I traded my 1995 850 wagon for a 2008 V70 last Friday. The V70 is a nice car, but now that I get a chance to drive it at night, I realize I have difficulty distinguishing the red pointer on the speedometer in the dark. Seeing the pointer during daylight is not a problem, just at night. I had expected that the red pointer would self illuminate (by fiber optics?), like on the '95 850, to distinguish it from the dial.

I mention this to my salesman today and he said the red pointer does not self illuminate. He suggested I turn up the illumination of the speedometer/odometer cluster itself but, for me, that makes the cabin too bright.

This V70 is my fifth Volvo so I fail to believe Volvo engineers would design a speedometer with so little contrast between the pointer and the dial at night. Any thoughts?