There's growing concern that motorists will face excessive costs to change their speedometers when the new metric speed limits are introduced in September. Most cars now carry both miles per hour (mph) and kilometres per hour (kph). However in many cars the kph reading can be difficult to read, writes Michael McAleer, Motoring Editor
"In many instances to change the speedometer to read predominantly kph involves changing the entire binnacle (dash instrument panel) and the multiplex wiring," said a Peugeot spokesperson. "In our view that's going to be a considerable expense." Several other car firms reiterated this.There may also be issues with the integrity of the mileage data during changeover.
There are no plans to require a change in the dials on current cars. However, given the difficulty in reading the kph figures on some speedometers, some motorists are expected to want to get their clocks updated.
There are also questions over second-hand prices in the coming years, if buyers avoid cars with difficult-to-read kph dials. The Minister for Transport has suggested an interim kph sticker could be used, but there's no agreement on this as yet, nor a supplier.
The changeover to metric limits is required by a 1980 EU directive, which said that the use of different measurements hindered trade.
After three extensions since 1998, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, stayed the abolition of mph speed limit signs until December 31st, 2004. However, there have been calls for the Government to postpone the deadline requiring manufacturers to change the speed dials.
It is currently negotiating with the industry on the requirement for all new cars to feature kph dials from the December deadline.
Cyril McHugh, chief executive of the Society for the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), accepts there is industry concern that it was not consulted early enough.
However, he says negotiations are going well. "We are negotiating with the Department to facilitate car firms which can't meet the December deadline or have large stocks of cars already with predominantly mph dials."
The Government was orignally interpreting the directive as ruling that dials from the December deadline must only show kph. This would allow car makers to simply use the speedometers from other EU markets. However, difficulties would arise when new cars travelled to Britain or the North and could no longer indicate mph speed.
The only other options seem to be to accept the current predominantly mph dials or to force car makers to come up with a kph/mph dial, something that's not on offer at the moment. However, industry sources suggest car makers would find it uneconomic to create special dials just for the Irish market. With these issues outstanding there are calls now for the Government to put off the December 31st deadline.