Question on dimming the dash
 

Most cars I have owned over 50+ years you could dim the drivers dash display (gauges speedo etc) all the way to full dark (except maybe the high beam) This 2013 c6z you can only go so low and no more. This some new fed law stuff? Thanks. If I'm driving fast on an unlit desert 2 lane, I don't want distraction. Idiot light will come on as needed.

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Just guessing here, but probably a safety feature. They probably think it's not a good idea to drive totally dark (even though you still have the HUD, but that can be dimmed to dark).

I have to laugh, because the idiot safety bureaucrat who came up with this has probably never driven fast and hard on a darkened road, where focus on what is going on OUTSIDE the car, coyote, deer, etc is more important.

They are probably thinking you need to know how fast you are going, and it is probably not a good idea to be going fast on a darkened road in the first place. Even then, what exactly is distracting you? There aren't any flashing lights. I don't have any issue being able to see what is going on outside the car at night even with the dash lights on. Are your eyes extra sensitive to light at night?

Thanks for posting,

Speed on a dark secondary road in a Corvette is almost always safer than what is posted. I "think" we can agree on that.

I have a HUD to know the speed, no need to take my eyes OFF THE ROAD to check it. Right?

As far as my eyes, personally, yes pretty much EVERYONE man and woman loses night vision as they age. Eyes react to TOTAL ambient light, so if it's pitch black outside, but there is some inside light entering the eyeballs (dash), it cuts down on how wide open the pupil will get to let in more available light (even if it's the moon or whatever). Ask your ophthalmologist.

Hope that helps.

In addition it just pizzes me off that government bureaucrats have that kind of power. Like they know how to design a car better than a car manufacturer? Airbags, TPMS, etc.

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Thank you Froggy for the explanation of night blindness. I am 57 and have always had my instruments very bright, beginning to have difficulty turning off the main road leading to my home. I will try dimming them.

Not at all, you are very welcome. So many times when other members post stuff like "First thing I do when street driving is turn off all the nannies", I chuckle & remember when I was in my 20/30's and invincible.

I should be the CF ambassador for "old guys". Haha.

So yes absolutely, dim down the dash lights, use HUD for speed and see better at night. HUD does not need to be THAT bright either. You really don't need all those DIC gauges to be bright, The car will tell you if somethings wrong even if they are dimmed down. And clean the windshield & outside mirrors, Inside glass too. Big difference.

Be safe, have fun.

:)

Not necessarily - I think it depends on the road. If it is a fairly straight/flat road out in the open then I would agree. But if it is a windy/hilly road with lots of trees close to the road (where animals like deer can come out of nowhere), then no, I would say traveling faster than the posted speed limit in a Corvette is not safer than in any other car.

My guess is that they don't want all lights to be turned off. You can turn the HUD off, so they made it so you can't turn the dash lights off.

Froggy, I have attended 2 HPDE events (not in my Z) and remember the senior instructor encouraging everyone to use all safety nannies if possible. At the first event a different instructor totaled a C6 Z by contacting the wall (was on race tires). I believe tech goodies save lives and cars, few people can drive faster with them turned off.

Why I said "almost always" of course exceptions abound (like a bounding deer?)

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If you lived in MN or WI I don't think you would say 'almost always' - it would be just the opposite, 'almost never''. :)

Haha, I get it. Anyway, just sayin don't like gummint bureaucrats telling me they know what's best for me.

:)

Starting to sound like an anarchist, which I am not (yet anyway)

Cause the people that drive with no headlights would forget to turn their gauges on too