You’re reading Signal vs. Noise, a publication about the web by 37signals since 1999.

Elegant and simple. It doesn’t even look cluttered, but it has more info than my car’s dash has. AND , it all appears to be designed to be seen through the steering wheel.

I’ve owned several FJ’s; a 60, 62 and now an 80. Never a 40, but I wish that I did. Great design, great ride.

Missing the tach, but otherwise nice. The missing tach is a big negative for me.

Agreed, gotta have the tach. Interesting layout though – especially how the speedometer isn’t laid out along a constant-radius curve.

Nice, 438 miles.

Wonder how many times it’s gone “over the top”...

Nice. I was just looking at mine (‘76) on the way to and from lunch today. Simple, no-nonsense, informative.

I wonder why the actual image says ‘defender’ in it. Someone has their able-bodied vehicles mixed up.

nice, simple, driver friendly. My dad has such a car, great car.

The layout is beautiful. Nice and simple with the important stuff up top and center. If we’re nitpicking though…. I think they made a mistake by mounting the needles too deep. The tops of the letters are cutoff on the bottom gauges. I also think the AMP gauge could have been replaced with something else or committed altogether. I know darn well my wife has no clue what this gauge is for. :-)

Personally, I think tachometers are frills. I am a fan of the FJ, but much prefer the Jeep CJ series (when it was AMC , pre-Chrysler). The dash gauges and knobs of a 1984 CJ-8 (which is the same as every CJ from every year): http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffreydgraham/125355700/

I learnt to drive (and a few other activities) in a FJ40 . You didn’t need a ‘tach’, you could hear the engine well enough.

had one for 11 years. i deeply regret selling it.

my current FJ Cruiser is fun but not the same at all.

I had ‘72 as my first car. All other dashes seems to lack important things and have a lot of extra crap after the Toyota. As to the Tach you did not need one. You felt and heard the engine just fine and knew when it was happy or sad.

As a study in contrasts, take a look at this dashboard of an early 1980s Citroen Visa:

http://www.firescribble.net/Visa.jpg

My ‘76 soft-top FJ40 ‘beast’ was probably the car I enjoyed most out of all cars I have owned so far. It had its own idiosyncrasies, like it was a bit tricky to start with the manual choke, the soft-top roof leaked when it rained, the doors couldn’t be locked – then again, the soft-top was always open anyway – note: talking about sunny Sydney here :) Anyway, loved that car!!

I always liked the 70s Jeep CJ5 dash. Can’t find a good photo, but this is close:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3100/2653960610_4db8b5c22a.jpg?v=0

http://www.firescribble.net/Visa.jpg

possibly the most hideous thing I have ever seen for a dashboard/steering wheel

http://jojati.com//cruiser/left.jpg (1976 FJ40 )

Wish I stil had it.

This picture was taken from this one which is for sale I think:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyota-Land-Cruiser-FJ40-78-Toyota-FJ40-Land-Cruiser-Complete-Nut-Bolt-Resto_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trkparmsZ72Q3a1205Q7c66Q3a2Q7c65Q3a12Q7c39Q3a1Q7c240Q3a1308Q7c301Q3a1Q7c293Q3a1Q7c294Q3a50QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em14QQhashZitem29fe0bfa01QQitemZ180355856897QQptZUSQ5fCarsQ5fTrucks

It has the same photo.

I drive a FJ60 when I’m not biking to work. It’s a gas hog, but between the fact that a) I hardly drive it, and then only for short distances, and b) The manufacturing cost is a sunk cost for it, I feel somewhat justified. I don’t want to get rid of a car that’s perfectly capable of getting me where I need to go just to spend tens of thousands on something else.

I had no idea that there were so many Landcruiser owners that read this blog.

“I had no idea that there were so many Landcruiser owners that read this blog.”

Makes sense, though: everyone here is a big fan of simple, no-nonsense functionality.

Though I’m sure the Toyota engineers relied on a functional spec. {ducks for cover}

Functional Specifications for Landcruiser

1. Easy to use 2. Reliable 3. A mule off road

That’s probably about it! ;)

“Makes sense, though: everyone here is a big fan of simple, no-nonsense functionality.”

Why do you need a 4WD if you want no-nonsense ?