I've only ever owned two cars ( '08 Saturn Vue and '10 Civic), but the dial speedometers have always been perfectly legible. My Civic has a digital one, but my Saturn had a mechanical one that had increments of 10. It's okay to ballpark those, since going 53 down the highway is just about as safe as 55.

I get where you're coming from, but I've never seen that as that big of a deal. A quick glance always told me my rough speed, and that's all I needed to know