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My parents bought a new 2018 Camry a few weeks ago that came with a manual roughly an inch thick. Expecting anyone to read it is bordering on delusional. I say
by Merad 8y ago
My parents bought a new 2018 Camry a few weeks ago that came with a manual roughly an inch thick. Expecting anyone to read it is bordering on delusional. I say this as someone who often does read manuals (because I’m a nerd).
- newnewpdro 8y agoNot even bothering to flip through a meager 1" thick manual for a newly acquired automobile strikes me as negligent. At least review the sections covering features you've never had in a vehicle before, geez.
- Someone1234 8y agoAnd when people rent a vehicle? Or borrow a friend's vehicle? Etc Ad infinitum.
- newnewpdro 8y agoJust because it's common for people to get in and go with unfamiliar cars doesn't make it any less negligent. If you don't know how to e.g. turn on the hazard lights in the vehicle you're driving without searching extensively or digging out the user's manual, you've failed to be a responsible driver. If I got in a loaner car with semi-autonomous features there's no way I'd drive away without first paging through a user's manual or online guide understanding those features first. especially given how many crashes have occurred due to apparent misuse of these vehicles.
- forapurpose 8y ago> Not even bothering to flip through a meager 1" thick manual for a newly acquired automobile strikes me as negligent. Perhaps, but then almost everyone is negligent. The car designers (and the whole world) know that well, so to depend on people reading the manual is disingenuous and dangerous.
- ghaff 8y agoThe idea that someone is going to spend an hour studying a user manual when they pickup a rental car at the airport is just silly. I actually find it something of an issue with rental cars these days. Obviously the foot pedals, turn signals, etc. are well enough standardized that it takes very little to accustomize yourself with them. But environmental/entertainment controls? And then there's the fact that things like backup sensors may or may not be available in a given car even though you tend to start depending on them a bit if you have them.
- newnewpdro 8y agoI recently completed a safety-oriented traffic school course online and there was an entire section dedicated to renting and borrowing cars. It surprised me to see it covered, let alone how thorough their guidelines were. Some things I recall from their pre-flight checklist: - check general tire condition and pressures in a walk-around - locate the spare tire and jack - familiarize yourself with the location of pedals, and controls for turn signals, hazard lights, and the emergency brake - adjust seat and mirrors I didn't see the priority of locating the spare tire and jack before driving, but the others all seem like a good responsible bare minimum. People don't seem to generally appreciate the gravity of operating heavy machinery capable of high speeds on shared public roads.
- astura 8y agoI think you locate them to make sure they exist.
- userbinator 8y agoAn inch thick? That's roughly the size I'd expect a service manual to be, but I struggle to think of why the operator's manual would need to have so much content. (Unless it's because they decided to print the same thing in 200 different languages. I've seen that with some other equipment --- surprisingly thick manual, but a tiny fraction of it is actually in English.)
- ghaff 8y agoThat's extremely normal. My 4Runner's user manual is about that thick and it's all in English. It's a relatively small format, has lots of diagrams. But modern cars have a lot of systems, buttons, indicators, etc.
- jstarfish 8y agoLots of pictures, disclaimers, and coverage of every last optional feature your vehicle may or may not have been equipped with.