Things have changed

[Mike]

I have a friend who works for a car rental agency. He’s always coming by with new vehicles for me to crawl in, around and under.

He recently showed up with a 2016 Ford F150 Lariat crew cab 4X4. A nice enough truck, with so many accessory LED lighting features I’m sure the driver gets a free colonoscopy every time you sit on the heated and cooled leather seat. Kinda made me hesitant to explore the “Puddle Lamps”.

What struck me the most was the owners manual. 500 pages. And there were at least another half dozen supplementary manuals and brochures that added another 500 pages of info. In this day and age when reading is on the decline, there are few who will take the time to digest all of that printed matter and make the effort to inform themselves about their vehicles as the manufacturer intended.

The sad irony is that digital technology was supposed to move us towards a paperless society. Right. That’s why the owners manuals for smart phones are larger and heavier than the devices themselves.

Topic

[Bubba]

People are probably far less likely to even skim a 500 page manual. Personally, I’d have one book that details vital vehicle maintenance and safety info, and another for all the superfluous crap. Easier to stress that the entire maintenance manual needs to be read, and the other book can be skimmed if the consumer can be bothered.

But, I’d speculate that it’s not really a user manual, rather a grimoire full of spells for warding off evil civil litigation attorneys. One of my vehicles has a recall on the owners’ manual because it failed to explicitly detail what the self-explanatory child restraint stickers mean (though, the manual does detail how to properly use child restraints). Pretty much everything else you buy these days generally comes with a small pamphlet with warranty info and a URL to the user manual PDF (or, if it’s sufficiently cheap, doesn’t even have any documentation available).

Mad props to those who forged that 500 page manual though. I would not want to be a technical writer.

[Grayfox]

[quote=”ElthorTheLandStander” post=169590]Personally, I’d have one book that details vital vehicle maintenance and safety info, and another for all the superfluous crap.[/quote]

This sort of thing will mean people will find it easier to change things like bulbs.
It is in a thin booklet with big pictures rather than going through a .5″ or thicker book.

[Shadowdog500]

When I bought my ’96 jeep grand Cherokee it Came with a video on VHS tape that explained all the options and how to operate every part and accessory for that vehicle. I remember pausing the tape repedadly and running outside to try each option as they were presented in the video. I wonder why they don’t do stuff like that today? All they would need to do today is give you a video link for each model car.

I agree that no one is going to read 1000 pages of manuals.

I also agree that a lot of stuff today is made over complicated. Especially for the aging population with memory, eyesight, and arthritis issues that don’t need 50 buttons on their house phone and 100 buttons on their remote control.

Chris

[Grayfox]

Because of laws i think.

IIRC In australia you need to sell a dealership car with a user manual

[Mike]

Didn’t Hyundai use a tablet for the owners manual? I think they tried it recently for a year or two on a high-end model.

[zero]

I believe it may have been their genesis line that came with a tablet. For conveying the information to the original owner, it’s probably the best way to do it too. An owner could theoretically just sit in the car and interactively learn about the systems. Like the salesmen are supposed to do.

I had to do the factory training for the 2016 Pilot and holy crap there’s so many systems that aid in driving. I had trouble even passing the test on the module, I can’t imagine many owners beginning to understand how they all work. And then if one system or part goes down, you can bet they’ll all go down and light up the dash like Christmas. It’s bad enough trying to explain to someone that their car drives like it’s in mud because they have “Eco” mode on. I can’t imagine trying to explain to people that the lane departure and collision mitigation systems aren’t working because their car is covered in snow and ice.

I do however think that puddle lights are cool. It appears that Oracle makes kits with different logos for under $100.

[Matt]

Hopefully those 500 pages are packed with info. There is a lot of information on each car, down to little details, and I’m sure it won’t be fully read. However, there is wisdom in providing info for those seeking it, instead of the hard way of trying to find info. Hopefully to cure things like where is a sensor is located. That has been my biggest headache, because when I need to find a sensor to replace, some of them have been located in a different, much harder to reach places than where everything online is saying it is. My oil pressure switch on my Ranger wasn’t on the left side of the motor like everyone else, instead it was the one year the sensor was put on the back of the right side of the engine. It took me 2 hours to find it, but 5 minutes to replace. If it has all that stuff, give me 500 page manuals on every car and truck.

I go to church with one of the engineers who developed that LED lighting system, he was telling me of it a couple years ago when the truck was being designed. Now you got my curiosity up again, because I almost forgot about it. I do so want to see my friend’s work.

[Author]

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