It’s strange, sometimes, the things that get your attention. Sometimes it’s obvious – an attractive person, a vivid burst of colorful design, an eternally leaking sandwich. Other times, it’s more subtle, more about details and qualities that aren’t shouting for you to notice them. Details and qualities like how an inexpensive car’s instrument cluster has been designed. These are the important things, people.
The car I’m talking about is a popular and very rational little car, the second-generation Suzuki Alto. The Alto is very much a people’s car, useful and affordable. It started out in Japan as a Kei-class car with a 543cc engine, but in other markets, freed from the Kei restrictions, it got a 796cc engine, like what it used in one of its best-known versions, the Indian-market Maruti 800.
It’s a great, no-nonsense little car! But it still strived for a certain sense of romance and drama, as you can see in this Japanese-market commercial:
Did you see the rotating front seat!? What? I had no idea they had that; what a strange addition for a little hatchback! Also, that moody woman seems to show up in the brochures, too, where she looms with similar dramatic gravity as the car’s impressive wicker-hauling capabilities are highlighted:
Damn that thing can haul some wicker!
Just for an intresting comparison in marketing, this is how the Maruti 800 – essentially the same car – was marketed in India:
It’s much more of a family car feel in the Indian market, and note how they make a very clear contrast between the family warm and dry in their Maruti 800 next to the rain-soaked family crammed on a motorbike.
But I’m getting off-track! I want to focus on just one aspect of this generation of Alto, beyond its ability to haul dogs and soccer balls and kids with sticks; I’m talking about the dashboard.
The dash doesn’t look too unusual at first glance, but I want to focus on the instrument binnacle part:
There we go. Here’s why I’m so taken by it – look how much is crammed into this thing: it’s not just the standard set of gauges, but the entire HVAC system controls are in there, too! I’m sure there are other cars that have crammed the HVAC controls into a compact unit by the instrument cluster like this, but I can’t think of others at the moment.
It’s absolutely a cost-saving measure: they just need to make one unit for the instruments and HVAC controls instead of having to make a separate HVAC unit on the lower-middle dashboard. By placing the controls on the edge of the cluster, they’re still pretty accessible to the passenger, too.
The side-mounted knobs control the temperature and the airflow direction – you know, face, feet, windshield, that sort of thing. The knobs rotate icons/graphics in little windows to show what’s selected, which strikes me as a very clear and effective way to do that, more so even than the more common knobs with a pointer, which is harder to read at a glance than this is.
For example, look above and see roughly where the temperature is, and where the airflow is directed. Now look at this more common setup and look for the same things:
I think the Alto’s setup reads a lot faster! Especially this setup, where it’s not immediately clear which lever controls what setting at a quick glance.
It’s such a tidy, contained little unit. I can almost imagine it being sold independently to bolt onto your kit car or home-built car projects, since it has pretty much everything one needs right there in one little box. Maybe it could have lights and wipers on the other side, in case those weren’t on steering column stalks.
Maybe it’s a mundane thing, but I like it. I respect it, like I respect all things that just work, like spoons. Also, I enjoyed using the word “binnacle,” which sounds to me like some sort of mollusk.
Top graphic images: Suzuki
Reminds me of my JDM 1980 Honda Prelude XE – which had the radio controls and LED clock and coin bin on the sides of the instrument binnacle.
But this was the era of binnacles filled with switches on the side – such as the Isuzu Piazza/Impulse….
Question: infotainment screens that are surface mounted or sticking out rather than flush mounted or frenched in are widely disliked here and considered by many to be Bad. This pod is also an independent-looking thing that appears to be bolted slightly into a dash pocket and more than half sticking out. Does that make it also Bad?
To us in India, this was the equivalent of the Beetle, Mini, or Corolla. Literally put us on the move and taught us how to drive. I learned on a four-speed gearbox version of this same car.
So elegant and simple you’d almost think it was designed by Mr. Alto himself.. Alvar Aalto.
My Chevy Beretta had a GM version of this – bigger gauge pod, but with the lighting and wiper etc. controls on either side; the stalk worked only the turn signals. Paired with the classic 3 knob HVAC controls in the center, it was a pretty simple but effective setup.
