VDO "Vision" series gauges


[4/27/2005] Reviewed by: Keith Kimble - kjkmd@aol.com

Applicable to: '90 - '97 '99 + 1.6 liter 1.8 liter

Boost, EGT, and oil temp gauges. Boost is mechanical, oil temp and EGT electronic. These are 2 1/16 inchers. Other styles/sizes/parameters available.

Installed by Brainstorm about 2 weeks ago in conjunction with turbocharger. Ordered online from egauges.com. Prompt delivery. Lots of other vendors. First boost gauge was defective, so just ordered another. Cheap enough I haven't bothered to try to return it (yet).

Once again, I can't believe nobody has reviewed these. They are relatively inexpensive gauges (compared with GReddy, HKS, or new Autometer series), but made by a reputable company (a division of Siemens) long in the business (my '78 Porsche 930 has VDOs, and all (original) still work (except the clock). Price was a minor consideration for me, but I decided on relatively inexpensive VDO's (half the price of the others) because they are very similar in appearance to OEM Miata gauges--black face, black housing, white markings in a non-descript font, choice of diffusers for green, red, or white backlight, but orange needles instead of white. Understated. Functional. Had them installed directly under HVAC (in a 1 1/2 DIN slot created by replacing OEM radio/cassette with a 1 DIN Alpine AM/FM/CD positioned all the way down). Thought pillar mounts would look tacked-on. Mounted on a carbon fiber panel from Dragonplate (Dragonplate.com, or search "carbon fib! er panels" online for other sources). The look is just what I wanted (like factory-installed)--not as cool as the Autometers, but I'm not into bling. Carbon fiber picks up Momo e-brake and shift knob theme. Highly recommended.

Difficult to remove without leaving damage


Back to Product Reviews 31 July, 2005