No need for an intro paragraph; you know why you’re here. Let’s get into it.
Mounting your gauges on or near the instrument cluster is great if you can pull it off. Most gauge clusters have a large sun visor, so placement of most gauges is possible, but it can sometimes block information on the car’s instrument cluster. Gauges smaller than 60mm are generally possible to place, but any larger can be very difficult. Larger gauges can look nicer if your car has a dedicated bracket for placement. If you don’t like any of the brackets out there, try ours to place your gauge wherever you want. Smaller is easier to fit and can look nicer within the instrument cluster, so if you already have a smaller gauge, the instrument cluster is a great spot to park your gauges.
The top of the dashboard is a common place to put your gauges, and for good reason. It’s easy to install, and the gauges are easy to see. On top of that, you can put any size gauge you want on there. They are far from the driver's line of sight, so larger gauges are usually recommended for a dash install. The top of the dashboard is easily the most visible spot on the car, so it's imperative to have a clean install.
The radio slot is another popular place to put gauges. It’s rare to find a radio mount that isn’t clean, and most brackets don’t cost a fortune. There are only two downsides: You’ll have a limit to how large and how many gauges you can have, and you’ll have to give up a radio slot. The latter is more important because even single DIN slots can take three 52mm gauges, but once you remove your sound system, there’s no going back: you have a racecar now.
The A pillar is a pretty good place to put your gauges. It’ll give your interior that fast-and-furious look. Universal brackets are cheap (around 20 dollars), but model-specific brackets are not (around 80 dollars). The model-specific brackets will give you a better look, but whether it looks 4x as good is up to you to decide. If you decide it isn’t, be prepared to have a heat gun. A pillar bracket installation usually isn’t as clean as other brackets.
If you’ve got other ideas for where to put your gauges and no one makes brackets for them, ours fit virtually anywhere you want. Ultimately, your decision comes down to preference rather than necessity, and if you think one mounting spot looks better than another, go for that.