell.
• Replace the A pillar trim.
• That's it!

INSTALLED

Here's where it plugs to the ODB2 socket.



The ODB2 wire trails across here.



The ODB2 wire tucks around back and you can see here where it plugs to the adapter.



Here's what it looks like tucked away.



This is what it looks like from the driver's seat.



I knocked it off the sticky pad a bit with my sunshade. It looks better when it's flush with the sticky pad but I didn't notice until it was off until after.



And this is what it looks like in action.


YouTube - ADD HUD demo for CorvetteForum.com

Tried to quickly capture a variety of driving conditions: a few stops, two on-ramps, and some light traffic. Interesting points: 1m35, 3m06.


REVIEW

Pros

• Shows speed and RPM
• Inexpensive
• Colorful
• No-modification installation, 100% reversible

Cons

• Can be slow to update
• Gets stuck occasionally
• Difficult to see in bright sunlight
• Plug does not sit flush under dash
• Ugly on/off switch necessitates purchasing straight cable

I was hoping it would act up today and boy did it ever. You can see times where it can't keep up and others when it gets stuck. On the first on-ramp, let's say I might have hypothetically reached about 90 mph, on the second on-ramp I accelerated up to 60 neat. The speed display is totally unable to keep up under full acceleration. The RPM display might as well not be there, it's too slow to be of use for manual shifting. The other negative point is that on a bright sunny day, under directly sunlight, you can just barely make it out (although that can be drastically improved if you install a small square of tint into the reflection area on the window; one was provided but I chose not to install it).

It is not a perfect product by any means. But when I got hit by a freak rainstorm in Chicago traffic on I80, I was extremely glad not to have to take my eyes off the road for one instant despite multiple speed changes and lots of shifting. You can see some ghosting in the image but the ghosting is actually much worse on the video than in real life. It's very easy to read in person. It also looks like it's flickering in the video, that's another effect caused by the camera, that can't be see at all with the human eye. The sticky pad works remarkably well holding the HUD in place, even during extremely aggressive driving conditions. However, I often accidentally knock it out of place when I put up the sunshade in the summer. You can see in the picture, it's a little off the pad right now because of a bump from the sunshade. It looks tidier when it's all the way on the pad. Overall, I like the HUD. I think it was worth what I paid for it.

$$$frumnuttin'

Well, you get an A for trying, but how can you say it is worth it if it acts up, can't keep up, etc? And, just a few inches away you have a perfectly working speedometer, tachometer, etc....I'm voting thumbs down, sorry.

transce

It couldn't keep up under, shall we shall, spirited driving. It actually works pretty well when I'm not mashing the right pedal.

avigar

My Escort Passport 9500ix radar detector has the ability to show my speed in real time while in detector mode. It's just like having a HUD which is an added bonus.

Lee DeRaud

So...it doesn't work when you need it and sort of works when you don't?

transce

Okay, to be fair, let me first point out that the speed on the stock HUD is also slow to update, this unit is only a few hundred milliseconds slower. Avigar's radar detector is, I believe, using GPS satellite data for the speed. They even make GPS based HUDs. The problem with those is they are a LOT slower to update than an engine-info-based HUD and they can't track accurately when you're not going in a straight line.

I would say don't judge it until you watch the video and see for yourself. As I said it's inexpensive, it's sort of a toy, I wouldn't put my life in it's hands but it's a cool thing to add to the car that improves the driving experience. It gets a lot of compliments, especially from the younger crowd. I don't really expect the old farts to get it.

Corvette_Ed

Ah, so it's one of those newfangled ricer things then. Got it.

Vetteman Jack

Just glad my car came with the HUD.

Corvette_Ed

I'll be installing an OEM HUD setup when the time comes. I want the system that was designed to work with the car.

transce

I'll be buying a C7 with HUD pre-installed when the time comes.

Corvette_Ed

Yeah, I'll have one of those too. Can never have too many Corvettes.

Mr.TT

I watched the video. I am surprised how lenient you are of the product, it is essentially unusable. I'd be returning it, but it's not my money.

I'm not an old fart but would expect if it had a tach that the refresh rate would be quick enough that you get more than 2 data points from 1000-6000 rpm, or that you wouldn't be ok with it going from 2 MPH to 74 MPH with nothing inbetween.

Anyway, enough negative feedback from me, sorry.

Chilliwack vettes

Thanks for taking your time to post this!

After reading your install & review & extra comments I'd have to say I would pass on this HUD. If this was for a C4 or other car that did not have a HUD as an option then I might consider it.
Here's why:
- There is a provision for a factory HUD already in place. You just have to take the dash apart and buy & install a factory unit. There's lots of info on how to do this (read - lots of pictures!). Just takes some time and there's always help here.
- Because of the inaccuracy of this unit, it makes it more of a gimmick rather than being useful
- The price point ($170 vs about $300 for factory) is not low enough to justify a clunky unit (my opinion) sitting on the dash. BTW, how do you hit it by moving your visor?
- While most of the time you would want to show RPM & speed, the factory can show other settings like coolant temp which is really handy to see when you're cruising up a canyon hill in mid-Summer.

The display looks nice though!

MrGary2011

You get what you pay for!

transce

I agree with vast majority of what was said. I didn't expect a whole lot of people would be rushing out to get one. I posted more just to show everyone what you could get for this price and to show what alternatives were out there. Gives you a little perspective when contemplating buying the cost of doing an OEM HUD install.

Sunshade. Covercraft "fitted" sunshade, tucks right up to the window. If I'm not careful when I pull it out, I bump the HUD. (My Vette is a daily driver so I end up using the sunshade on an almost daily basis in the summer.)

StrangelovesM6Vert

My Vette has HUD but after reading your post I decided to buy 2 of these for my other vehicles.



They're only 60.00 each and the one you have can be found for 90.00

transce

Nice find! Be sure to let us know how the first one works out for you!

StrangelovesM6Vert

Ok
When I get them I will let you know how snappy they are and how well they work.
Maybe by the weekend when I come back from my road trip for having an A&A Vortech Supercharger installed and dynotuned

0Andrew6@TheDoubleAA

I did a modified version of this in my dodge truck. The ghosting during the day was pretty annoying so I used some holigraphic film to cure the issue.