Can't believe I just now noticed...
 

I've had my Z for six months now. Last night I noticed that I can dime the instrument panel lights, but when I increase the brightness, there's isn't a "super bright" level as I've had with every other car I've ever owned.

It's like this. On my '09 Maxima, I would keep the instrument panel light on max brightness with the lights off. When I would turn the lights on, the instrument panel would dim just a tad, but I could always bump it up to the brightness that equaled my normal daytime brightness. Does that make sense?

Well, in the Z, the highest setting during the daytime is also the highest setting for the nighttime. Whenever the headlights turn on, if I bump up the panel brightness setting, the only thing that happens is the triple stack, odometer/fuel gauge, and radio all go to their highest setting but the white portion of the speedo and tach stay the same...they'll dim, but never go above. And, at the highest setting, it's no where near as much of a bright, ultra-white glow like I had on the Maxima (and, Altima for that matter).

Anyone else experience this? Is it just normal/by design?

I also noticed this so you don't have an issue.