Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for May 09, 2023

They can be intimidating. I figured out how to program the garage door opener and put it away.

Manual driving mode

There’s an app for that.

All instructions these days are too tiny because they have to fit in 15 languages. I have to find the manuals on line for everything now.

I remember when getting a new item was a big deal, so usually at least glance at the manual.

One time I needed a battery recharge by an employee at a drive-in theater. Not only is my car so new that the radio runs down the battery after just two hours, but most of the engine is non-conductive. Or, at least, you’re supposed to place the negative clip on a designated point away from the battery. As I was was flying though the manual in the dark trying to find where this point was, the employee just placed the clip at some random place and practically sneered, “Now you don’t need the manual.” Well, gee, thank you for not blowing up my battery.

I’m young enough to figure out how to do things that used to be simple for my mom but old enough to wonder why I need to. Why is everything so overengineered? Could we get some schools that teach usability as a goal?

⭐️

No paper manual. It’s part of the settings, but you can’t access it while the car is in motion. You can get around that by downloading it to your phone. They’re not going to stop me from looking up how to change which vents the air comes out while driving down the highway at 65 mph! /s

Tela owner’s manual is a Bible.

Well . . . half of it is for the radio.

Oh NO! Arlo said “Bible.”

Hope certain people that visit the comments section don’t accuse Mr Johnson of shoving his religious beliefs down there throats.

This is making me hope I’m old enough to never need a new car!

That looks just like mine…thick. I’d rather read a set of encyclopedias. only use mine to remind me how to reset the clock.

Nowadays most new high-tech cars have the owner’s manual on a USB memory stick…

And that is only volume 1!

Just got a new car around the new year. It came with an owner’s manual that runs to 700+ pages. Amazingly enough it does have information on how to perform maintenance and replace items that wear out or break. My favorite is the section on light bulbs. The Reader’s Digest version is “they’re all LED – take it to the dealer”.

Mine came on CD and I still have to google stuff. It is surprising how much is NOT in it. For example, one readout is DTE! I searched the manual and nothing. I googled it, Distance To Empty, an estimate how far you can go on the gas you got. It also has buttons with cryptic icons that I have never been brave enough to try. One may be an ejection seat for all I know!!

Got a new car a few years ago. Figured out just enough to be able to drive and find my radio station. The touch screen hates me (something always goes wrong when I touch it) and I just don’t get why it has to be so complicated. This is not an improvement.

Just a matter of (very short) time before new car manuals will go away. They will be replaced by either a dvd, or more likely, a web app.

Those manuals actually have a lot of good instructional information in them. If anybody makes fun of someone who reads a car manual, then don’t tell them how to set their trip odometer when they ask.

Not as bad as those prescription warning labels. Twenty pages worth condensed down to .002 font.

That can’t be real. It doesn’t have a melted chocolate bar all over it from being in the glove box.

When we took delivery of a new car in 2019 we were given the url for a manual that was all on line and had to be downloaded. The good news is that we could print out the pages we needed instead of keeping the 800+ pages in the vehicle. It would have been better if the manual was available through the car’s computer, but that would have been too convenient.

I have a button on my dash,Not sure what it’s for.Could look it up in the Manual,Nope, can’t be bothered…

The good news is that when you can finally leave the manual out of the car, your gas mileage will go up.

My car information book is only on line

With Mother’s Day this weekend wonder if Gene & family (remember them) may show up for a visit?

What kind of car do they have?

It took me 15 minutes to find which oil to use in a Mercedes.

My brother is the only person I know who actually reads the manual. No matter what new device or gadget (or car) he gets — he reads the manual.

Reading mine reminds me of magazines I used to get where one had to jump from page to far-different page to… like a treasure hunt to follow the “story” or instructions

“Considering the tree you barely missed, a Bible is probably advisable too.”

Abandon all hope, ye who open this book!

The guidelines for writers of Owner’s Manuals say if it can be explained in 100 words, be sure to use at least 1,000 words with lots of cross-referencing to other parts of the book. As a writer I can state that it’s not the writer’s fault but what happens when the legal department gets hold of it.

When my dad bought his ‘04 Chrysler Crossfire, I had to be his co-pilot…keep the owner’s manual handy whenever he wanted to learn/ do anything while he was driving.

Download the PDF off the internet so you can enlarge the page.

Where did she get a big printed owners manual? My last new car I got a little booklet with the basics and the website address to find the rest of the information.

I have always been the better and more adventurous driver of the two of us. Buy a new vehicle – I drive it home – including a Class B RV (Chevy van conversion) which we had to buy in PA and I drove to campground for first night to check it out and then home the next day to LI, NY. It had to go to dealer a couple of years later – I drove it back while husband followed in our regular van – and he was terrified of losing me and not knowing how to go (with 2 GPS devices running and we were about the tallest vehicles allowed on most of the roads we were on). When we have to drive it to the next county annually for generator maintenance, I drive it and he drives the car.

Since he quit his job almost 20 years ago I have made sure to drive – to work at least one day a month and a monthly day out alone to my embroidery chapter meeting. Plus I drive our van at reenactments and craft shows to park after unload and then to bring back at the end of the day – just to make sure that I keep up my driving. He suffers from motion sickness so it is EXTREMELY rare that I can drive with him in vehicle.

Then Covid came along. I have driven almost not at all since March 2020. 5 trips one way to or from mechanic when dropping off/picking up and weather too bad to walk 3 blocks home or there. One trip to next county for RV generator service. One or two other trips to pickup something at a store if he was ill.

I got called for jury duty end of last year. I was terrified to drive – had to go out alone to practice before big day. Day of jury duty it was raining – could not remember how to turn on wipers!

We need a new car as our Chevy Equinox has the oil leak problem (and they refuse to recall). After all these decades of being a fearless driver and loving to drive – I am terrified of all these new features now in cars and this is NOT me.