Check Gages OCD

gpking

Original poster
Member
Dec 27, 2013
534
Berkeley Springs, WV
I apologize in advance for anyone who is made uncomfortable starting their vehicle while looking at the cluster after reading this topic.

I've never really noticed this dash light in my TrailBlazer, but during the light check of a '94 'Burban, I noticed that the CHECK GAGES light illuminates. Huh?

Doing some research reveals that GM has misspelled "gauges" consistently across vehicle models and generations.
It goes beyond GM too, I have found Ford and Chrysler clusters that also misspell gauge.

Why would they do this? :duh:

My best guess is so that both CHECK and GAGES have the same number of letters, but that theory is blown out of the water when you consider they could have dropped the plural "s" and just said CHECK GAUGE. Maybe it's really that much more effort to etch another letter into the cluster?
Or maybe it was an actual mistake and it was a waste of time to do another revision of the clusters to correct it?
Some Canadians theorized this was an "American" spelling, given that we like to not add "u"s to things like color vs. colour, but I've been an 'Merican for as long as I can remember and never seen "gage" ever.

It seems this mystery will never be solved...

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Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,262
Ottawa, ON
Maybe because they were "Hecho en Mexico"?

Now I'm gonna have to check my 07. At least my Saab wasn't in Swedish :laugh:

Edit: Don't have to. Cluster has a symbol instead HOWEVER, GM-SI has gages everywhere. Hell, just writing gages here pops up the spellchecker.
 

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Maverick6587

Member
Dec 16, 2018
730
Sterling Heights, Michigan
As I was reading that...All I could think is, now I'm always going to be reading the cluster in any car I sit in...

"Hey, can you turn your car off and back on again real quick? I just need to check the spelling on the cluster, I'm not crazy" :bonk::crackup:
 

Redbeard

Member
Jan 26, 2013
3,466
Years ago I saw this same thing "gage vs gauge" and thought some stupio didn't know how to spell. I pulled out the old faithful Webster's dictionary and learned I was wrong. grumble grumble :sadcry: Still in my mind it is MISSPELLED without the "U" in it. Gauge should be Gauge and not gage. Funny as I type this "gage" is underlined - meaning I spelled it wrong! lol!
 

Mooseman

Moderator
Dec 4, 2011
25,262
Ottawa, ON
The word gage is obsolete, which is why it isn't in the spellchecker.
 
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Reprise

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Jul 22, 2015
2,724
I actually use 'gage', especially if I've seen it spelled that way recently. I know GM is / was fond of that spelling; I think F**d is, too (and I don't care what FCA does, b/c odds are, the ones from their crappy parts bins either won't work or be accurate, anyway)

BUT - I only use that spelling when discussing things automotive.
 
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Mike534x

Member
Apr 9, 2012
894
I think Dodge/Chrysler actually use the correct spelling now, at least on the digital displays.

Maybe GM purposely spelled gauges wrong to save 1 cent on that "U" to keep the costs down.
 

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