How Accurate is the Speedo?

aspeedo error

It is law in most western european countries that the speedo by design can not read less than the actual speed. Due to differences in tire diameter in order for this not to happen they build an error into the speedo. In today's world it seems less than ideal as I get a reading from my GPS and the speedo so I know the actual speed. Do have to say that I have used different GPS and there speeds have varied by over 1mph.

khafner said:

It is law in most western european countries that the speedo by design can not read less than the actual speed. .

Click to expand...

On the RS forum several UK members have mentioned this.

It is indeed BMW being driven by their lawyers. I'm aware of them having made compromises on performance and accuracy of various parts of their products since at least 1996.

The issue is that there are some European Countries (and some US States from what I've been told) that have a zero-tolerance policy for speeding. If the speed limit is 60 mph and they catch you going 61-62 mph you get a speeding ticket.

The lawyers say we can't have a speedometer that is registering 60 mph and have the vehicle actually doing 61 mph. If the person gets a ticket and then verifies that we were at fault we will get sued. Then we also need to take into consideration, tire wear, component wear, etc., etc., and we should have a safety margin as well. It is frivolous litigation and over-stringent companies that are driving this stupidity, not us.

AlanColes said:

It is indeed BMW being driven by their lawyers. I'm aware of them having made compromises on performance and accuracy of various parts of their products since at least 1996.

The issue is that there are some European Countries (and some US States from what I've been told) that have a zero-tolerance policy for speeding. If the speed limit is 60 mph and they catch you going 61-62 mph you get a speeding ticket.

The lawyers say we can't have a speedometer that is registering 60 mph and have the vehicle actually doing 61 mph. If the person gets a ticket and then verifies that we were at fault we will get sued. Then we also need to take into consideration, tire wear, component wear, etc., etc., and we should have a safety margin as well. It is frivolous litigation and over-stringent companies that are driving this stupidity, not us.

Click to expand...

Oh my Lord - couldn't sleep at all last night, given that "..several states…" have a "...zero tolerance..." for speeding.

Having only lived in the USA for 66+ years now, and ridden (on occasion 5-7 mph over) in all 48 contiguous states, I'm jealous that our neighbors to the north know so much more than I do about our law enforcement absolutes.

Granted, certain villages, towns and 'burgs' will abuse 'letter-of-the-law' enforcement as a revenue stream, but "..several states..." are now involved?

Sheeeesh! Let me know which ones you're referring to, so that I might crawl thru them @ 5 mph under this summer.

Thanks.

greenwald said:

Oh my Lord - couldn't sleep at all last night, given that "..several states…" have a "...zero tolerance..." for speeding.

Having only lived in the USA for 66+ years now, and ridden (on occasion 5-7 mph over) in all 48 contiguous states, I'm jealous that our neighbors to the north know so much more than I do about our law enforcement absolutes.

Granted, certain villages, towns and 'burgs' will abuse 'letter-of-the-law' enforcement as a revenue stream, but "..several states..." are now involved?

Sheeeesh! Let me know which ones you're referring to, so that I might crawl thru them @ 5 mph under this summer.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Kevin, I believe that I clearly identified that it was others, but didn't specifically state it was your countrymen, not your neighbours to the north that were the source of this, and that I did not say I was certain of it, only that I had been told that:

AlanColes said:

... some European Countries (and some US States from what I've been told) that have a zero-tolerance policy for speeding...

Click to expand...

Unlike you, I'm a neophyte at riding in the USA as I've only been riding in your country for 45 years and only managed to get to 40 of your lower 49. I have ridden/driven in all Canadian provinces, and somewhere around 20+ other countries. In the past 12 months I've only ridden in Canada and the US (about 6,000-10,000 miles per year between the two) but have ridden or driven in 8 additional countries which is a typical year for me (+/- 2).

I try not to get speeding tickets but as I ride/drive at 10-mph over, or more, most every place (sometimes considerably more) I have gotten my share of tickets (half the Canadian provinces, in the US in too many states, from Maine to Florida, to California, to Washington, and in-between but only two European countries). West Virginia has proven to be the worst I've encountered for dirty "gotcha" enforcement and Hungary for enforcing zero tolerance. I typically ride 3,000-5,000 miles in the USA each year and ride/drive about 3,000 miles in other countries yearly.

Just sharing my experience and sharing what riders in the US have shared with me, but provided the caveat that the US info was provided by others. Didn't realize that it was necessary to identify that they were US Citizens and how many miles they ridden and for how long. YMMV

1957mpd said:

It's not just a BMW motorcycle thing; every BMW auto I've had displayed the same speedometer variance from GPS-determined speed.

Mark

Click to expand...

It's the same with my Mercedes Sprinter, speedo reads 5% high - and they wont adjust it! Must be a German thing...

txdaveski said:

It's the same with my Mercedes Sprinter, speedo reads 5% high - and they wont adjust it! Must be a German thing...

Click to expand...

Very much so.
My new R1250RT and 2015 Touareg are (and 2 previous BMW M cars were) just as bad as my 2014 R1200RT was. While my 2019 Mustang and 2011 Lincoln are only about 1-2 high vs 3-5.