The Land Rover Defender up to 2006 had everything in the binnacle, but nowhere near as sensible as the Suzuki. And the levers are prone to being stiff…
And of course for air con you have the dash vents like its the 1940s.
https://www.mudstuff.co.uk/products/defender-dashboard-instrument-binnacle
I think this is what was sold in India a long time ago as the Maruti/Suzuki 800. The larger Swift sedan was sold as the 1000.
I’m more fascinated by the comparison image – it seems to be a dual DIN setup, one with analog and the other with digital/auto controls
In a weird way, I think it’s adjacent to the Torchinsky Storage Fetish. In fact, if you didn’t need to know how fast you were going or how much gas you had, you could cram a sandwich or a box of tissues or a vintage Garmin right in that little bin(nacle).
If you liked “binnacle” you’ll probably, uh, also like ittibittium!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ittibittium
I absolutely do like that
That Japanese commercial is amazing! Apparently the car saves the woman from a roving band of men with ill intent. Or maybe they just enjoy running and jumping and she’s just staying out of the way?
It makes me think more of twisted line of a song, as in, Hey Binnacle Bill, What Did You Kill, Binnacle Bill…
Would have really looked out of place with one of those really wide speedos from the malaise-era GM’s.
Thanks for sending me down a little Kliban rabbit hole this morning while waiting for my daughter to get ready.
I like it. Simple and functional. Is that the A/C button on the upper right above the fan blower selector lever?
Side note: my brother living in Japan picked up a pristine, used 2010 Alto back in 2022. White with a CVT and navigation. Had 33K kilometers on it when he acquired it.
In defense of that traditional HVAC control readout, it uses mechanical levers attached directly to the blend doors, and requires substantial leverage in order to be pleasant to operate. To have that sort of mechanical advantage on little knobs like that, you’d need all sorts of expensive and complex, fragile bits like shafts and gears, maybe even beveled ones!
I still like it more than many other dial-based systems, especially electrically-controlled ones, but it’s definitely a premium feature.
I want to turn this into a Cyberdeck.! The gauge face can be replaced with a little OLED screen, and I can repurpose all the rotary dials for functional inputs, could probably fit a tiny trackpad into the slider ware, and the little recessed rectangles along the right face could be speakers.
Love it, It has a bit of Star Wars look to it.
I was thinking more fallout pip-boy.
Cheap & cheerful *and* functional!
I am growing more nostalgic for shitboxes by the day
Same here. I miss my 91 Justy and my 78 Rabbit.
I sorely miss my 82 Rabbit LS faux GTI. Because it was only 2k lbs, small changes had large effects. So fun to futz around with—and in.
I only got to experience a manual Justy vicariously as a friend briefly had one. The kind of tint car that elicits laughter on-demand
I bought that 91 new for $9K and it was a awd manual 4 door and got it to 103mph.
Did you vote for the Spirit then?
The pinnacle of binnacle.
Sort of reminds me of my ’91 Metro. (another Suzuki product)
https://mercury.bid.cars/1-47137193/1991-GEO-Metro-2C1MR2467M6769591-9.jpg
No HVAC controls, but had the light controls on one side and the wiper controls on the other side.
Makes it much harder for passengers to adjust the vents. So that’s a win.
I love things like this that were designed with real intent. It’s a clean and simple interface that puts everything right at the driver’s fingertips.
What am I looking at for that bottom HVAC controls? Looks like it’s for a small van or something with multiple zones but 3 different fan speed locations, sliders, buttons, a digital indicator, eco settings and a ‘Check’ button? Separate controls for heat and AC? Can they both be on at the same time? I’m so confused.
I though the HVAC on my old Odyssey was a horrible mess of tiny buttons until I saw that.
I love that Torch’s idea of a “more common” setup is a Byzantine mess of levers and buttons from (checks Google Lens) a 19-seat Mitsubishi bus!
You admiring this thing is like the sun coming up. But as usual, I got more than I bargained for with the click. Thanks.