Anyone know why in 99 they changed the temp gauge to a dummy one?

 

I'm not 100% sure but I think a lot of cars gauges are like this. Its not a dummy gauge as in it doesn't really read temperatures. It looks like its always at 210 degrees. It just pretty much stays in almost the same range from temperatures of about 185-225. If you look closely, it will be slightly to the left of 210 if it is running a little cool and slightly to the right of 210 if it is running a little warm. Once you start reaching temperatures of about 230 degrees, you can see the difference a lot clearer on the gauge. There are write ups on how to mod your gauges in order to read more accurately but it seems like too much work for what it is, and I'm not sure on this but couldn't you just program it in the PCM to work more accurately as well?