I'm mentioning this on this board because I've read a fair number of other posts from users with displays that are hard or impossible to read. Yet, others comment on how bright their displays are. Is there some kind of quality problem?

You know, I'm beginning to wonder the same thing.

I was thinking that some of the posters on the bbs were just hard-to-please whiners (sorry, Dredd), but yesterday I happened to be driving in such a fashion that the sun, low on the horizon, was shining directly through the rear window into the display of my Mark II (blue) and even though the sun was bright enough to make visible the grid lines and the backing plate that make up the screen, I could still read the words on the display with no real difficulty--that is, they were washed out but nonetheless legible.

This is so far removed from the problems described by other users that I can only conclude that some units are inherently providing more display contrast than others. I have my dimmer display set to 100% with headlights off, and some considerably lesser percentage with headlights on (don't remember exactly what I set it to) but even if I turn my headlights on in the daytime, the screen is still legible.

I have a strong feeling that some other people's Mark IIs are not so accommodating. Could there be a difference in screen brightness/contrast from one empeg to another?

Now, this is almost certainly completely irrelevant, but on the off chance that it will spark an idea in someone's head... my display is one of the ones that is mounted too "high" relative to the fascia, with the result that the top left corner is obscured from my normal driving position. Could display panels mounted lower in the unit somehow produce less contrast? Naahhh, not likely, is it?

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"