Reading KMH on speedometer when abroad.

We have just returned from our first holiday abroad, France and Belgium, since 2019. I noticed an increasing use of speed cameras and varying speed limits in built up areas. This lead me to a problem that in truth has not bothered me before. The MPH figures are in white and are easily visible but the KPH is in small red numbers which I regularly found extremely difficult to see. Eventually I stuck on thin strips of white card in the approximate positions for 20, 30, 50, 70 and 80. Not ideal but has anybody else got any bright ideas?

Just as an aside. I checked my Skoda Yeti and it has ONLY got MPH on the dial!

I use an old phone (no SIM inserted) on to which I've downloaded a free Speedo app. Uses GPS and works perfectly. Big display, can select kph or mph. 

Satnav does the same. 

Cymro

Google "GPS HUD speedometer" . These provide a bright display that can be read direct or reflected in the windscreen (head up) either in mph or kph, just plugs into 12v socket..

After doing 20,000 miles over there in the last two years, what works for me is to leave the built in sat nav set to MPH. It displays speed limits, and if it's displaying them in MPH, it's much easier to manage the speedometer reading accordingly. It's not always right, but mostly it is. Also many of the common speeds correspond to 1500 RPM in various gears, which helps.

If you do get flashed by a speed camera, you won't get a ticket. If you get a parking ticket and don't pay it, you won't hear anything more about it. If you drive into an emissions zone without a sticker, nothing will happen either. Not that it's a license to do whatever you want, but if you make a mistake, it's not the end of the world either.

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This dreadful pic is mine, you actually don't look at it you look through it to an extent.
Infinitely better than looking at the speedo anyway as you don't take your eyes off the road for this one.
Go for one which doesn't use the OBD port, this one is just 12v and pure gps.

Can be altered to MPH or KPH we use both depending which country we're in, clock can be altitude too, interesting in Pyrenees etc.

Extremely accurate (calibrate using speed indicators you see on some lampposts), or the sat nav. I set the cruise to 2 KPH on this below the speed limit and let it get on with it!!

marbarsymbol wrote:Google "GPS HUD speedometer" . These provide a bright display that can be read direct or reflected in the windscreen (head up) either in mph or kph, just plugs into 12v socket..

Agree with Cymro, phone on a mount in front of the dash.  I use app on android called Digihud, probably available for iPhone as well.  Very customisable, and very clear.

At other times I have management shouting at me .... 

Regards,

v8oholic wrote:
If you do get flashed by a speed camera, you won't get a ticket. If you get a parking ticket and don't pay it, you won't hear anything more about it. If you drive into an emissions zone without a sticker, nothing will happen either. Not that it's a license to do whatever you want, but if you make a mistake, it's not the end of the world either.

Is this true now we've left the EU, does the DVLA not share our details anymore?
Some years ago two weeks after returning home I received a speeding ticket from Austria, 5kph over the limit. I ignored it, but a few weeks later another arrived with the fine doubled, I ignored that also and have heard nothing since.

However in 2019 another fine dropped on the mat, again only 5kph over, but from France this time, it was only 30 euros so I decided to pay it, mainly because I intend to go to France in the same van for years to come, and if the reg number is flagged at the port of arrival who knowns how much the fine would have increased by...
Al.

Thanks for these thoughts. I shall pass them on to my phone, computer and technical advisor and stand well back as she "tells me" to get up to speed with technology. After all it did take me over five years to work out that the Yeti had a multi disc changer rather than a single one. By this time CDs were defunct in the car.

A heads up display everytime and its GPS, when back in the UK, revert to MPH. It can be set to warn you when close to the legal road speed. Around £30 on Amazon.

bikeralw wrote:Is this true now we've left the EU, does the DVLA not share our details anymore?

EU countries do not have automatic right of access to DVLA data since 2020. Nor do they follow up minor offences. At port entry they only check passports and not vehicle registrations. Even though they did have my details for the emission zone stickers, I assume they can't use them for enforcement of unrelated offences, since nothing has happened (speed camera last year, parking ticket this year). This is probably a GDPR thing.