Vehicle: How many have read your entire Owners Manual?

[H.G.P.]

Main automobile/SUV /Vehicle daily driver, passed reading page 9 now
only over 350 pages to go. (Did read the Quick Start Guide)

How many have read the WHOLE manual?

[A930Rocket]

I read them on a as needed basis.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

I read them on a as needed basis.

Same here. Would rather watch paint dry.

[Steve Carlton]

A friend of mine was the sales manager at a Honda dealer around 1990. I was visiting once and one of the salesmen came in to say his customer just wanted a brochure. He said "Tell him we don't have brochures- we have owner's manuals." I thought that was pretty funny.

[Tobra]

I have read the manual for every car that had one when I got it, most of them I read plenty of the shop manual too, Bentley for the bug, Haynes for the Honda. Have the Porsche one for the Porsche, but I don't have the owners manual for that car though.

[oldE]

Not much point in reading it. You can tune the radio by twisting a knob. The switches are pretty logical, no touch screen to make it hard to operate the a/c.

Maybe in ten years or so when we replace it the story will be different.

Les

[PorscheGAL]

How many times on the technical forum has there been a question that could easily be answered by the manual? The 911/930 manual takes no time at all to read.

On newer cars: I glance through the manual. There are functions on newer cars that are not obvious. For instance the Mustang: I can have the key programmed to restrict the speed the car will drive. To avoid what happened in an earlier post, when my son starts driving, I can restrict the top speed to 45, 55, 65, 70 mph. Would have never known if I had not read the manual.

[sketchers356]

I even read the manuals of cars that I dont own.

[masraum]

I've read the manual for pretty much every car I've ever had. I may skim through the page that tells you how to put the seat belt on, or adjust the volume on the radio. There are often little nuggets of info in those things that are great. The nice feature that you otherwise might not figure out on your own, or the little hidden cubby hole that could be useful. I hate buying a car that doesn't include one, but these days, it's often possible to find a PDF copy online that you can download.

[wdfifteen]

I've read most of the manual for mom's Murano, yet I still have to go back to re-read to find out why this or that light is coming on. I got a "TIRES!" light that panicked me until I read about the adjustable tire rotation reminder. For some reason it was set to go off every 3000 miles.

The BMW is another story. It is a generic manual, so almost every paragraph ends with, "If equipped with APBLR (some random acronym)" so even after reading it, you're not sure whether it applies to you or not until to check to see if whatever acronym it is referring to applies to your car. There are so many acronyms for the various features of the car that I get frustrated and give up. Like the rest of the user interface in this car, the owner's manual was written for a geek, not a driver.

[kach22i]

By reading my 911 manual I discovered that I had intermittent wipers, happened 2nd year of ownership.

[Gretch]

reading an Audi manual is an insult to one's intelligence. Anything more complicated than emptying the ash tray they strongly recommend you take the car to the dealer.......

Love the car, hate the bull****.

[Palum6o]

We have the English translation of the German original, so some of the way things are stated put a smile on my face. Every time I get a new car, the first thing I'll do is carry the owners manual with me to the bathroom, all that excitement loosens the bowels and you have excellent reading to go along with the experience. Sort of like spiritual cleansing.

[asphaltgambler]

Actual situation/conversation with bmw owner (first) who purchased a used '08 7 series. Owner bought the car and three days later shows up at the shop on a rollback - complaint=stalled won't start - he's mad as h3ll

Get in the car -hit the button and sure enough whirls over - no fire. Look down at the fuel gauge - dead *ss empty. So I tell the service writer - "uh.......car is out of gas". He brings the customer back where in the meantime I had put 5gls of gas in. I show the customer the car, it started and politely explained he ran the veh out of gas.

He exclaimed "The car 'says' it had another 10 miles to go before empty!!!" I say "The veh display for miles left on fuel is an approximate/estimate - not literal" "That you should never run the tank that close to empty anyway because of introducing contaminates/water into the pressurized part of the fuel system"

"If you read your owners manual - it will explain that further" - He replied "Two things I never read 1)The Bible 2)Owners manuals"
I then said "Well.................like the Bible, most owners manuals have a lot of good info to help you......................but it is up to you to read it"

Guy walked away - and we charged him for the tow and the 1/2 hr diagnostic

[sammyg2]

About the only time I ever read a new vehicle manual is to determine the recommended maintenance intervals, and to figure out how to shut off that obnoxious message that tells me it's time to change the oil, after I already changed it.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by asphaltgambler

Actual situation/conversation with bmw owner (first) who purchased a used '08 7 series. Owner bought the car and three days later shows up at the shop on a rollback - complaint=stalled won't start - he's mad as h3ll

Get in the car -hit the button and sure enough whirls over - no fire. Look down at the fuel gauge - dead *ss empty. So I tell the service writer - "uh.......car is out of gas". He brings the customer back where in the meantime I had put 5gls of gas in. I show the customer the car, it started and politely explained he ran the veh out of gas.

He exclaimed "The car 'says' it had another 10 miles to go before empty!!!" I say "The veh display for miles left on fuel is an approximate/estimate - not literal" "That you should never run the tank that close to empty anyway because of introducing contaminates/water into the pressurized part of the fuel system"

"If you read your owners manual - it will explain that further" - He replied "Two things I never read 1)The Bible 2)Owners manuals"
I then said "Well.................like the Bible, most owners manuals have a lot of good info to help you......................but it is up to you to read it"

Guy walked away - and we charged him for the tow and the 1/2 hr diagnostic

He's lucky you didn't charge him for a new fuel pump.
It aint like the old days, with modern cars running them dry can really kill fuel pumps fast.

[s_morrison57]

Originally Posted by masraum

I've read the manual for pretty much every car I've ever had. I may skim through the page that tells you how to put the seat belt on, or adjust the volume on the radio. There are often little nuggets of info in those things that are great. The nice feature that you otherwise might not figure out on your own, or the little hidden cubby hole that could be useful. I hate buying a car that doesn't include one, but these days, it's often possible to find a PDF copy online that you can download.

I do the same thing but I have read the 930 manual on how to work the heat several times. Its more of a garage queen so when I do take it out in the cold I always re-read that part.
Finn

[Arizona 911]

My wife had a flat tire on her Honda Odyssey and I couldn't find the spare. It wasn't under the back or inside in the back. I went in the house and looked in the owners manual to find that the spare is inside the van between the front and middle seats. I'm glad it happened in our driveway instead of out on the road. Lesson learned.

[EdT82SC]

I read the entire manual for my '82 SC, but it is a lot shorter than owners manuals these days. I haven't for any other car I have ever owned.

[PorscheGAL]

Hyundai has put all of its manuals on an Ipad App. I wonder if more people read it that way because they have it with them all the time.